economical LARGE easel

[ac12]

I have an 11x14 easel, but nothing for larger prints.
I'm looking for a way to handle 16x20 or 20x24 paper, w/o the $$$ expense of a 4 blade easel.
Any of you large printers have suggestions?

Here are some that I found
- Metal sheet on the baseboard with magnets to hold the paper down.
- A sheet of FLAT board with 2 raised sides. Paper butt into the corner then the other 2 sides left open. Outline of 8x10, 11x14,16x20 marked on the board.

[Kodachrome25]

I have three sizes of the expensive Saunders 4 blade easels, 11x14, 16x20 and 20x24. I stopped using them because fiber based paper curls severely in my neck of the woods, pushing up the blades off the easels.

So I bought speed easels in all sizes up to 16x20 and attached sheet metal to my baseboard, painted it flat yellow. I then had 3/4" strips of clear plexiglass cut to varying lengths and used gaffers tape to attach rare earth magnets bought on eBay.

This works killer, I can use the short pieces on the speed easels for square format shots and larger ones for the baseboard for doing 20x20's and 20x24's.....

I almost can not imagine going back to regular easels this works so well, being able to actually see the edge of the paper under the plexiglass.

My take on easels in my too small for a 20x24 4-blade easel darkroom...:-)

[Martin Dake]

I was in the same boat needing a 16x20 easel without breaking the bank.

I found a fixed size borderless 16x20 easel for $30 and then made frames out of wood to fit inside the opening so as to give a nice wide border. I ended up making frames of different widths so that I have more than one border width.

[John Kasaian]

A piece of sheet steel and magnets works. Speed ezels work but I found my favorite paper at the time was too thick to fit. I bought a mint, four blade Saunders dirt cheap from a lab that was going digi.
I don't know if my current paper will fit a Speed ezel, but if I didn't have Saunders, I'd be using a piece of sheet steel and magnets

[Jerry Bodine]

If you're into making your own metal/magnets easel for a little larger than 20x24, I've done that and am willing to send pics w/ instructions. I've been using it for a long time w/o issues. Just let me know your email address to send all my info.

[pjbc]

Jerry Bodine: If you don't mind, please send the plans to me too, paulocabrita (at) netcabo.pt, or post them here! :-)

Thank you.

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Build yourself a vacuum easel!