Cut a man some wood and he’ll start IKEA, give a man a tablesaw and there’ll not be a tree in sight within six months. As the saying goes.
Easy-peasy one this, but it makes life so simple. I must find some more pictures of it in use. The construction is easy enough to see from this photo:
The inner “slats” can be withdrawn after assembling the frames to release them from the jig. They’re just there to hold the sides in place. I can’t claim credit for this design: there are plenty along similar lines on that ewe-choob, some that even allow construction of one hundred frames at a time.
The idea however is simple: grab a fistful of sidebars all the same way up and run a bead of glue down the slot for the top bar before slotting them into the jig as above. Tap the top bars into place and then run down the top with a staple gun, stapling vertically through the top bar into the side. I use a 35mm staple for this. Turn the jig over (turning it sideways means the frames won’t fall out) and nail in the bottom bars. Pull out the slats and there you have ten perfectly square frames. Without particularly hurrying I found this much faster than making frames individually, and most modern wood glues will be stronger than the wood itself, so we’re all good.
I’m sure I took more photos last time I used it so I’ll post those when I find them.