re: making own stretcher bars… which saw

[siraven]

ok, so if anyone has any input on this i would really appreciate it. I am a stay at home mom and when i was in college classes they had a mitre saw with the bag that you’d adjust to a 45 degree angle for the stretcher bar corners. I don’t have one of those, so i’m wondering what other type of say i can use.I have a ryobi Reciprocating saw and i’m wondering if i can use that. Also do the angles have to be cut at that 45 degree angle? why can’t i just cut them blunt and nail them together overlapping one another?

anyone please???

[dreamz]

you can get a fairly inexpensive miter box and saw at most home improvement stores (the old fashioned hand powered kind) butt joints aren’t usually as strong or attractive as a mitered corner

C&C welcome and encouraged
it's only paint...have fun with it
Webshots - Images of dreamz creations

[siraven]

my biggest thing is i want to paint, i have the canvas, the wood and the nails, we have a reciprocating saw.
My husband works all day and we only have the one car. I also live about 1 1/2 hours away from a hardware store, the only thing we have that’s close is a wal mart and they don’t sell the little mitre boxes with the hand saw.

[mick11]

Hi siraven,

First of all what you are talking about are strainer bars, not stretcher bars.
Stretcher bars have a special joint so that the bars can be tensioned with keys (wedges) to tighten the canvas.

If you have no intension off selling your art, then you can do with it as you wish, but I think you will be disappointed, and if it is out of “square” it will be impossible to frame properly.

You will not get any sort of accuracy at all with a reciprocating saw no matter what type of joint you use. Also there should only be minimum contact at the extreme edges of the canvas or the bars will show on the front of the canvas.This is why there is a very small lip on the edge a proper stretcher bar

You would do far better buying the correct size stretcher bars off the internet and then learning how to stretch your canvas properly.

Sorry to sound so negative, but if you want to do the job properly you need the correct tools and knowledge for the job.

Mick
My work
UK Member Professional Picture Framers' Association
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe. -Abraham Lincoln

[siraven]

well, i have been stretching my own canvasses now for 7 years and have never had the problem of seeing the bars through the canvas. I would like to make the 45 degree angle but i have no mitre saw and am trying to figure out a way to do it if there is without one.
Also keys are only for store bought pre-stretched canvas, and not if you make your own. This is due to the poor quality of canvas used and not enough gesso so i thank you for your response but you have given me no helpful information.

[mick11]

Also keys are only for store bought pre-stretched canvas, and not if you make your own. This is due to the poor quality of canvas used and not enough gesso so i thank you for your response but you have given me no helpful information.

I’m sorry to have to disagree with you.
Proper stretcher bars with keys are used by professional artists and framers when stretching canvas, it has nothing to do with poor quality store bought canvas and lack of gesso.
Strainer bars are a cheap alternative as a DIY subtitute, but are adequate for low value art if properly constructed

I am also sorry I could not give you any useful information, but I am a professional framer, and for me there is only one way to do a job, and that is correctly. We have a saying here, “you cant make a silk purse from a pigs ear”

This is a picture of a beautiful oil painting ruined by the visible lines of the bars from a badly stretched canvas.

Mick
My work
UK Member Professional Picture Framers' Association
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe. -Abraham Lincoln

[siraven]

well, i will agree that the picture shows poor framing and cheap canvas or gesso but i must say that has not happened to any of my paintings.

[mick11]

Hi siraven,

What the picture shows, is the canvas was touching the stretcher bars other than at the extreme edge,there was no lip on the original bars. and due to movement caused by changes in humidity, it had damaged the front of the canvas. This does not happen overnight, but after a few years.

With art as beautiful as yours, I am surprised you do not use proper stretcher bars. You can still stretch and gesso the canvas yourself, and know your art will still be as good in a hundred years time as it is now.

Mick
My work
UK Member Professional Picture Framers' Association
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe. -Abraham Lincoln

[siraven]

i thank you for your kind words regarding the portrait of my daughter. right now i’m trying to build up my portfolio and paint more. that portrait took 5 days and i hadn’t done one in many years. But after painting that i realized i should be painting more. I still am going to finish my art degree but right now i can’t so i need to paint and build up my portfolio. I will keep in mind the canvas against the wood though when i do build my own canvasses again. I’ve read that 1/2 in. round molding will do the trick so we’ll see. I haven’t had the issue of the imprint you showed, but you learn as you go.
thanks

[mick11]

What you need is 1/2 round moulding, the smallest you can get (1/8″-1/4″) is sufficient, and glue it to the outer top edges of your bars. Your canvas will only touch at that point when stretched. Commercial bars are moulded with the lip. or are slightly concave.

Mick
My work
UK Member Professional Picture Framers' Association
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe. -Abraham Lincoln

[siraven]

great …
i thought that’s what i had read somewhere online. unfortunately none of my professors ever showed me that this needed done. Thankfully I have yet to have a problem, but it’s good to know for future reference
thanks

[3Lance]

Siraven,

I use quarter rounds on top of mitrebox-cut wood, and it works just fine. My pieces look professional and will last much longer than many store-bought canvases. And I wouldn’t want to risk leaving a line of paint all the way around my painting an inch inside the edge just because I was painting too vigorously.

If I were you I’d at least invest in a mitrebox, if not a chopsaw. . . in the long run, it will make making canvases much easier. Mitre boxes are cheap, and come with a saw meant for cutting trim. . . you could probably get one for 8 bucks.

-Dan

http://www.firegallery911.com

[Keith Russell]

If you have access to a mitre saw, hammer, nails, and wood glue, why not paint on panel, instead of stretched canvas?

For about $20.00, you can buy a 4′ x 8′ oak plywood panel (1/4″ thick), which can be cut into several nice sized panels (I’m currently making two of these 36 x 48″). I glue two-by-twos ($4.00 for an 8′ piece) mitred at the corners, and run them around the ‘edges’ of the 1/4″ panel, to form a cradle.

Then, I use the leftover 2×2 ‘ends’ to ‘brace’ the back of the panel.

For less than $30.00, I’m going to have 2 36×48 inch oak panels, plus one 24 x 48 inch oak panel.

Just a thought…

Keith.

Forcing the waveform to collapse for two decades...
http://www.syntheticskystudios.com
Hilliard Gallery, Kansas City, "Small Works", December 2019

[Johnnie]

Glue your canvas’s to a hardboard or wood panel..

THen you dont get any stretcher anything… lol

Johnnie

Spread Kindness Like Confetti !!

[Keith Russell]

Glue your canvas’s to a hardboard or wood panel..

THen you dont get any stretcher anything… lol

Johnnie

The reason I switched from stretched canvas, to panel, was to avoid all canvas texture, period. I can get a super-smooth, ‘eggshell’ finish on the panel, and create only the texture I want, and only where I want it.

Gluing canvas to panel more than defeats the purpose for me…

Keith.

Forcing the waveform to collapse for two decades...
http://www.syntheticskystudios.com
Hilliard Gallery, Kansas City, "Small Works", December 2019

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