Hockey Stick Picture Frame

[Matt Meiser]

I made this today for one of my wife's employees. She'd bought something similar but smaller and wanted one made with her son's hockey sticks. Its a very simple project, and requires NO FINISHING!!!!!! The joinery on this one is a 5x30 domino at each corner, offset towards the front to allow room for a 1/4" by 3/8" or so rabbet in the back for the glass and backing. She supplied the glass and backing in the form of a frameless picture frame (the kind that uses metal clips) she picked up at Micheal's. Since the backing is a thin piece of tempered hardboard, its just held in place with some glazier's points.

I told her I'd only make it from wood sticks. I guess a lot of them are fiberglass now? They could probably be worked with standard tools, but especially right now after nose surgery, I don't want to be breathing that dust.

I think these would be a neat fund-raiser (or for-profit) project if you could get sticks from pro or well-known college players. Or even for the local high school team. Have them autograph them in strategic spot so that it is well placed on the finished project and put a photo of them in it. If I was making a bunch I'd build a set of jig to hold the pieces and the Domino in alignment to speed up that part--then you could crank out dozens in a couple hours.

[Ed Sallee]

That is really cool! My sister is a "hockey mom" in the Chicagoland area with her two boys. She'd go nuts if she saw this....

Very good idea!

[Russ Hauser]

Great fram Matt, but you mounted the poster upside down

Russ

[Matt Meiser]

Great fram Matt, but you mounted the poster upside down

Russ

No, the frame and shop are upside down.

[John Thompson]

Looks good.. never seen that concept before but I like it.

[Joe Cunningham]

I told her I'd only make it from wood sticks. I guess a lot of them are fiberglass now?

Mine are mostly carbon fiber composites, but my favs are wood. They are more 'whippy' and provide much better feedback and control for passing and receiving hard passes.

Neat frame idea.

[Lee Schierer]

Nice job Mat, I was going to comment that the poster is upside down too, but didn't get here soon enough.

Another variation would be to leave the blades attached to the sticks. Or Domino a puck in each corner.

[Jim Eller]

Boy Matt, that brings back some real memories from when I lived in Alpena.

I have three adult sons that played hockey from the time they were five through high school and one played in Saginaw for the Junior team for a year. I have thousands of pics and put hundreds of them in hockey stick frames. Built a lot for others too. I didn't buy all of them but would buy three to four dozen a year.

Could have retired earlier if it weren't for hockey............. football......... soccer............. basketball.............. baseball .............swimming....... Between equipment and traveling it kept me broke.

Thanks for the memories.

Jim

[Todd Young]

Hey Matt, I've made a handful of these from old hockey sticks as well. I put a lot of them in my sports room in the basement. I have about 20 of these in my basement scattered around the walls. I've made a handful for my grandkids and the neighbors kids as well.

Like you said, it's tough to find true wood sticks any longer. I used to use only wood sticks, mainly for the feel, but have been using composites for the past few years because I was going broke buying many sticks a year due to the blades breaking. At $30-75 each, it got pretty expensive. I've found that the composites hold up much longer, but don't give the same feel as the wood sticks do. I used to check the trash cans around the rink for discarded old broken wood sticks to use for frames. Might be an idea for finding some material if you hang out at hockey rinks at all. You just cut away the chewed up parts of the sticks and use what you can. Some chewed up parts actually give these some character if it's not chewed up too bad. Most of the composites I know of are hollow, so I'm not sure how much use you could get out of composites for this application. Maybe there are some that are solid through, but I've only seen composites that are hollow.

I do have a question for you though. How tough was it to get the glazier points into the sticks for the back support? The wood sticks are essentially a form of plywood and are pretty strong. I used to struggle getting the glazier points to sit far enough down in the rabbet to provide decent support.

I glue mine together at the mitred corners and used lucite for the "glass" just to cut down on the glare. The frame attached that has Gretzky in the Blues jersey (for only the few months he played for them) and Sean Burke are the only one that has actual glass in it, which you can see by the glare in the pic.

The backing on mine is primitive, just used a bit oversized corrugated cardboard to hold them in. Mainly because I struggled with the glazier points. Some I even had to put packing tape on just to make sure the cardboard backing stayed intact. That's a little embarassing to admit, but who's looking at the backs anyways, huh? Talk about enginuity. I figured it was in a room where beer was the main course so putting tape on them wasn't too much of a travesty since no one would see it.

I'd be interested to know how you got the glazier points in.

I do like the idea of using the domino though.

You're right , you can crank these out relatively fast and like you said, no finishing needed. Kids eat these things up, especially with pics of current players. You can pick up 8x10 photos relatively cheap and make the frames and the kids love 'em.

I attached some photos of some I did.

[Todd Young]

Hey Matt, after posting the pics, I want to make sure I'm not coming off as hijacking your thread. Didn't think about it until I had already posted them. I can pull the pics out and start a new one if that's how it's coming off.

[Matt Meiser]

No problem Todd. I didn't know the new sticks were hollow until someone told me. Apparently my "customer" didn't either because she didn't say anything and I was the one who said wood only.

I'm confused on your comment on the points. It sounds like you are sticking the point in between the glass and the frame, pushing toward the front? That's not how I was taught to use them. I set them flat on the backing and push them into the side of the rabbet using a putty knife. No problem getting them in and getting them to stick.

[Denny Rice]

My son is a High school hockey player and uses a carbon fiber sticks. I do know that most pro shops still carry a surplus of wooden sticks too, the the thing is most parents that get their children involved in hockey don't like the idea of dropping 80-150.00 on their childs first hockey stick. Most good wood hockey sticks can be found as cheap as 20-30 dollars and if they break (which does not happen very often compared to the more expensive carbon fiber sticks) it can be replaced for a minimual amount of money. Love the frames!

[Todd Young]

I never had the glass/lucite in the frame when I was trying to put them in, which sounds like could be the probelm. I never had anything to support them when trying to put them in. Sounds easy enough now that you say that. I'll give it a shot.

[Clara Koss]

my family is a fan of the sport and this frame is fabulous....