Today’s tutorial is all about custom stretcher frames and how to build them. Personally I prefer building my own stretcher frames rather than buying them in pieces or pre-fabbed from the store. There are four reasons for this:

1. Stretcher bars bought in-store are not sturdy enough for my purposes. I stretch my canvas nice and tight. They sound like a drum when I’m done priming them. Commercially made stretcher bars will warp under that kind of stress.

2. Commercial stretcher bars are slightly bevelled on the surface that faces the canvas. This makes them slope away from the canvas in an attempt to allow the fabric to ’float’ above the stretcher. Unfortunately the bevel is very slight and often, if you’re an emphatic painter, you’ll press through the canvas catching the stretcher underneath leaving an unsightly line on your painting.

3. Pre-fab stretcher pieces are only about 3/4 of an inch thick. I like my canvases to have some presence so I custom make my frames to be double-thick. This gives them an architectural feel.

4. Stretcher bars come in a variety of sizes but almost always in two inch increments such as 10, 12, 14 or 16 inches. By making my own I can make them any size I like down to a sixteenth of an inch.

I’m going to show you the tools I use and the process I go through to make my own frames. It may seem complicated at first, but once you try it you’ll see there’s really nothing to it. It’s a bunch of little steps that will lead to a very big finish…your masterpiece!

You’ll need some tools to start. You’ll need a tape measure, a square or adjustable square, a couple of C-clamps or something comparable, a hammer, a pencil or pen, a power drill, a power mitre saw and a surface to work on such as a large table or workbench.

As for materials you’ll need some lengths of 1 x 2 inch clear pine or knotty pine and some lengths of paint-grade quarter round stripping (Rona is a good place for these. Also check out Home Depot or your local lumber yard). I prefer precut eight foot lengths. They fit in my car and are easy to manhandle. To fasten these together you’ll need a pack of #8 screws by two and a half inches long, some wood glue and a pack of 1 inch finishing nails.

It’s preferable to use power tools when working with wood. If you don’t have access to power tools you can use a handsaw instead of a mitre saw. If you’re going to use a handsaw I’d recommend investing in a mitre box. It’s a small plastic or wooden guide that will help to keep your saw at a 45/90 degree angle to the wood you’re working on. Also, if you don’t have a power drill, use two and half inch long finishing nails instead of #8 screws.  They’re not as sturdy as screws but they will hold the frame together.

** A note on safety:  Always take proper safety precautions before working with power tools. Make sure they’re in good working order–no frayed cords, cracked sawblades or damaged components. Wear safety glasses and earplugs. Tie up all loose hair and remove any loose fitting clothing. Remove rings from fingers and distractions from your work area. As the old worker said to the young worker not wearing his safety glasses:

Old Worker: “Would you sell an eyeball for a million dollars?”
Young Worker: “No. Never!”
Old Worker: “Then why would you give one away for free? Wear your safety glasses!”

NEVER SACRIFICE THE BODY.

Now that you’ve had your safety pep talk, got your tools and materials, let’s get started!

STAGE ONE – THE FRAME BASE

First, decide on what size of stretcher frame you’d like. 18″ x 24″ ? 30″ x 36″ ? 16.45″ x 88.5″ ? When you’ve got that sorted out, cut your 1 x 2 pine length with the mitre saw. Make sure it’s on the standard 90 degree setting. The pieces will look like this.

The pieces before they’re assembled.	The final configuration.

When deciding on the cut sizes for your frames, remember that one set of pieces will fit inside the other. Don’t forget to subtract the width of the outside pieces when measuring the inside ones before cutting. If you forget, the inside pieces will be too long and you’ll have to recut. The outside edges are going to be your final stretcher dimensions. Measure twice–cut once.

** CAUTION!:  Always make sure the saw is spinning at full speed before you touch it to your work piece! Doing otherwise may result in damage to the piece and you! It’s also recommended that you have something handy to prop up the long end of your work piece. Don’t struggle to hold an eight foot length of wood on your saw! Work smart, not hard.

Use the pencil and square to mark your cuts. When you’ve got your pieces cut, come to the corner of your workbench. Dab some wood glue on the end of one of the inside pieces. Use a C-clamp to fasten it widthwise facing away from you along the edge of your workbench. Infront of this piece and at a ninety degree angle to it, use the other C-clamp to fasten down one outside piece along the edge of your workbench.  Butt the two pieces together and make sure their edges are flush with each other. You can use a hammer to gently tap them back and forth until you have the fit you’re looking for. Click the images below for a bigger view.

Now that you’ve got the pieces set up it’s time to screw them together. First you drill a pilot hole for the screw. This pilot hole will stop the wood from splitting when you put the screw in. Select a drill bit that is smaller in diameter than the threads of the #8 screws you’ve got. A one eighth drill bit is recommended. If you use one that is the same size or bigger than the threads of a #8 screw they’ll have no wood to bite into.

Chances are, because of the drill bits small diameter it will also be somewhat short (maybe 2 inches?). Don’t be afraid to bury it in the joint right up to the chuck. Drill through from the outside piece to the inside piece. Keep the drill level and at a 90 degree angle to the outside piece.

While you’ve go your pieces clamped down, glued and now piloted, switch out your drill bit for a screwdriver bit. Grab a #8 screw and sink it into the joint. Wipe off any excess glue that might squeeze out. Repeat this step 4 times until you’ve got a sturdy, glued and screwed frame base.

** Substitution:  If you don’t have a power drill this is where you can substitute nails for screws. I’d recommend using long finishing nails. They have no proper heads and will disappear into the surface of the wood easier than a conventional nail. Use two nails, not just one, and be careful not to split the wood when hammering them in. You may have to change the setup of your pieces slightly in order to be able to do this.

STAGE TWO – THE QUARTER ROUND EDGE

Once the 1 x 2 inch pine base is done you’ll need to attach some pieces of quarter round to the outside top edge of the base. The quarter round will keep the canvas from sitting directly on the base and will give the stretcher its desired depth. This is where the mitre capability of modern power saws really comes in handy.

Make sure you’ve got your measurments correct. If you’re making an 18 inch by 24 inch frame you’ll need two pieces of quarter round at 18 inches and two at 24 inches. You don’t have to subtract any measurments from these pieces.

Grab a piece of quarter round. Always keep the flat sides of the quarter round facing the saw deck and back stop. Never try to cut the quarter round with the round side down! Adjust your mitre saw to the 45 degree setting on the right (when you’re facing the saw). Nip off the end of your length. Re-adjust the saw to the 45 degree setting on the left. Make your second cut. Make two pieces the same length first.

** Tip: When you cut your quarter round pieces, you may find that they’re a little longer than your frame base. Here’s a tip to shave just a hair off the end of your quarter round so it fits perfectly. Don’t turn on the saw but push it down as far as it will go. Slide your slightly long work piece up to the side of the sawblade. Let the sawblade come back up to its starting position. Start the saw. When it’s up to full speed cut your work piece. You’ll find it nips off about a sixteenth or and eighth of an inch.

What happens is this: The body of the sawblade is a uniform thickness. The teeth of the saw are slightly wider. When you slide your work piece up to the body of the sawblade and then let it come back up to it’s starting position, the teeth of the sawblade sneak past your work leaving your wood where it was. The difference between the blade body and the teeth is the length you’ll be removing from your work piece.

Take the two pieces you just cut and, using the 1 inch long finishing nails and hammer, pre-nail the pieces. Pre-setting the nails makes it easier to place and hammer home the quarter round. Run a bead of glue along the underside of your work pieces and go to town nailing them in place. Wipe away any excess glue. Click on the pictures below for a bigger view.

Now that you’ve got two pieces in place which are opposite each other, they’ll act as a guide for the next two. Follow the preceding steps again with the final two pieces of quarter round. If you find they’re too long, use the tip above to shave them down until they fit the way you want them too. Pre-nail ‘em, glue ‘em and put them in place.

And that’s it. Give the finished stretcher frame a day for the glue to set before using it. You’re now able to make any frame, any size, any time and the more you do it the easier it will get. I can make six or more 18 x 24 inch stretcher frames in about four hours using this technique. For a small investment in time, I get what I want, when I want.

Hopefully you found this tutorial useful. If you’re not sure just yet about attempting this yourself but you’d still like some custom made stretcher frames, I’m in business to do just that. Click here to find out how I can help you!

For now, that is all. Goodnight.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Tips and Tricks . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.