I framed a 3'X4' mirror, HEAVY, with mitered red oak about 3"X3/4"
using Titebond glue and it's still hanging on the wall after 10+
years. Happy that it's still there and would NOT do that again.
Another one made similarly for our daughter separated at the bottom
and was surprised but understand better now why.

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 16:48:34 -0400, Kevin wrote:

loutent wrote:

I went through your frame-making tutorial and noticed
that you simply glued the miters with no mechanical
fasteners or splines etc. Are you confident that these
will hold up over time? It has been my experience that
simply gluing end-grain is not enough to hold the
miters. Maybe I missed something somewhere in the
tutorial tho.

Hi, Loutent. When I first started doing frames, I sunk a
finishing nail into each corner for extra strength after gluing.
After I'd done a few, however, I tried leaving the nails out, and
so far, I haven't had any frames come apart on me. I found it
difficult to match the putty (to fill the countersunk nail holes)
colour to the wood of the frame, so I've been leaving the nails
out lately.

Maybe I'll take your advice and go back to putting the nails
in.

Kevin.