Artist Easel - Counterbalanced

Built this as a present for the wife…
It’s entirely built with QSRO with Watco Dark Walnut Danish Oil

I ran across these killer boards and couldnt pass them up… hunt for a project to showcase them began and this was the result.

It has 2 sliding sections, the main 60” carriage and the center mast. This can easily hold a 96” tall canvas AND raise that canvas 60” off the floor. So you need a 15 foot ceiling to work that large (we have vaulted ceilings upstairs).

Benifits of the counterbalance is being able to work the top and bottom of the canvas without changing your position or even posture. A simple push with a finger and it slides to your desired position.

The bearings are wire rope sheaves riding on clevis pins retained by e-clips. The wire rope is 3/32 lubed mil spec and retained with set screws (one is enough but have room to for a backup).

This turned out to be a great project and looks so much better in person, definately furniture grade. Its near frictionless and very smooth which makes it a joy to use.

To see a short clip of it in action...

MORE INFO:
I experimented with transtint dyes (lemon yellow & honey amber) and various top coats to get the figure to pop but had less than desirable results. I think this stuff finishes a bit different than QSWO. I even tried fuming… I didn’t get the green tint like others experience but I never fumed WO to compare. All I know is it did make the finish darker. In the end I was quite happy with just the oil and doubt anything would have been better. Nature will take care of the rest.

I started this project just using pictures of something similar. Sketched up the main sliding carriage and winged the rest. I only got in a jam a couple times but my workarounds go un-noticed and appear to be part of the design intent.