Industrial Picture Frame

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This is an easy and cheap industrialish picture/poster frame I came up with a while back – it uses 1/8″ thick 3/4″ wide flat aluminum stock and some little alligator spring clamps; all of which you can pick up at Home Depot and the like. I’ve used this on larger (20″x30″) pictures but here I’m showing some smaller prints, whatever the size the method is the same.

Parts:

• 4′ of 1/8″ thick 3/4″ wide flat aluminum stock | Home Depot, etc.
• Alligator spring clamps | Home Depot, etc.
• Parts cost – ~$13.00 | enough to do 3 8″x10″ pictures

The picture that is being framed is a slightly modified version of this iStock vector illustration.

Cut the aluminum to size – they need to be as long (or wide, depending on orientation) as your picture. These pieces will be placed on the top and bottom of the picture, so measure accordingly. I used a miter box and a hack saw for the cutting:

All cut:

After cutting the aluminum to length it’s a good idea to file the ends, to get rid of any burs:

Clean the aluminum – I used a special aluminum cleaning chamber but you could get by with a bathroom sink, soap and water:

To add some rigidity (so it does not slouch) to the hanging picture, we’ll use foam core board:

Measure and cut the foam core so it’s the same size (maybe slightly smaller) than your photo:

Next, we prepare the clamps. The ones I got from Home Depot have a neon green plastic cover that I removed:

Leatherman to the rescue:

The only thing left is to do is clamp the aluminum, picture and form board together:

Note: I’ve found on larger pictures I’ve had to glue the picture to the foam board using spray adhesive for best results.

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