Have you ever tryed to make your own picture frames? If so you know what I am talking about: to me it was a headache understanding what size to cut the frame in order to have a perfect fit of the picture. After some errors and loss of time I then decided to make it a bit more analytical and a made this super simple Excel spreadsheet to calculate the sizes of the frame starting by the measurements of the picture itself and the size of the lumber and the rabbet I wanted.

You just need to fill in the first table and you’re good to go. If something isn’t clear I’ve made a simple legenda here below:

WPIC: it’s the width of your picture

HPIC: it’s the height of your picture

FRAMEWID: it’s the width of your picture frame sides

RABBET: this refers to the width of the rabbet, not the height.

Overlap: you have to decide how much of your picture will be underneath the picture frame inside the rabbet you created.

Margin: refers to a bit of play between the rabbet wall in all four sides and the picture rectangle

Hope you find it useful.

Stay tuned.

Max

You might also want to have a look on how to cut picture frames with perfect miters with your table saw. Here is a link about my project on How to build a DIY Picture Frame Jig for BOSCH PTS10 table saws