Quick Mate Canvas Stretcher

[Jonny2morsos]

Any one use one of these? I was going to take a look at Springfair but Tabmaster who make/sell them were not there.

This last week I have had five Hong Kong oils in, all 24" x 20" and all going to be stretched on bars then framed. I was offered the standard sized one at a special offer price of £200 some tome ago and thought it would not take long to get that back in time saved.

Like to know what anyone's thoughts are.

[robbiez]

We brought one many years ago. Used it 3 times and since then it has gradually gathered dust and never seen the light of day again.

It certainly does what it is supposed to do and makes stretching an oil a simple task for anyone. However if you have stretched by hand a few times you will soon get the knack. I could probably stretch 2-3 oils by hand in the time it would take to do one on the Quick Mate.

If you do find yourself doing a lot of stretching I would certainly recommend decent pliers such as :
http://www.lionpic.co.uk/product/Pro-St ... ,9599.aspx
They save a lot of time and reduce the strain on your wrist.

[daviddeer]

My main business is stretched canvas prints. I can tell you that hand stretching is quicker and easier. Not to decry the quality of the product but after many hours of alignment, slippage and a lot of sweat I placed it in the skip. The item is more suited to stretching blank artists canvas. If you get some quality stretching pliers and a nice electric stapler (I use a Bosch cordless one they cost £45 link ) you can stretch a piece in around 10 minutes.
The cheap Chinese prints have been discussed at length on this forum and are not at all forgiving. It is a bit like framing flooring Lino. The canvas has no stretch and is liable to sag on the stretcher bars over time. Even knocking the wedges out does not help. Best advice is to mount onto board and give the customer a 30 day warranty. Remind them of the old adage, buy it cheap, buy it twice! (My advice - don't buy it at all).

[stcstc]

i agree

i had a supplier give me a loan of one of them for a week or so, and it drove me nuts, i can stretch by hand quicker and more accurately than i could with one of those

the other thing i found was the tension i wanted was always between two of the notches, ie one was to slack and one was to tight if that makes sense

[Jonny2morsos]

I don't have a problem stretching by hand but just wondered if these devices were really a time saver.

Think I will keep my money and carry on as I was.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Nigel Nobody]

That particular machine does take a bit of time, but if it's working properly it should save time when stretching multiples of the same size.

There are other machines like the 'Tensador' that are much more time efficient and only take a couple of minutes, but cost quite a bit. they would be great for anyone who stretches many canvases a day. I certainly don't do enough stretching to warrant buying one.

[Dermot]

A nice piece of kit made in Ireland http://www.canvasmaster.net/video.html

http://www.canvasmaster.net/

[Nigel Nobody]

That does look very impressive! I haven't seen one as efficient as that before.
I imagine it would be many thousands of money!

[stcstc]

i looked at them

the manual one is about 1500 if i rememeber right, which isnt too bad