Rabbet confusion

[brianz]

I am just now starting to print/mat/frame on a professional level, and I'm only now starting to buy equipment, so this is probably a basic question... how do you guys find frames with the right rabbet depth?  Seems like a real constraint on compatible frames.  For example, I am doing single mats which would require a rabbet depth of 3/8". Yet so many nice frames out there on the internet have rabbets of 1" or more.  Does this even matter?  I intend to use a point driver, so I can just put the points deep down inside for a 3/8" deep sandwich within an overall 1" rabbet... right?

Thanks,
Brian

[bill t.]

Deep rabbets only matter in that you have to fill the left over space in with something to prevent your customers from poking their fingers through the backing the first time they pick up the frame!  Too much extra work.

3/8 to 9/16 is a typical rabbet depth on so-called standard frames that are deeper at the perimeter than at the rabbet, versus "reverse" frames that are deeper at the rabbet.  To make framing life as easy as possible, pick a moulding with a rabbet depth that is about 1/8" deeper than your package, that's just enough to use Fletcher points without fracturing the frame, but not so deep that you will get finger poke-throughs if you don't add extra filling.  There's a lot to be said for picking moulding that is easy to work with, and I have seldom spoken wiser words than that.

But personally I don't use backings.  I mount canvas to Gator which is essentially a hermetically sealed package so I don't need no stinkin' backing.  Nobody seems to mind, and it lowers the price a bit.

[brianz]

Thanks Bill, good point on the finger pokes. I'll just use a 1/2" rabbet for my 3/8" stack.