P&L ART. DIY Canvas Stretcher Bars (Customized Size 1)

Let me start off by saying that I’m a pretty competent craftsman/handyman, that being said, OH MY GOD THIS WAS THE HARDEST PROJECT IVE EVER DONE! I’m writing this at 2 am, broken and defeated, and missing a good amount of arm, head, and face hair. When you get the kit all the pieces are correct and the instructions are simple to follow, lay out the canvas, lay down the pieces, pull off paper to expose the worlds strongest adhesive strips, slap it together and you’re done. Expect if you buy a 48 inch or frame size where you can’t each both ends to be able to flip them together at the same time. One side goes on, the other side pops open, and on and on. Try a different angle same problem, until eventually you have a full breakdown questioning your purpose for existing and wondering why the universe is testing you with this sisyphean project as you sit in tears huddled on your floor with a piece of frame stuck firmly to your arm connecting to your head from where you slipped on your canvas landing on the glue that had to have been developed by a mad scientist because no glue ever needs to be that strong. Eventually you rip it off the piece with a good chunk of hair and even more pride, grab yourself the bottle of whisky and decide to warn others of this frame. Theoretically it should work, but make sure your canvas is small enough for you to be able to mount it yourself or have a buddy help you, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT TRY THIS ALONE! I’ll probably buy it again, the quality is excellent. Good luck

I love this canvas stretcher kit. It is so easy to use and installs perfectly every time. I use it for my paint by numbers painting and the installation is perfect every single time. I iron my canvas before painting to remove wrinkles. My painting sizes are 16 x 20 inches and the canvas border is not sufficient to properly fit the 16x20 frame. I contacted the vendor for a custom frame 14x18 and it is the perfect fit for my artwork. Highly recommend this product and the vendor is awesome!

My business is mainly fine-art canvases that I sell as gallery wraps. For years I have been using another brand of bars that, for small sizes, are only 3/8” thick and tend to warp. I have been evaluating these to replace the others, though they are more costly, because bars are more massive and never to warp. However there are flaws in these too. First, the grooves that accept the square “staples” are simply too shallow, so that when the “staples” that connect the corners stretch outward they puncture the canvas on the sides. That is totally unworkable. So, I throw away those “staples” and simply staple the corners together (two staples at first and another two over the canvas when it is wrapped back). This works nicely, even better than the other brand. I love it. The second problem is there is poor qualilty control of the length of these bars. I have seen as much as 3/16” (almost 1/4”) errors in length. Maybe the manufatgurer thinks this is not a problem because they expect painters to assemble blank canvases and then paint on them. But, I go to great pains to print images that come out to exact sizes in inches at the fold lines, beyond which a reflection of the edge of the image is printed for the wrapped sides. If that line does not fall exactly on the edge of a bar, either it shows on the face or on the side. Not good. So, with these bars that I love, I must first select the bars, measure them and then crop my images precisely to fit those somewhat off dimensions. Then extend the images for wrapping and finally print an image to fit the particular bars I am using. Whether I can reprint an image depends on how lucky I am that the next set of bars will match. Finally, figure on stapling your canvas on the back. The adhesive on the back is wonderful for making tghe canvas lie flat, but without staples will not hold the canvas down over time. With staples, it’s very nice.Bottom line, (1) forget the included hardware for connecting the corners and simply staple the corners together, and (2) be prepared to deal with imprecise lengths (if you are a printer), and (3) staple the back sides. Do that you you will get beautiful, robust canvas wraps.

I had ordered a paint by number kit for my daughter. Didn't realize "high quality" meant it was an unframed canvas. So the search was on for stretcher bars. With the stores closed because of the virus I went to Amazon. It took a while to find one that would work because the picture was a tad smaller than 16 X 20. Got helpful advice from this seller. Shipping was fast. On assembly I ran into a problem. Wouldn't fit if I followed the instructions, because of the glue strips. I tried a variety of ways. Had to walk away from it because I got frustrated. Then I tried reversing how the directions showed to place glue strips. It worked! I measured multiple times to get it positioned just right then put it together. The canvas reached the sides, but didn't wrap to the back, so I put a staple every 2 inches as close to the back edge as I could. Then got a tube of black acrylic paint so the small white edge around the picture that shows - and the sides can look like it was designed that way. My daughter was thrilled and she ordered an easel set from Amazon so her daughter could do painting with her!

Tips for future buyers.It's hard to get its perfectly aligned with the rolled canvas and if you only use the staples and adhesive side provided by the frame, the canvas will become un-attached after few minutes.I had to put in extra staples to hold them down.Second problem is that if you bought the canvas exactly as the same size as the frame size recommended, you might have some whites on the edges showing.I would recommend purchasing canvas size bigger than the intended frame size so that the "not-needed" portion on the edges of the canvas can be rolled and fitted around the frame and not show white edges.

This was a fun and easy project. The outcome is wonderful. On the first one, it took me long to detach the wood stamps, but I end up using 2 pliers so the others were easier. This kit save me $86 per canvas.