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Digital picture frame molding, cut table saw, dado blade rabbet
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It's definitely worth while to learn to cut and assemble picture frame molding yourself to do your own custom picture framing.
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You can purchase Picture Frame Molding by the stick to make your own pictures frames or you can make some pretty nice molding yourself. If you have a lot of pictures you'd like framed it's worth while to invest in some equipment to make precise cuts and assembly.
Some pretty fancy equipment can be purchased for the cost of only a couple of custom picture framing jobs.
Digital picture frame
You can save money too by purchasing a plain plastic framed Digital Picture Frame and make your own fancy wood frame for it. Many of the lcd digital picture frames have some very nice features, but just have a plain black plastic frame. You can make your own wood picture frame to match your decor.
Table saw
You can get a very reasonbly priced Table Saw to make the rabbet for the picture to fit into and to make the miter cuts for the frame ends.
Table saws come in all sorts of prices with all sorts of doodaddery that you won't need for picture framing or any other projects around the house.
You just need a blade that goes around and does the cutting that leaves your hands free to hold whatever you're cutting to keep it in total control to make exact cuts, whether it's miter cuts for picture framing or cutting a 2x4 to length to build a shed or pickets for a fence. All those things can be done on the little table saw shown, which is just over $100.00 dollars. You could get a hum dinger table saw for around $2,000.00 if you'd rather.
Dado blade
You'll need a Dado Blade to make the rabbet cuts. Molding heads area available to make some pretty fancy picture frame moldings, but they're pretty pricey. If you're doing some remodeling it would be worthwhile to have some molding head cutters, which would save a lot of money in a short while. If you have lots of picture frames to make the molding head and cutters would save money after a few frames.
I would suggest using a router with a router table and a few router bits, which are less expensive than molding cutters to make picture frame molding in the same design, but much less expensively.
If you're not planning to make your own picture frame molding, but purchase ready made and ready finished molding, then you'd probably be better off purchasing a
Table saw book
If you've never used a table saw before it would be a good idea to get the THE TABLE SAW BOOK and read up on the use of the table saw.
There isn't much to learn about the basics of using a table saw. The main thing is to learn to keep your fingers or other body parts away from the blade. Take my word for it that it hurts. After using a table saw for about 40 years I only got parts of me in the blade three times, but that sure ruins an otherwise beautiful day when it happens.
There are lots of other uses for a table saw too. You can make exact dado cuts using a dado blade or by moving the fence about an 1/8 of an inch a couple of times and make successive cuts. With some expensive molding heads you can make fancy design molding of just about any shape. Many other things you can do with an inexpensive table saw too.
Miter sander
One of the handiest tools you can have for picture framing is a precision miter sander . Exact precision is an absolute necessity when you're making picture frames.
A frame has four sides and each side has two angled ends, which have to be a precise 45 degree angle. That's eight angles of 45 degrees. If your saw is off by 1/32 of an inch, which is an itty bitty distance each of the eight angles is off by 1/32 of an inch or when you get three corners of the frame put together precisely it leaves the fourth corner separated by 8/32 of an inch, which is 1/4 of an inch, which is the grand canyon of picture framing, so get it as precise as possible.
Miter vise
One tool that I think is the ultimate necessity is the Miter Vise. You can get small individual miter clamps and four corner clamps, but the ultimate picture frame clamping tool is the sturdy miter vise.
The miter vise is made of cast iron and is shaped to compensate for the rabbet and to hold the ends of the picture frame pieces securely together.
The miter vise is very precisely contstructed and you can be sure if your frame pieces don't fit exactly it's not the miter vise. It means that your 45 degree cuts aren't quite precise.
Picture frame rabbet measurement
The picture frame rabbet measurement will vary with the size of the molding. Smaller molding will generally have 1/4 to 5/16 inch wide rabbets and most moldings will have a depth that will handle glass, picture mat, picture, mounting board and backing board
Larger picture frame moldings will often have wider rabbets, 3/8 inch to 1/2 inch for stability when framing very large heavy pictures with glass or large heavy oil paintings.
What's a rabbet
What's a rabbet. If you're just familiar with a rabbit with a soft fluffy tail this could be your new thing to learn for the day. The rabbet is that cut out part where the edge of the glass, mat (if you use one), picture, mounting board and backing board goes. The expansion room needs to be in the horizontal (width) dimension.
Under side of a picture frame
 This image is of the underside of a picture frame. The outer black line and the inner black line are the width of the picture frame molding. The inner black line to the blue line is the rabbet.
Figure how much picture frame molding
To figure how much picture frame molding you'll need you measure the horizontal and vertical size of the material you're framing, this is the image size.
Add 1/8 inch in each direction for expansion. (example: 8 x 10 image, add 1/8 inch = 8 1/8 x 10 1/8 = 18 1/4 inches) next you add two times the width of the frame, more about this in a minute (example: 2 inch wide frame, add 4 inches 18 1/4 inches + 4 inches = 22 1/4 inches).
Then you need to add wastage for the saw kerf. The amount of wood taken out by the width of the saw blade is the kerf and is generally around 1/8 inch, but it's wise to figure an extra amount, so I'd figure 1/4 inch more for safety or 3/8, so you add 22 1/4 inches + 3/8 inch = 22 5/8 inches for one half of the frame.
Double the 22 5/8 inches for a total of 45 1/4 inches of molding for a 2 inch wide 8x10 picture.
Order your picture frame molding
When you order your picture frame molding you'll probably need to order a 4 foot piece of molding, because molding is generally made in 8 foot lengths. Lots of places will sell a half stick, but some will require you to buy a full stick.
If you have to buy a full stick have it cut into 2 4 foot sticks for shipping purposes, then you have enough for a second 8x10 picture frame.
Adding two times the width of the picture frame molding
Now back to adding two times the width of the picture frame molding. The image will fit inside the blue rectangle in the frame picture shown, but remember that the picture frame in our example is 4 inches wider and taller than the picture to be framed, minus the width of the rabbet.
The distance A to B will always equal the distance B to C, the width of the picture frame molding.
The point of the frame corner A will always be equal to the corner of the image being framed inside the rabbet at C plus the width of the molding minus the width of the rabbet and expansion room.
That's the way it works
If the reason why makes you say whoosh and wowie just go back up to the formula and use it and close your eyes to the facts and remember the reason why is, 'just 'cause that's the way it works'.
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