40 – How to make a Picture Frame Shadow box Online Class 4K Video

Plans for this project can be found here:
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I recently re-connected with a friend from almost 30 years ago. We found each other on facebook. I found out that he had seen some of my woodworking videos on youtube. He wanted to build a shadowbox picture frame for his mom for a Christmas gift. I thought it would be an excellent chance to get to hang out again after all those years, and revisit those old memories and share them with my family today.

My friend, Mike, is a lieutenant firefighter, as was his father before him. And his brother is a soldier in the Army. The gift for his mom will contain important keepsakes from their lives. Mike has a leather fire fighter’s helmet shield for him and his father, and a leather patch from his brother’s Army unit. He will put these together in a shadowbox picture frame along with a black and white photo of each of them. And he wanted to make it, so that the gift will have additional meaning.

We chose to use Black Cherry for the project. I helped Mike learn the basics of the woodworking tools, and him along with his son Chance, took to woodworking right away. And I think it turned out beautifully.

We used a raised panel router bit to cut out the picture frame molding. And we used an Incra Miter sled to cut the 45 degree angles. I mentioned in the video, that the sled is great if you want very precise angles of any measure, but if you simply want 45 degrees for picture frames, and boxes etc. then you should check out my Extreme Table Saw Sled video. It makes absolutely perfect flawless picture frames in seconds with no setup!

We used through dovetail joinery to hold the shadowbox. If you are looking for our highly detailed tutorial to learn how to cut these, check out this video:

I hope you enjoy the build!

Here are some of the things I used in the build:

DOVETAILING
Porter Cable Dovetail Jig (includes router bits)
Carbide Dovetail bit
Carbide Straight cutter bit
Universal Router base to hold the guide bushing
My DeWalt router, (both fixed base & plunge)

ROUTERING:
Freud Rabbeting Bit
Freud Raised Panel Ogee Bit

CUTTING & GLUE-UP
Grr Ripper 3D pushblock
Titebond 3 Glue
Silicon glue brush kit
Bessey Parallel Clamps with Clamp Blocks
Quick Grip Clamps

SANDING & FINISHING
Deft semi-gloss Lacquer
Organic Vapor safe respirator
Extra pack of cartridges for the respirator
100 grit SandBlaster Ultra Flexible Sanding Sheets
150 grit SandBlaster Ultra Flexible Sanding Sheets
220 grit SandBlaster Ultra Flexible Sanding Sheets
320 grit SandBlaster Ultra Flexible Sanding Sheets
Style-Line Soft-Sander 4-1/2”, set of 6 profiles

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