Mine have mitered and glued corners and a recessed bottom for a piece of 1/4 inch plywood. Mitered corners are weak because it is glued end grain to end grain. So I soup it up a bit by adding a triangular spline to each corner.
To do the splines I first built a jig. This device runs down the fence of the tablesaw and holds a frame corner point down. I set the height of the blade so it doesnt cut all the way through (less to fuss over later) and then the fence so the slot is cut near the center of the frame corner. Then, 4 quick passes, turning each corner down and clamping to the jig for each pass.
Next I take a contrasting type of wood and plane it until it can slide in the spline slots, but snugly. I cut this into triangles using the bandsaw. Each triangle gets glue on both faces and the long edge. The triangle is pressed into the slot and then clamped into place. Pieces of scrap wood protect the face of the frame from the metal of the C clamps. Splining like this glues face grain of the triangle to the face grain (inside of the slot) of the corner. It is incredibly strong and will probably never come apart.
Looks good too.
These wine cork trivets are made of poplar with cherry splines.
Two of the five. They measure about 9 inches on each side.
All 5 after glue up. Corks are mocked up, but not ready to install yet.
Spline slots and cherry splines have been cut. One is glued up and the others are waiting.
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