On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:03:40 -0800, Scorp wrote:

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 01:25:14 -0500, Leuf
wrote:

I recently had an 11x14 mirror with a 2.5" wide pine frame that got
damaged while on display in a store.
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.
With the proper joinery should a frame survive a fall like this or
should it be expected to fail?

Maybe no joint would have held, how your joint failed however is a
problem and I would think should have been much stronger, 1" is pretty
deep for such a small frame.

Was the spline also pine? Maybe a burnished or contaminated surface?

Thanks for all the responses..

The splines were pine. Closer inspection shows some of the splines
were slightly thinner than the one I tested, and that one barely has
any glue on it. Not sure how that happened.

I used elmer's yellow glue. The bottle doesn't list a minimum
temperature, the shop has been between 50-55 F which I know is
borderline for a lot glues. However there were also applied intarsia
pieces on the frame that spanned two of the miters and those both
stayed attached to the frame and stayed together, breaking in the
wood. Those were glued under the same conditions.

I had been applying glue only on the inside of the spline and not to
the spline itself, when I put it on the spline it just gets scraped
off when inserted and the frame has a rough edge that I can't sand so
squeeze out is a problem.

I'm thinking making the spline a little deeper, applying glue lightly
on the spline itself in addition to in the joint, and putting a clamp
to make sure there's good contact should be enough. I don't think
I'll do a drop test on it though...


-Leuf