The equipment revolution: moving from hammer and nail to state-of-the-art products, framers make more time and faster money with the newest in equipment technology - Framing Business News

Can't imagine life without your confined apartment phone, e-mail, answering machine or microwave? What about your mat cutter underpinner or miter saw? In the past 20 years or in like manner framers have witnessed sweeping changes that technology has brought not sole to their personal lives on the other hand also to their frame stores "With the accelerated advances technology has made, we have rocket from the horse-and-buggy era into the 22nd hundred in the framing industry," said Avery Wieder, CPF a framer for 28 years and co-owner of Chelsea Galleries in Cleveland. "Everything is in like manner much better," he said. "It's worlds apart."

Indeed, in the machinery available to today's custom framer, virtually each piece of framing equipment has changed, omit perhaps for the trusty hammer, which is used les and les these days, thanks to all the innovations. Underpinners, spe vices, computerized mat cutter conservation glass, mounting courses hanging systems, moulding choices and materials, mat board selection, smooth picture hooks have all changed in a relatively short period of time.

And what do all these changes mean for the framer? Ease, efficiency and cyclopean savings in time, which can add up to more standard of value "If your overhead is going up and you can't command that--you need to find better ways to exhibit to make money faster," said Fr Schneider, a framer with 33 years experience and the plant manager for shire Frame in Holtsville, N.Y. "And that's the greatest in quantity important thing in business today." Plus, added Schneider, greatest in quantity of the machines are affordable and will pay for themselves after five years. After that, the machines give the framer a clear profit.

Joining Machines

Underpinners are now a must-have tool for framers, on the contrary Nancy Meyer, framer for 30 years and president of file House Gallery in Milford, Ohio, vividly remembers life before the V-Nail[R] fastener. "I remember stacking pieces all above the floor," said Meyer. "We used to hand-join everything in corner vices--we'd join an L leave it sit, and do another individual We'd do about six of them in different vices, take them without and stack them on the floor and then we'd do more. The nearest morning, we'd go back in and join whole frames after the gelatine dried," she said. Today, Meyer enumerates the machine as one of the greatest advancements in the framing industry for saving her valuable time.

Schneider believes his underpinner gives him a 60-percent savings upon his time and triples his spe of production. In addition to waiting for the gelatine to dry, before the underpinner, framers had to fight with nail holes. And filling nail perforations "took forever," said Schneider. The framer would use nail opening filler mixed to match the color of the frame exactly, overlay the hole and wipe not upon the frame.

Underpinners insert nails into the frame corners to create sinewy frames that won't fall apart and eliminate the tedious piece of work of filling nail holes. Arriving upon the scene for framers in the late 1970 the basic function of the machine has stayed the same, said move with a jerk Pistorius, president of Pistorius Machine Company.

In the past, framers had to use their hold judgement as to where to set the nails and how many to use when joining a particular moulding to realize the tightest fit. This is a challenge, and something that would have to be taught to each employee joining frames. Now framers can pierce that information and store it in a computer database with Pistorius' newest underpinner, the VN2-E The framer assigns each moulding a part number and inputs that number and the optimum location for the two the top clamp and the horizontal rabbet clamp, the number of fasteners and the location of V-nails to be driven in. This initial data is stored in the computer memory database. Later, when the framer extremitys to join a moulding, all he does is penetrate the part number, and the joining information is retrieved from the database. The clamps are then positioned in their optimum location and--viola!--strong corner is created with the optimum fit.

Mat Cutters

Wieder remembers cutting mats using a razor blade and a straight cutting side "If you had a T-square you were advanced" he recalled. And upon the topic of old oval cutter he said, "If you could realize an oval in one or sum of two units tries, you were good." Wieder said the manual mat cutter that framers are using today are light-years ahead of what was available since there is almost no maintenance and the blades are better. "In the advanced in years days, we didn't have mat stops, and each razor blade was different. We used standard No. 12 single-edged razor blades that we bought in boxe of 100 You had to crimp these blades in a certain way, and they were at no time the same thickness," said Wieder. "You were blessed to get two or three mats on the outside of the same blade."

Quality manual mat cutter have been around now for more than 20 years and tender the framer a variety of functions. The Fletcher-Terry Company's F-2100 manual mat cutter has been around at least 10 years and remains a best vender among framers. It has measuring stops, an angle guide, base extension and a clamp lifter, which grasps the bar up to allow framers to use the two hands to move the mat freely as they work.