Better Stretchers

As a conscientious artist, I devote a considerable amount of time to studying all aspects of the craft. This includes trying to find ways to improve techniques that already work further. In this case, I wanted to improve the process of making stretchers.

I make most of my stretchers, and up until recently, I used the fairly common technique of glueing quarter round or base shoe stock to solid wood planks. It's simple, can be done cheaply, and does not require any special tools.

Drawbacks include stretchers that are on the thick side, making framing more difficult, and a bond between the two pieces that is weaker than an otherwise solid piece would be. The process of glueing up all of the individual pieces can be very time consuming if one plans on making a lot of stretchers.

I thought that I might improve on my stretchers by profiling a solid piece. I would need to have access to a router, table saw, and the appropriate bit to cut a rounded edge on the canvas. For the wood, I used the same quarter-sawn douglas fir that I've relied on in the past. 

To create the rounded edge, the solid wood plank is passed along a router equipped with a beading bit. I would recommend using a router table to make this cut.

Here is a cross-section of the board after the bead has been routed. This is where our canvas will wrap around the edge. A bit of a gap was cut by the tool between the inner edge of the bead and the rest of the board. This will give us space to trim off the remainder with a table saw.

The bead needs to sit proud of the rest of the stretcher, holding the canvas above it. A vertical pass on the table saw will remove the flat shelf left over and the stretcher will be complete.

The complete profile closely mirrors that of many commercially-available stretchers and takes far less time to make than the older method I was using.

Picture Framing

Earlier this month, I needed to have a picture ready for a show, on short notice. The tight time frame mean that I could not order a frame and have it ready by the deadline. I chose to build the frame on my own, for the first time.

I chose a simple design, that could be made from basic wood stock. The wood I chose to use was poplar. For a decorative flourish, I rounded over and recessed each corner of the frame. This was done using a cover bit on a router table. A recess was also needed for the underside of the frame, in order to hold the picture. This I rough cut first on the table saw, by taking multiple passes, until a quarter inch slot had been cut. This was finished of on the router table so that it was uniform. The work can clearly be seen in this picture of the side profile:

The next step was to cut all four pieces to size, and miter the corners so that the frame could fit together. Getting good miters is a tricky operation. All four corners need to be exactly 45 degrees, and all equal sides must be the same length. Any errors multiply on all four sides.

I did the miter cuts on a table saw, using a miter gauge. The angles were set accurately, using a drafting triangle. Each side of all four pieces were cut in sequential order. To ensure that each side was the same length, I clamped a stop block to the miter gauge. Each piece was held against the block so that they were run through the saw at a fixed distance from the blade.

The finished pieces were carefully glued together using my framing clamp. The frame was left to cure overnight.

I picked out a wood stain that I thought was complementary to the picture. The stain I chose was semi-transparent, so that some of the wood texture and color would show through. I applied several coats and wiped it smooth.

Overall I'm pleased with the results, and I consider making more frames in the future.