I have been using a shaky old table top easel. As if that wasn't bad enough it wasn't too stable and prone to tip over if you weren't careful. I eventually clamped it to the old shop table I was using. In place of a Mahl stick I would stand a can of spray paint in front of the canvas and rest my arm on that. I figured what was the point of getting a Mahl stick of the easel couldn't support it. I looked at easels online and didn't like what I saw for the money. I decided to build my own. It had to be collapsible, mobile, fit through a standard 28 inch interior doorway, fully adjustable and provide support the full way across the top canvass holder. Most easels just give you a short cross bar and it provides little support on the outer upper corners. I also wanted some kind of Mahl capability and it had to be built to last and solid as a rock. This is what I came up with. 2-5/16" carriage bolts clamp the lower support. For the top, I countersunk a tee nut also 5/16" and made a plug out of teak (also gotten for free) to prevent marring the face of the center support. This applies pressure to a double French cleat similar to what is used to hang wall cabinets. The supports that hold the assembly upright are 1/4" carriage bolts. It will hold a canvass about 65 inches tall. I figure If I have to, I could always make swing out outriggers for more stability if the need arises. My concern was that I wanted it to hold smaller canvases securely.
The best part is this was all made with "rescued" and recycled mahogany and sapelle wood that was all free. If you look close at the feet, you can see it was a mahogany stair tread rejected by the millwork company. The majority of the rest of it was recycled mahogany flooring I got from a friend renovating his house. I even had the wheels from a showroom renovation where I worked a couple of years ago. Total cost was about $35.00 for hardware and glue.
This wood is getting harder and harder to come by and more expensive. It takes such a long time to grow one of these trees it would be a crime to let it go to waste. Just a little wood factoid, it takes about 300 years to grow an ebony tree 1 foot in diameter. Only God can make a tree but it takes the ignorance of man to chop it up and put it in a dumpster.
