Building Your Own Easel

I wrote a very short article about the last easel I built years ago and I thought it would be good to revisit this subject now that we have moved into the new shop and will be building another easel. All the materials I used for this easel cost less than $100.00 at Home Depot and the project took two hours start to finish. This is a great easel for T Shirt, Textile, illustration, fine art also it is easy to build and very sturdy.

Materials used:
2 - 8 ft 2 x 12 2 -
8 ft 1 x 6
2 - 2 ft by 4 ft 3/4 inch sheets of particle board with laminate coated surface
2 - 2 by 10 - 8 ft
1 - small box 16 penny nails
1- small box 2 ½ inch deck screws
8 - L brackets and attaching screws
1- electric saw
1 - speed square, level, hammer, electric screw driver, 25 ft tape measure and pencil 1- tube liquid nail adhesive.




Pictured above are all the materials I will be using to build this easel, total cost less than $100.00 at Home Depot. On the last easel I used peg board instead of this coated particle board and it worked out very well also. Using peg board gave me the ability to adjust the height of whatever I happened to be working on by inserting wooden drawls into the holes of the peg board at the desired height. The way I adjust my working height on this new easel is by using blocks under my shirt board or illustration board to raise it.

I used two sheets of particle board for my easel's working surface this time and I do have a seam but it will not bother me as most of my drawing is done on a drafting table. If you plan on using this easel for a drawing surface also you might want to buy a full 4 by 8 sheet to avoid having a seam. You can make this easel any width you want really this 4 ft wide easel fits my needs, you might prefer an 8 ft long easel or 6 ft long.




Pictured above: You need to figure out at what height you want the bottom of the easel to be, the shelf. This will differ if you are a lot taller or shorter than my 5 ft 8 inches, for me that height is 34 inches. I laid this measurement out on the 2 by 12's measuring down from what will be the top 4 ft. Then from what will be the front of the easel I measure in 4 inches at my 4 ft mark. At the top I measure from what will be the back of the easel in two inches. Scribe my lines and using a circular saw, cut the 2 by 12.




From the picture above it should make more sense now that you see where I made my cuts. The two inches at the top is there and my cut comes down to the 4 ft mark at which point I have a notch of 4 inches in from the front of the easel. You will see as this comes together this angle allows your shirt board, painting surface to lean back away from you just enough so it does not fall forward while you are working on it. Much the same as leaning the top of an adjustable portable easel back away from you would do. The 4-inch notch is where the bottom of our 3/4 inch particle board will be and will make a nice shelf for paint bottles, airbrush holder, etc.





With both 2 by 12's cut I'm ready to start putting the easel together. I measured down 34 inches from my 4 inch notch and cut about 6 inches off the bottom of the 2 by 12's to give me my desired working height of 34 inches. Since the easel will be 4 ft wide I cut the 2 by 10's which will act as cross members to 45 inches in length. Using the 16 penny nails I attach the 2 by 10's to my 2 by 12's and then use deck screws to tighten it up even further.







We made this a family affair pictured above my son makes sure dad got it level. :-)) You can see I have added the second 2 by 10, 6 inches below my 4 inch notch this will act as my spray off basin for cleaning your airbrush. The new shop paint job ( walls ) was the result of an 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter let loose with a bunch of old Createx colors. I rather like it, I painted the walls white and it needed some color anyway so I let them loose with the paint to add a little color.




Pictured above my helper applies the liquid nail adhesive before we install the particle board to the easel frame.







As you can from the picture above the L brackets are in place. One side connects to the inside of the 2 by 12 the other will attach to the back of the particle board to secure it to the easel frame.




With the particle board secure to the easel frame we attach one of the 1 by 6's to the frame ( where the 4 inch notch was made ) this will act as a shelf for our easel.







Above you can see our shelf attached to the easel I chose to use a 1 by 6 made for decking as it is treated lumber and has nice rounded edges. Below the shelf you can see we have attached another 1 by 6 to the back of the easel it sits on top of the 2 by 10 there and will be the back wall of our spray off basin.






As you can see above I attached the other 1 by 6 at an angle in the front of the easel. You can see we now have a nice little box area to act as a catch when cleaning out our airbrushes. Simply fill the boxed area in with paper towels to soak up the cleaning solution, paint and you have yourself a nice little catch basin for cleaning you airbrushes out.








There you have our nearly completed easel I couldn't wait to break it in so there is an illustration I'm working on. The easel worked just as expected GREAT.





If you add all these measurements up and thought "they don't add up correctly you where correct. I left enough room at the top of the easel to attach the exhaust system we are going to build for this easel. But that will have to wait for now as you can see I have an illustration to finish and that is what pays the bills. :-)

Hope you liked this Easy Easel "How To" and it gives you some good ideas on building your own easel. If you have priced a good quality easel at an art store the one we just built for less than $100.00 looks awfully good. If you decide to give it a go and build your own easel please send me some pictures of your finished easel project.

Thanks
Don Johnson


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