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Although I have several commercially made accessories for clamping mitered frames, they don’t work well on small frames. So, I devised my own small-frame clamping method.
First, I made four V-shaped corner blocks out of 3⁄4″ MDF. Along the outside edge of each corner piece, I cut a groove about 1⁄4″ deep and 1⁄4″ wide, and drilled a hole in each inside corner to allow for glue squeeze-out.
Then, I screwed one of the corner blocks to a sheet of plywood; this stationary block helps stabilize the clamping process. I laid a sheet of waxed paper on the plywood to prevent the frame from sticking to it.
After applying glue to the mitered frame corners, I slid the frame between the four corner blocks. Then, I stretched a length of bungee cord around the corner pieces and secured it with a toggle. The grooves hold the cord in place. -Bill Wells
