An adjustable miter frame for pictures

After an "exhilerating" experience with some offshore miter clamps I decided to investigate making something more reliable.

I started out with a 10 inch wide piece of 3/4" plywood and a rudementary plan from
WWW.CRAFTSMANSPACE.COM.
Caution, it's metric and translated into decimal inches. There's no directions so take your time and work it out.

I cut 4 - 26" strips 2-3/8" wide for the adjustable arms and layed out first the 3/4" recesses for the bolt heads and secondarily drilled the dimples out left by the forstner bit with a 1/4" bit to allow the bolts to pass through.

 

Next chore was to cut the 4  V blocks that the frame corners would sit in and the cross pieces to join the top and bottom members. The next picture shows the blocks notched and drilled and the cross bars milled and drilled. I chose a 5/16" threaded rod for more stablility than the suggested 1/4" .

Heres' the frame clamp assembled.

Here it is with a 50" mirror frame in place for the picture.

The jury's out until I get a couple of frames under my belt but it looks promising and it isn't from China!

 I can undo the center toggle and it stores quite well without taking up too much space.

here's the finsihed mirrors hung up on the dining room wall.