Table Top Easel

  Recently I have been painting and drawing as well as working in my shop.  I began taking classes in drawing to help express (explain) my own designs.  After years of making and carving things from patterns only I needed to branch out.  What I discovered is that I like painting, for itself, not just a means to an end. 

  On Monday I finally got around to making a fairly large table top easel.  I made this easel large so that I can put it on my desk and paint while standing up as well as seated.  

  The first step was wood preparation,  

2 x 4 approximately 

 I began with pallet wood again. This is a basic project that suited soft wood.

Once the wood was re-sawn and planed it was fine for this job.

  The frame is a natural for pocket holes.  At 5/8 inch thick the wood is sturdy enough but light and required 1 inch Kreg screws and glue to hold it together.  

 

Gluing the cross braces onto the back legs brought out my lead weights.  I use these weights when a clamp will not reach.

You can see here that I have clamped the easel frame to my bench during assembly. Usually I work alone in my shop and try to mobilize things as much as possible while I work.

Using things like Pocket Holes is also much, much easier if you use the clamps that were designed by KREG .  Once the easel was screwed and glued together I knocked the edges off with sand paper and smoothed the wood to 120 grit.  The wood is left raw, this is not a project that needs paint or varnish in my opinion. If I made one for some else I would go the extra stage.

work surface is 23 by 24 inches.

  The completed easel has reclaimed hinges and reclaimed light chain in the construction too. The only thing that I had to buy was the piece of white foam core. I buy foam core 6 sheets at a time and use it to make patterns and for Grand kids craft projects.  To use the easel I will tape the art paper to the foam core, and when it  gets ruined I'll replace it with thin plywood. If I have some laying around.

  

fall colours are here. !