round wood frames

[tom1]

Hello all,
This is my story; my wife volunteered to make a stained glass panel for our church to match some of the existing work. While showing me her beautifully crafted piece she dropped the bombshell on me that all I have to do is make the FRAME and "O, by the way it has to be back lit" Here's the rub. It most certainly must be made out of wood (cherry or walnut) and did I mention round. The panel is 46" in Dia. and about 3.5" to 4."THK. to accomodate the back lighting. The frame will have to have an interior recess of about 1/2-3/4" to hold the panel. Any ideas about multi sectioning this frame together would be of help. Thanks Tom

 

[old logger]

The simplest way to make this is in segments.Find the center point on a half sheet of plywood.Draw your inside arc and the outside arc.Divide your circle into twelve equal segments 30*.Lay a board along one of these arc segments so that it extends 3" past the segment line on both ends.At this point halflap the right hand extention on the top.Do the same on the left but on the bottom.
Cut twelve sections and halflap the same.Lay wax paper on the plywood .glue and clamp and leave overnight to dry.Repeat for each layered ring.When the rings are dry stack them and glue and clamp.Using your center point,route the inside and outside arcs.You will probably have to make a router compass from hardboard.
A compass will give you better results than if you try using a table.After centering your frame,on the back side,route the rabbet for your glass.When doing something this size there is a tendency to do it in as little time as possible.Don't rush it.Only take 1/8" pass with the router at a time maximum.remember that the people who originally did woodwork for churches had more time on their hands and kept in mind that their work would be observed for a very long time.As far as wood goes I would make it out of cherry as it will eventually equal out in colour over a period of time and highlight your skills to the best advantage.
I have made a number of picture frames using this tecnique and never had one fail yet.The nice thing about doing this for a church is that it never hurts to get a few brownie points ahead with the Big Guy upstairs.I hope this helps some,take care,Ed.

 

[oldnamvet]

I have put together some round frames (though nothing THAT big) using pocket screws to hold the segments together. Then I used a router with a pivot point to round off the corners and make it truly round. for something that large, I'd make two separate frames with 3/4" stock and then glue them together after offsetting them by slightly rotating one of the frames so that solid wood would span all the joints. For the thickness you mentioned, it would require 4 or 5 of the frames (wow!) if you work with 3/4" stock. Then would come the anchoring it to a 4x4 ft sheet of sheet stock, setting up a router pivot point and routing it round. Then you could rout the recess for the stained glass. I also work with stained glass and the weight of that is going to be huge. Get help when you move it around. Considering the cost of material for that as well as the time cutting, fitting came, etc., you sure would not want to drop it.

 

[Mike Davis]

Tom,

Has you wife ever made stained glass panels that size?

If so, then she knows that they will need to be reinforced to keep them from sagging over time. 20 years or more of supporting the weight of the glass will make the soft lead came start to droop.

The glass suppliers sometimes sell 1/8 x 1/2 inch stock for reinforcement. They are fairly expensive so I use the stretcher bars used in chain link fencing.

They are 1/8 x 5/8 or 3/4 and made of galvanized steel. The galvanized finish has to be heated with a small propane torch and pre-soldered in the spots where it will be attached to the lead came. They can be bent to follow the design and thus hidden from view.


Lighting the glass evenly will be a challenge. Circle fixtures made for kitchen lighting work well but still make hot spots. I would suggest making the frame at least 8 inches deep and installing a second sheet of solid milk white glass or plexiglass to diffuse the light.

I have built stained glass windows up to 4 feet by 7 feet reinforced in the way I described and was able to pick them up and move them around by myself. But, with a wood frame and lighting attached even a smaller window like you are building will be enough to need three people to install.