I’ve had this frame sitting around for a while, just waiting for a perfect use to present itself. It was actually a mirror that I picked up at a yard sale.

It seemed like a simple idea, remove the mirror and insert the canvas. Should be a snap, right? The first thing I discovered is that they used a heavier wire prong to secure the mirror than most frames have and as I was struggling to bend them out of the way or remove them Recliner Man came to investigate.  One thing I can count on with Recliner Man is that if he sees me using tools he will insinuate himself into the project and do his best to show me how it should be done. There are time I can use this to my advantage like tricking him into completing a project when nagging has failed me. This time, however, I was quite happy working away at the task and didn’t want his help… yet.

As he busied himself removing the prongs and mirror I turned my attention to the question of how we were going to secure the canvas in the frame. This frame wasn’t meant for a framed canvas so it was going to take a bit of creativity. He poo-pooed my idea to hold it in place with wire and decided that we needed to nail it in place. That actually sounded like a better idea but I hadn’t wanted to try and get the small nails pounded through the thin edge of wood without splitting it. Recliner Man appointed me to the position of “frame holder” and started to hammer in a nail. The first nail bent over so he went to the workshop and came back with a drill and his smallest drill bit. The drill bit was too large so he went back to hammering with more attention given to holding the nail with a pair of pliers. The second nail bent.  I abandoned my frame holding position long enough to hand him a slightly larger nail. It bent. Suddenly the project was moved out to the driveway and the air compressor and nail gun were put into service. These nails were a bit longer but as long as they went in perfectly straight we were kinda, almost, sure that they wouldn’t poke out through the face of the canvas. All systems were go and the trigger was pulled. Remember how I mentioned that we needed to nail through a thin edge of wood on the frame? Well, the nail gun sat too high and the nail missed the wood, sailing right over the top of it. Sorry about the flat tire, Neighbor! Not really. It did sail over the frame but it lodged nicely into the canvas’ frame, which is quite a bit thicker.

While all the big tools were being pulled out I had been advocating a plan to re-bend some little metal hangers and turn them into L-brackets that could be nailed into the frame on one end and the canvas on the other. Suddenly Recliner Man was giving me my walking papers and telling me to have fun with my own plans. He was ready to move onto a different project.

I wasn’t worried because I’d spent quite a bit of time thinking through the L-bracket plan, at least 10 minutes. And then it all fell apart. Just as I was about to strike the nail I noticed something, the nail was longer than the wood was thick. Uh-oh, a few more seconds and I would have ruined everything by pounding a nail through the face of the frame. What was I going to do now? What would Red Green do? It might have been smart to simply use a shorter nail but I didn’t have any so I did the next best thing, I turned to The Handy Man’s Secret Weapon.

I duct taped the sucker! Hopefully it will hold long enough for me to go buy some shorter nails.