I made all of these projects using my Dewalt DW788 Scroll Saw. If you have other tools, such as a tablesaw, you can use them to prepare your blanks and make most of the straight cuts to save some time. If you don't have a scroll saw, you can use a jig saw for most of the interior cuts and a coping saw for the fine-detailed interior cuts.
Here is a low-res preview of my eBook of 15 Scroll Saw Picture Frames in case you are wondering what's included. It contains 50 pages of templates, photos, and information for making these picture frames.
Let's take a closer look at each picture frame. All of these frames consist of a main board with an opening cut for a photo, then a smaller face frame is glued on top to hold the picture in. Check them out and enjoy! Happy woodworking!
My daughter asked me to frame some artwork that has pictures of her with her granddad. I don't recall ever making half lap picture frames before, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try it and add half laps to my bag of tricks.
I don't use my dado blade set much because it feels inconvenient to switch out the blades, but it really only takes a few minutes. The dado set makes cutting half laps and making picture frames a breeze. I made some test cuts on a scrap piece to dial in the height of the blade to cut exactly half way through the board. I use the fence as a stop to make sure the length of the half lap was exactly the same as the width of the frame pieces.
I chose to cut the half laps on opposite faces of each board, so that one board would overlap the next board around the frame. This gives the frames a more unique look as opposed to just two of the boards overlapping the other two boards.
Spray lacquer really brought out the spalting patterns in this white oak. I'm really pleased with how these turned out and they look great in my daughter's room. I'll be using my dado blade set more often for other projects now.
