Kumiko Sampler - #8 Completing the Frame, Lacquering & Assembly

In the photo below the long frame pieces are cut to their final length and I am working on fitting the short pieces on either end.  The playing cards are there to establish the gap between the sampler and the frame.  These cards are right at a hundredth of an inch thick so two of them gives me a .02” gap. 

The miters are cut using a jig made for my son’s dining/game table.  If you want to see how it was built here is the link Dining/Game Table - #13, the jig information is near the end of that post.  The setup here has the end next to the stop already mitered and it is ready for the final skim cut at the other end. 

Once cut to their final length a frame clamp is used to pull the corners tightly together while keeping the frame square.  The 8:45 is when I glued the frame together. 

After letting the glue cure overnight, the clamp is removed and the final sanding begins.  Any minor mismatches at the corners get removed using three grits of sandpaper 150, 220 and 320 clamped to the table saw.  The finishing touches are done via hand sanding blending the radiused edges then knocking the sharp edge off the bottom and corner edges.

To reinforce the corners thin pin nails are added at the corners using the air nailer.  The nails are about the thickness of a pin.  If you look close on the left side of the frame there are two pins.  One is about 1/3 of the way down from the top and the other is about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom.  The right side has a single pin in the center.

Cutting the Plexiglas front cover comes next.  The sheet I am using is about an eighth of an inch thick.  It’s thin enough to be a little persnickety when being cut.  To keep chipping to a minimum a fine-tooth blade used to cut plywood and plastic laminate is used along with a backer to add a little thickness to the stack.  The backer is 3/16” foam core and will be used for the back layer in the stack.

A black piece of matt board that goes between the sampler and the foam core is also cut on the table saw.  That’s not the normal way to cut it but the piece needs to fit the frame exactly.  That's because where it abuts the frame is visible so using the table saw is the best way for me to get square straight edges.

Here is the frame and the layers that will go in it.  There is the frame then the Plexiglas, the sampler, a piece of black matt board and on the bottom the foam core. 

Finishing comes next and I will be using the air brush to apply three coats of lacquer.  This is the setup.  At the far left in the back are the cans of lacquer and thinner along with the mixing and spray bottles.  Closer the four frames are set on plastic painter’s triangles for drying.  The blue on the triangles is tape to hold them in place while taking off and putting the frames back on.  Closer is a lazy susan with plastic triangles on it used to rotate the piece while it is being sprayed.  At the lower right the air brush is set up and ready to go.  The spraying starts by doing the bottom and inside of the frame.

After the frames are sprayed and dry, they are dry sanded with 320 grit paper to remove any imperfections then flipped over and the top sprayed.  This is followed by another coat and sanding. After a third coat is applied the final sanding is done except this time the sanding is done wet with a three-step progression starting with 4,000 and ending with 8,000 grit.

Once the frames are finished the Plexiglas goes in followed by the sampler.  To hold the sampler in place a drop of glue circled in red is put in the center of each of the patterns.  The cut down playing cards around the perimeter keep the sampler centered in the frame.

The black matt board goes down next followed by the foam core and a temporary piece of plywood that acts as a clamping caul.  This is what that looks like.  The frame’s Plexiglas on the right looks a little fuzzy because the protective layer of film is still on both sides.  After the glue dries the clamps come off and all the layers in the clamped package get removed along with the cut down playing card spacers around the sampler edges.  With that done the final assembly can begin. 

First, the protective film on the Plexiglas sheets is removed and both sides are very carefully cleaned to remove any dust.  That’s because once everything is together you can’t get any debris out unless the layers are disassembled.  The clean Plexiglas sheet is then set into the frame.  Second, is to add the glued together sampler and matt board.  Third, is to add the foam core finishing the package layers.  The last step is to anchor the package in the frame using some Framer’s Points.  I used to anchor the package in using brads and a variety of other things but was never satisfied with the results.  Some years ago, when I was building a lot of frames I broke down and bought a driver for the points.  Below in the top photo you can see what the driver looks like.  It’s similar to a stapler except that instead of driving the points down it shoots them out the front.  The bottom photo shows the point on the left driven in and nearly a whole one on the right.

Once the points are set this is what the back of the framed sampler looks like.

After all the sampler pieces are done here is what they look like.

I have to say this was both a learning experience and enjoyable.  Even cutting and beveling the 145+ pieces was relaxing in its own quiet way.  After doing these pieces some more patterns have come to mind but pursuing them will have to come later.