--- Clayton Carter  wrote:
> 	I want to start out easy, doing everyone's favorite
> beginner
> project, the picture frame.  

If you're going to do picture frames by hand, an
invaluable tool will be the mitre shooting board. 

This is a pretty standard appliance (isn't that the
term for a jig for hand tools?) so is described in a
lot of the standard books. You can also read a very
nice article on them by our own Don McConnell in the
August 2003 issue of Popular Woodworking, most likely
available at your local library. These are easy to
make and can be made from just about any material as
long as it's pretty stable. You can even make an ugly
but very functional one from MDF. You can see a
picture here. (scroll down to about middle of page)
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/store/backissue.asp?issuedate=8/1/2003

The trick with these is to secure it with one screw
where it can pivot and then temporarily with another
screw that you can remove, or a clamp. This allows you
to check your board for true. The way you do this, cut
your two 45-degree miters with a saw, then using your
board, true up the joint on both pieces. Put them
together and check for square. If it's not square,
determine where the miter is off, try rotating the
angled rest to where it should work, try truing up the
two pieces again, check for square. Once you find the
location where it's square, secure that sucker down
with several screws. If done right, this board should
last you for quite a while and stay true for years and
years. Unless you have the rare miter box and
perfectly set saw that cut perfect angles, Tom Price
owns one of these rare beasts*, any miter joint could
benefit from truing up on a good miter shooting board.

And while you're at it, might as well make a 90-degree
shooting board as well. These two along with a bench
hook are so easy to make and so increadibly useful. 
http://www.inthewoodshop.org/methods/wwc06.shtml

Andrew
Who has learned only a few things, but those few
things he does know. 

*http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/handtools.pl?noframes;read=1129
and Tom's post
http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/handtools.pl?noframes;read=1199

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