DIY fixed/magnetic easel up to 16x20?

blacksquare said:

Hello,

I use some old simple 2-blade easel (no known brand) and it is really pain to use . It can't be used without a metal "L" profile and tape to get a 90 degree angle (I'm very picky about precise edges).
Here in Central Europe, it is not possible to get, for example, a better quality Saunders, as I can see on American ebay.
RRB frames, which can be obtained from the UK, come into consideration, but the price for the 16x20 format is not quite feasible.

I wanted to go the route of fixed frames in several sizes, laser cut from metal sheets, 3 mm thick. But a friend pointed out to me that even after spraying with black matte paint, reflections can appear at the edges of the photo.
And if I use a thinner sheet, it will be worse to handle and I don't know if it would hold enough 16x20 fiber paper.

Then I thought of some form of magnetic strips on a larger metal sheet, but I don't know how convenient it is to use.
Does anyone have experience with something like this?

Thank you.
Jan

Click to expand...

snusmumriken said:

I faced the same problem a decade or so ago. I tried both a magnetic frame and separate magnetic strips on a metal base, but they were much too fiddly to position. In the end I bought a 2-blade 16x20 RRB easel on easelBay.

In place of the tape on your existing easel, have you tried a large magnet? I keep one (from an old loudspeaker) on the RRB easel, to hold the blades together. I glued some paper to the underside so that the magnet will slide off easily and won't mark the black paint. It is then quick and easy to re-position the blades for that 90 degree angle.

Click to expand...