Wood Frame Corner Joint

You can remove material from the joined pieces after assembly without sacrificing joint integrity.

Wood frame corner joint.

Gluing miters means joining end grain not the best glue joint. Where frames are used they are often clad with plywood or other man man boards. Large or very heavy frames may benefit from corners reinforced with splines or pin nails or you might even opt for a half lap or bridle joint. I ve found that with a well fitted joint pva glue titebond elmer s etc applied and clamped correctly results in a strong frame.

A miter joint occurs when two end pieces are cut on angles and fitted together commonly found in the corners of picture frames and the upper corners of some styles of doorway. A mechanical fastener or pin is required you use corner bridles to join frame pieces when the frame is shaped. A bridle joint can be considered a cousin to mortise and tenon and is a strong and attractive wood corner joint for frames. It is often required to build timber frames and there are a number of simple joints which can be used to make them.

Depending on the purpose you may need to strengthen the miter joint by adding nails. A classic example of mitered butt joinery is the wooden picture frames. For the wood joint torture test in wood magazine issue 173 they created and then destroyed more than 100 joints. Timber joints frame.