Lever Drag
Lever Drag
The Fulcrum and Lever-cavemen Used It...i've Abused It!
The fulcrum and the lever, first thought to have been used by Cavemen to rotate the stone tires on their "bone-buggy", is as old as our knuckle dragging friend here. In an age of techno-wizardry (not a really a word...yet!) I have decided to use a prehistoric tool to solve a modern problem.
As a Custom Picture Framer I would dread seeing a customer walk through the door with an unstretched canvas. My mind would race with fantasy thoughts of animated canvas pliers nipping at my fingers while a python-like hose slowly coiled around my leg distracting me long enough for the metal-jawed head to deliver it's painful bite. Whoa! Deep breathes...[go to your happy place].
I set out several months ago to solve this problem, after a little therapy, and a pile of contraptions I settled on what I am calling "The Canvas Stretching Machine". Catchy name. It is, for lack of better words, a "fulcrum". The operator is the lever. The mechanical advantage is more than adequate to create an absolutely phenomenal stretch in less than 3 minutes. I am certain that there are some weathered war birds in the "Canvas Stretching Hall of Fame" that will boast they can match or better that time. Good luck! I recently produced 10 (ten) 11 X 14 giclees in exactly 50 minutes, that includes cutting, joining, aligning, stretching, stapling, folding and admiring.
Certainly, there are a number of machines on the market that can perform well, but I have never seen a video that shows the entire process. You never see a video clip that shows how the image was aligned or making the folds. If you are only going to count the time it takes to stretch and staple all 4 sides, then I can do an 8 X 10 in about 30-40 seconds. I am working on making a short video that will show the entire process. I am a little camera shy and I have approached a few actors to portray me in the video. Tom Cruise was going to do it in the interest of science, until I told him he would have to gain 50 pounds. Rachael Hunter was going to do it, not to portray me, but she insisted on wearing clothes. Artists!
I designed the machine to handle gallery wraps; the down side is that it requires 3-3.5" past the image. This is unacceptable for some printers who are trying to minimize the use of canvas. But for those printers that are wasteful or for artists and framers it is an acceptable trade-off. The machine is also able to do a regular stretch; it only requires 1.5" past the edge of the stretcher bar. For those of you that are going to do regular stretching and an occasional gallery wrap, this machine is perfectly suited for you.
I have created a simple website to illustrate the machine and you can view it at www.canvas-stretching-machine.com.
I am anxious to see what other farmers, I meant framers [damn hands], have to say.
The End
Dave Weaver
About the Author
Other articles may be found at http://www.canvas-stretching-machine http://www.scuttle-but.com
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