Gatorboard to unwarp stretcher bars?

[framinzfun]

A big painting came in (40x50). that is warped. The wood itself isn't bent, just the usual cockeye from the corners. It looks like a fairly cheapo stretch job on it, the bars are real stretcher bars that have staples in the corners to hold them together. Anyway, the customer wants me to try to flatten it out. It is in a metal frame, sort of like a Nielsen 117, but a little deeper. I doesn't take much pressure to get the thing flat, and I recommended that the painting be restretched and put in a more substantial frame. No dice. He doesn't want to spend anything on this thing, I even recommended just a new wood frame to try to hold it flat.... so my last thought (and really not my proudest moment) was the possibility of putting a piece of 3/16 gatorboard behind the thing and basically nailing it to the stretcher bars. I know, I know, this is not a great idea.... but it fits into my customers price range, and I am out of ideas. I may try to loosen the corners of the stretcher frame and see it I can't make them hold a little tighter. But I don't think that will help. At this point, I'm just curious if the gator would do the trick. I searched other options to flatten these things, and the best idea is to restretch it.... but that is out. Ugh. I hate cheap customers.

[Patrick Leeland]

Gator board is bad, stop it with this stuff already. We know it has fermaldahyde in it. Bad bad!!Try something better for us and the art, if this is your idea why not try to use Coroplast???

PL

[Richard Darling]

What about attaching zbar to the top and bottom. That would make it hang flat against the wall.

[Framerguy]

A big painting came in (40x50). that is warped. The wood itself isn't bent, just the usual cockeye from the corners. It looks like a fairly cheapo stretch job on it, the bars are real stretcher bars that have staples in the corners to hold them together. Anyway, the customer wants me to try to flatten it out. It is in a metal frame, sort of like a Nielsen 117, but a little deeper. I doesn't take much pressure to get the thing flat, and I recommended that the painting be restretched and put in a more substantial frame. No dice. He doesn't want to spend anything on this thing, I even recommended just a new wood frame to try to hold it flat.... so my last thought (and really not my proudest moment) was the possibility of putting a piece of 3/16 gatorboard behind the thing and basically nailing it to the stretcher bars. I know, I know, this is not a great idea.... but it fits into my customers price range, and I am out of ideas. I may try to loosen the corners of the stretcher frame and see it I can't make them hold a little tighter. But I don't think that will help. At this point, I'm just curious if the gator would do the trick. I searched other options to flatten these things, and the best idea is to restretch it.... but that is out. Ugh. I hate cheap customers.

The more time you spend trying to save this skinflint a buck or two, the more money YOU are losing in your business wasting time on this this tightwad, in my opinion!! Everything you said about this canvas screams CHEAP including the owner!!!

If it is indeed on real stretcher bars you could try to insert some keys in the slots in the corners and tighten the canvas. If there are staples holding them together, (which probably caused the problem to begin with), remove them before driving in the stretcher keys.

Heck I'll bet that, with the time it takes to pull that canvas tight and add a piece of Gator board and your labor and cost for the board (Gator isn't cheap), you could restretch the canvas or pull a few staples and restretch enough to take the warp out and be done with it! Otherwise I would tactfully tell the guy I couldn't resolve his problem for him within the budget that he has set.

[Sarah Winchester]

I've quit trying to satisfy cheap customers. Stopped it before November and it has helped alot!! No more time wasted trying to figure out what to do. I've told a few that I can't do a quality job for their price, told them to go to a big box, or another high priced frameshop. (She called once and said she told them to come back to me and pay the price!). Several have returned with a higher budget and it made the holiday season alot easier.

[wpfay]

I wouldn't even put the effort into restretching unless the guy springs for some good heavy duty stretchers. Anything short of that is just compounding your problems and adding labor with no return. Tell them that if they want cheap, they can find it elsewhere.

( I can hear it now "But, can't you just...")

Leave it to Tom to be tactful:faintthud:

[Jim Miller]

Your customer doesn't hear you. He has carrots in his ears. Sometimes it's better to let them walk than to help them buy something you know is wrong for the purpose.

Coroplast has corner-to-corner flexibility and will not counteract a warp. Gatorboard's demons are well known, but it really is stiff, and might serve your customer's immediate purpose of making the assembly flat. However, I probably would not offer that option because of the long term hazard of chemical instability, and because it might not be a permanent solution to the warp. If the paint falls off the canvas in 5 years, or if the assembly warps again in two years, he might remember your address.

I think Richard Darling has the best idea for this situation. Sell the customer an installed set of Z-Bars top & bottom. Actually, you could use one short piece (6" or so) of Z-Bar in each corner of the frame and attach the mating wall pieces with screw anchors - no need to locate studs in the wall if weight is not an issue.

In case you're not familiar with top/bottom Z-Bar installations, there are two ways to do it:

1. Install top & bottom Z-Bars the same way, with wall channels open at the top, and drop the frame into the channels.

2. Install the bottom Z-Bar upside down, and slide the frame in from one side. This is much easier if the Z-Bar lengths are short, and if one side's pieces are offset horizontally by about 1/2". That allows you to engage one side first, and then slide the second side in, which is easier than trying to engage both sides at the same time. I hope that makes sense.

[wpfay]

Another $.02...
Before going to those lengths (Z-bar) I would test to see how the canvas is going to react to having the stretcher flattened. I would wager that the canvas puckers on opposite corners.
Then you get into restretching whether you want to or not, and if it doesn't solve the problem then what was the cheap client's problem is now yours.