| As a Custom Picture Framer I would dread seeing | | | | of fine art giclees might benefit from this design |
| a customer walk through the door with an | | | | so I set out to improve on the design and it’s |
| unstretched canvas. My mind would race with | | | | look. |
| fantasy thoughts of animated canvas pliers nipping | | | | The evolution of this design was lengthy and |
| at my fingers. I purposely avoided stretching | | | | financially draining, but it was also very gratifying. |
| canvas never realizing how much money I was | | | | Instead of looking like a torture device, it now |
| turning away at the door. It was far too time | | | | looks like a ride from an amusement park. What |
| consuming to stretch canvas using a pair of | | | | once was operated by 2 hamsters and a banana |
| canvas pliers. Now I offer this service while they | | | | on a string has evolved into a fully pneumatic |
| wait. | | | | bench mounted thing of beauty. It is able to |
| Several months ago I decided that there had to | | | | produce gallery wraps and regular stretches as |
| be a better way of stretching canvas, I wanted | | | | fast as you can feed canvas into the clamp and |
| to create a device that would apply even tension | | | | squeeze the trigger of a staple gun. I can stretch |
| along the full length of the stretcher bar at one | | | | an 11" X 14" canvas in just over a minute; I can |
| time. Canvas pliers have been around for a long | | | | stretch a 40" X 40" canvas in less than 3 minutes. |
| time, they are not fast but they can apply | | | | It only requires 1.5" of excess canvas past the |
| tremendous stretching force on a canvas one bite | | | | image to get a tight stretch and all of the stapling |
| at a time. A pair of pliers, in its most basic form is | | | | is done from the front. I designed this stretcher |
| a fulcrum. The mechanical advantage is | | | | to be mounted on the side of a typical |
| determined by the amount of force applied by | | | | workbench so the operator could slide and rotate |
| the operator. It stands to reason that if I am able | | | | the artwork face-up. |
| to hold the canvas in-place along the entire length | | | | There are several canvas stretching machines on |
| then I should be able to apply a force to the base | | | | the market, some manual and some are |
| of the stretcher bar to get a tight uniform | | | | pneumatic. I am not suggesting that any of them |
| stretch. | | | | are inferior or better than the other I am |
| I made a 3’ long wooden clamp to secure the | | | | suggesting that you explore your options. Artists, |
| canvas I then forced the stretcher bar over a | | | | printers and custom picture framers are missing |
| fixed fulcrum. It worked! It worked very well, not | | | | out on the "cash cow" by sending their customers |
| much to look at and it resembled a medieval | | | | away. It is far too easy to stretch a canvas with |
| torture device but it worked. I then decided that | | | | the proper tools, why send a customer away to |
| most custom picture framers, artists and printers | | | | be stretched by a competitor. |