The picture and glass are held in by a thin mitered frame in contrasting wood. I used a plywood backer board and hot glue to secure the picture.
I used a brass cuphook to hang the tassel. Pre-drilling a small hole into the wood was a little tricky, but made screwing in the hook really easy.
Drill small starter holes in each letter and number, then cut them out with a scroll saw. I used a #3 blade, which cut through the maple nicely leaving a smooth finish. If you have a graduate from another year, just use MS Word to print the year and replace the 2017.
This was a fun project that was easy to complete in a weekend. If you would like to make one of these for your graduate, please subscribe to my newsletter and download the template below. When printing the template, select the ACTUAL SIZE option in printer settings to maintain scale. Have fun!
- Class of 2015 Template
- Class of 2016 Template
- Class of 2017 Template
- Class of 2018 Template
- Class of 2019 Template (including extra numbers)
Neat frame Steve - thanks for sharing this with us and congratulations to Nicholas
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan!
DeleteSweet frame Steve, definitely something I'll build for my graduating cousin this year. Slight problem, however, the scaling is a bit off. I read 4 23/32 between the solid line for cutting out the picture. Any chance that can be fixed? I'm not sure I can do that on the fly and not mess up the layout of the text below the picture.
ReplyDeleteHi - Glad you can use the template. Mine prints at exactly 5"x7". Make sure you select ACTUAL SIZE in your printer settings instead of the FIT or SHRINK TO PAGE options. Those will throw it off every time. Thanks, Steve...
DeleteThanks for the reply Steve. I've tried everything to get it to print out scaled correctly. I printed out a pdf ruler as a test and it prints at the correct scale, so there's something about this file that my printer/computer just doesn't like. I like the layout so I may it open up in a pdf editor and see if I can tweak it to print out right, scaling both the picture cutout, frame and text to get them to line up correctly.
DeleteHi again, Steve. I got it to print out correctly, seems the problem is with my system somewhere -- I'll be reporting that as a bug later on. If I print directly from Inksape, it's scaled correctly, but anything else, even after a print preview in Inkscape, and it's off by a few 32nds. This is on Linux, any printing on my Windows box is fine.
DeleteOff to the shop now, graduation is only a few weeks away.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteGreat Project! - Can you give me the exact part number and brand of Blade you used on the scroll saw for this frame? - Thanks
Hi Peter - I believe it was an Olson #3. I just use whatever blade is on the saw at the time, as long as it cuts ok.
DeleteThank you for this pattern. My daughter is going to make this for her mother for Mother's day. She just completed a college degree that life had distracted her from years ago.
ReplyDeleteThat's great David! Thanks for sharing that with me. Congratulations to your daughter AND her parents for a job well done!
DeleteMy wife is the graduate. Not sure my last post made that clear.
DeleteAwesome frame Steve! Congrats to your son. My oldest son will be a junior next year and my youngest son will be 8th grade so I have a little while yet, but this is a great idea. Thanks for sharing! Chris
ReplyDelete