Make a Canvas Art Frame From a Single 2x4

Around my home, I have a lot of canvas paintings because, like many members of the Instructables community, I like to dabble in a lot of DIY skills, and this includes painting. After completing a painting that turns out well enough to earn a spot on a wall, I typically just drive a fairly large picture hanging nail into the wall and balance the artwork on that nail directly on the canvas stretching frame. This works well enough but there are two problems that often arise. First, this approach does not yield the most professional looking wall art, and second, the canvas frames will sometimes warp over time, becoming twisted and no longer sitting flush to the wall. However, there is a simple solution to both of these issues: putting the canvas art pieces in frames.

While it is certainly possible to simply buy canvas frames from a variety of sources, there are several problems with buying frames off the shelf. First, canvas frames are not particularly affordable, especially for larger paintings. A 16x20 frame like the one we will be making in this Instructable costs in the neighborhood of $30. Larger frames, of course, cost even more. While $30 is perhaps not a huge amount of money, it is not trivial either and if you have multiple art pieces to frame, the cost can add up quickly.

The second problem with off the shelf frames is that, many times, the frames are not deep enough for the canvas pictures. If you buy the wrong frame, the canvas might stick out from the front or back of the frame, which undermines the polished look that the frame is intended to deliver.

So, in this Instructable we will make a bespoke canvas picture frame using nothing but a single 2x4 stud, plus four nails and, optionally, some paint or stain. We will use just a couple common woodworking tools, a table saw, a miter saw, and a drill, to transform a common framing stud into a custom-sized canvas frame that will greatly enhance the look of not only your canvas art pieces, but also your whole home.

So let’s prepare to clean up a lot of saw dust and get started.

The goal of this project is to make a canvas frame using a single piece of lumber and minimal materials other than that. Therefore, the materials list for this project is very short.

• One 2x4x4' framing stud:
  The frame will be made from a regular 2x4 board, four feet long.
• Four 2" finishing nails:
  To hold the frame together, we will use a nail on each corner.
• Some paint or stain:
  Optionally you can finish the frame with the application of some paint or stain.

Obviously, a 2x4 is much too wide to use as a picture frame without some work first. Therefore, the first operation in making our picture frame will be to rip cut 2x4 into two four foot lengths (as a reminder, we've already cut the eight foot long board in half or had it done at the store) with cross sections measuring 1.5 x 1.5 inches.

By the end of this step, we will have four boards measuring four feet long and 1.5 inches square.

What is a rip cut?

Throughout this Instructable, we will be using the table saw to perform a variety of cuts on the journey of transforming a 2x4 into a picture frame. The first is a rip cut. A rip cut is a cut that splits a piece of wood into two pieces by cutting parallel to the wood grain. In other words, we will take the four foot long 2x4 and cut it twice to make two pieces that are four feet long each and 1.5 inches square.

A rip cut is one that runs parallel to the wood grain to split a board into two pieces lengthwise.

Table saw safety

Always use the correct safety equipment while operating your table saw.

Before we go any further, it is vitally important to cover some safety considerations that will help us avoid injuries while using the table saw. Table saws are very useful and versatile woodworking tools, enabling us to perform accurate and straight cuts using a variety of techniques. But because a table saw consists of an exposed saw blade pointed up at our vulnerable fingers, safety is extremely important. There are three broad areas of safety considerations we need to keep in mind each and every time we use the table saw:

• Hearing and eye protection
• Safety devices and techniques used to reduce the chance of kickback
• Safety equipment and techniques to avoid our hands making contact with the table saw blade

The first of these areas is fairly straightforward. As is standard while using any woodworking power tool, you should always wear hearing protection and safety glasses while operating the table saw.

The second category of safety considerations is about a potentially dangerous situation that can occur with table saws or some other types of wood saws, kickback. While using the table saw, keep in mind that the direction in which the table saw is spinning is towards the front of the table saw. So, this means that the saw blade can catch the wood being cut and throw it at high speed towards the front of the tool. This is called kickback and it is very dangerous. There are extensive resources around the internet, not to mention in the user manual for your table saw, concerning kickback and methods to prevent it. A really fast summary is that, to avoid kickback, we must ensure the piece of wood being cut is always kept in tight contact with the table and with the fence. The most common cause of kickback is when the wood is allowed to move away from the fence so that the saw blade catches it at an angle.

So, to avoid kickback, we will always be mindful while cutting that the wood is being held hard down against the table and pushed firmly against the fence. One tool that helps greatly in both of these areas, plus the third area which we will discuss in a moment, is a push block. One of the most popular of these is the Grr-Ripper 3D push block. This tool runs about $60 so it is certainly not cheap, but the cost is well worth avoiding serious injury while using the table saw.

This is a Grr-Ripper table saw push block.

Another important safety feature with which your table saw should be equipped to prevent kickback is a riving knife. This is the metal fin behind the saw blade. This piece of metal slides into the cut piece of wood, between the two pieces behind the saw, to prevent the wood from pinching back in on the blade from behind.

The final area of safety considerations is making sure your hands do not come into contact with the blade. This is another area where using a push block improves safety. The push block keeps our hands farther away from the saw and out of the path of kickback at the same time. However, besides using equipment to prevent a very nasty encounter between a finger and the table saw, one of the most important ways we can prevent injury here is to always be mindful of the position of your hands and the saw blade. Be careful not to accidentally contact the blade while picking up items around the saw, reaching for things on the other side of the fence, putting down your push block, or other activities. Just always keep your hands as far away from the blade as you can while still ensuring good control over the workpiece.

And the final important safety step that bridges all the areas above is to always ensure the table saw is unplugged before performing any adjustments or maintenance. Before moving the blade or adjusting the riving knife or moving the fence, or performing any other actions, make sure to unplug the saw. This adds a couple extra seconds to your woodworking project but, again, it is well worth saving your hands from injury.

Set up the cut

So, with safety covered, let’s get the table saw set up to perform the two rip cuts that we will need to reduce the width of the lumber. We will start by adjusting the height and angle of the blade. For this operation, we will be cutting perpendicularly to the table to product perfectly square pieces of wood. So, adjust the angle of the blade to be straight up and down. For the height, the table saw blade should be high enough to cut all the way through the wood but not much higher than that. Adjust the height of the blade so that it is about ½ inch higher than the 2x4.

The blade height should be set so the blade is just a little bit taller than the wood.

Then we need to adjust the fence. Most table saws will come with a ruler on the front of the table allowing us to read the position of the fence (the spacing between the fence and the blade). For work requiring high precision, it might not always be the best idea to rely on this ruler, but for our purposes, it will not impact the project in any meaningful way if the measurement is not exactly 1.5 inches. So, move your table saw fence until it is 1.5 inches from the blade.

For this project, the ruler built into the table saw will be accurate enough.

Perform the rip cuts

Alright, the time has come to make the cuts. First, while pressing the 2x4 firmly against both the table and the fence, push the wood through the blade in a smooth and consistent motion. Following this cut, you will end up with one piece of wood 1.5 x 1.5 inches square and the other about 1.75 x 1.5 inches square.

Place the smaller piece aside and prepare the larger piece for a second rip cut. Place the wood on the table saw with the longer edge on the table. Again holding the piece firmly against both the table and the fence, pass the wooden piece through the saw again. This will produce a second piece 1.5 x 1.5 inches square, plus a little strip of wood about ¼ inch wide. You can set this small piece of wood aside for now.

Now we have two pieces of wood that each measure four feet long and have cross sections measuring 1.5 x 1.5 inches square. The next step is to cut channels into the wood wide enough to hold the canvas inside the frame. This type of cut is called a dado cut and we have four of these cuts to perform, one for each side of the frame.

By the end of this step, we will have channels cut in all the wooden pieces.

What is a dado cut?

In the previous step, we performed a rip cut. In this step we will use a second kind of cut, a dado cut. A dado cut is one that cuts part way through the piece and is typically much wider than the kerf of a normal table saw blade. There are basically two methods to make a dado cut: using a dado blade or using a regular rip blade.

A dado cut makes a channel in a piece of material.

Dado blades vs regular blades

There are dedicated blades that can be used to make dado cuts on your table saw in a single operation. Dado blade sets consist of two saw blades placed on either side of chipper blades in the center. This stack of blades allows the table saw to make wide dado cuts in a single pass and for those cuts to have flat, clean bottoms. The width of the dado blade can be adjusted by adding or removing chipper blades from the center of the stack.

If you don’t do a lot of carpentry though, it can be difficult to justify the cost of a dado blade because they are fairly expensive at around $100-$120 for a non-professional blade. But it is entirely possible to make dado cuts using a regular saw blade, the same saw blade we just used to rip cut the 2x4. The process takes longer to perform but with a bit of practice and practice, the results can be very clean. This is the process I used for this Instructable.

To make a dado cut using a regular saw blade, we will make several passes over the blade, moving the table saw fence by about 1/16”-⅛” in between passes, which is about the width of the saw blade. By doing this several times we can end up with similar results to a dado blade.

Make dado cuts to hold the canvas art

The first step to making the dado cuts that will allow the canvas to be held into the frame is setting the height of the table saw blade. Before doing anything else, make sure to unplug the saw for safety. For this operation, the blade height should be set to about 1/4”. This will result in a dado cut that is deep enough to securely hold the canvas without obscuring too much of the artwork. While you are setting the blade height, you should also make sure to lower the riving knife.

We will make the dado cuts about 1/4 inch deep.

The next step that I would recommend completing is figuring out which side of the boards will be the front-facing side of the frame. This will help make sure you put the best looking side forward and also help to keep track of which side the dado cut needs to be on. Arrange your boards on the floor in a square and place a small T on the ends of the boards to designate the top side. We will be cutting off both ends of each board in an upcoming step so if you place these letters on the ends of the boards, we will cut it off and you don’t need to worry about erasing it or sanding it off.

To keep track of which side of each board will be up, write a T on the designated top sides.

Next we need to set the fence position. We will end up making several overlapping dado cuts in order to make a channel wide enough to hold the canvas. The first of these cuts will be in the center of the board. So set the fence to the ¾ inch position.

And now it is time to cut. So be sure to put your protective equipment back on if you took it off and plug the saw back in. To ensure we get the most consistent results, we will work in an assembly line process for this step. Take each of the boards out of their square arrangement and position them to make the first dado cut on the side that will be the inside of the frame. Then, just like we did with the rip cut, pass each board over the blade in a smooth motion.

Next we will adjust the fence position to make another cut that overlaps the first one. This will have the effect of making the dado cut wider. So, move the fence about 1/16” away from the blade.

To make the wide dado cut, we will make a series of overlapping dados.

Then, with each board, make another dado cut just like the one you did in the middle of the boards. This time though, after making each cut, turn the board around 180° and run it over the blade again. This allows us to expand the dado cut by ⅛” even though we only moved the fence by 1/16”. It will also help to make sure the dado cut is as smooth as possible.

Repeat this process about two more times, or until the total width of the dado cut is a little bigger than the width of your canvas. The best way to test the fit here is by testing it against the canvas itself rather than just by measuring.

Clean up the cut

One of the downsides to using a regular saw blade to make dados rather than a dado blade is that the bottom of the cut will likely be a little bit rough by the time you are done, you might even have thin fins of material sticking up if you accidentally moved the blade too far between cuts.

You might end up with some roughness on the bottom of the dados but this is easily cut away.

The good news is that it is really easy to clear away these little imperfections in the dado cut. Also they don't matter too much anyway for this particular project. I used a sharp wood chisel to cut off the little fits and smooth out the bottom of the dado cuts. Another element to note again is that we will be cutting off the ends of the pieces in the next step so the very ends of the boards do not have to be perfect.

For this step we are going to switch out the table saw for a miter saw because we need to make the 45° cuts for the corners of the frame that will also cut the sides of the frame to length. So, the first step is to set the miter saw to 45°. It is important that this angle is as close as possible to 45° or else the corners of the frame will have gaps. Therefore, it is advisable to use an angle measurement tool to make sure the cut will be as close as possible to exactly 45°.

Set your miter saw to 45° and double check this angle to make sure it is as accurate as possible.

With the miter saw angle set, we need to measure the cuts on the pieces of wood in which we just finished cutting dados. We will be making two cuts in each board because, rather than making one cut to bring the sides of the canvas frame to length, we will cut half the length of each end of the board. This will help keep only the middle part of the wooden sides, which tends to have a better finish quality on the dado cuts.

For a 16x20 canvas, we will need two sides of the frame cut to 18.5 inches and the other sides cut to 22.5 inches.

These measurements will be made from the outside edge of the board. So, take the length of each side, which should be about 48 inches, subtract the length of the sides and divide by two to get the length of measure in from each side of the board. The measurements should be something like this:

After measuring all the cuts, use the miter saw to cut each board to length at a 45° angle. Be sure to line up the cuts carefully because it is very important that opposite sides of the frame are the same length in order for the frame to have ninety degree corners.

There are a number of ways we could fasten the frame together. Because I wanted my frame to be reusable, in case I want to switch out the canvas at some point, I decided to fasten the corners together with nails that could be removed later on.

First, select a drill bit that is just a bit smaller than the nail. This will be used to drill the pilot holes. Select a second drill bit that is just a bit wider than the head of the nails. This will be used to countersink the nail heads so they do not stick out of the frame.

As for the placement of the nails, I would recommend putting the nails into the top and bottom of the frame rather than the sides. The nails will be a bit less visible on the parts of the frame that people see less. Measure ¾ inch from the end of each side of the picture frame and place a mark exactly in the center of the board.

Clamp the corners of the frame together so their alignment does not shift while you are drilling the pilot hole. Once the mitered joints are clamped together, drill a pilot hole at least as long as the nails.

Then, using the larger drill bit, countersink the pilot holes just deep enough to hide the nail heads.

Finally, attach three pieces of the frame together to make a "U" shape into which we can place the canvas shortly.

While you could certainly mount your artwork in the frame and hang it on the wall at this point, it will probably look better if you add a bit of a finish to the frame first. Here you have an unlimited number of options and the narrow strips of wood we cut off on the table saw earlier are perfect for trying out some of these possibilities. You can try out some different paints, stains, or other finishes on the leftover strips of wood and hold them up to your artwork to see what looks the best.

For my one-board picture frame, I selected a two-tone finish with a charcoal gray color on the front faces of the frame and black on the sides and interior of the frame.

We are finally at the end of this glorious project. It is time to mount the canvas into the frame and hang it on the wall for all to see. We already have the frame partially assembled into a “C” shape, with just one side of the frame detached from the rest of the frame. So, start by carefully placing your canvas artwork into the partially assembled frame.

Carefully place your canvas into the frame.

Then, take a final piece of the frame and, using the two remaining nails, attach it to the rest of the frame to complete the assembly. Now your canvas is mounted in your own, custom made, picture frame!

Nail the final side of the frame to the rest to complete the project!