"Leuf" wrote in message
...
I recently had an 11x14 mirror with a 2.5" wide pine frame that got
damaged while on display in a store. They had it hanging on a door
and it got knocked off, I'm guessing about a 4 foot drop. The weird
thing is the glass didn't break, except a small chip in one corner.
All 4 joints on the frame came apart though, which is sort of the
opposite of what I would have expected. They were splined miters with
the spline about 1 inch deep at the joint. It appears the splines
were either slightly too thin or I didn't use enough glue, as the
splines came loose with no damage at all to the frame or splines. I
test fitted one and it seemed like a proper fit to me. I'm a little
confused.

So here are my questions,

With the proper joinery should a frame survive a fall like this or
should it be expected to fail?

I am not surprised it broke; that is a lot of weight.
I am surprised the glue broke; when I have broken joints on purpose, it is
always the wood that fails. They must have used way too little glue like
you surmised. If you can reglue them properly you should be fine.