Material Needed
1) As much lumber as is needed for, legs, crossbars, cross braces and bottom of leg peices. This will depend on how big you want your A-frame to be.
2) 2 hinges to attach the legs together.
3) Enough nails or screws to attach the crossbars and braces together.
4) 2 peices of cardboard, for the mission statement and the guidelines. Or you can make up a flier to pass out.
5) Wheels in you want to roll the easel around
Tools needed
1) A drill 2) A hammer 3) A saw 4) A staplegun with 3/16th in. staples 5) A bucket to carry everything in 6) A tape measure 7) Duct tape 8) adjustable wrench for wheels 9) Magic Marker to write guideline and mission statement with.
How to set up your easel for the public to draw on
One of the most important parts of setting up the easel is to know the size of the art peace you are going to be doing. The dimension make a difference in the size of the wood you are going to have to cut. The legs are going to be at least a foot taller than the art peace. This gives you room so that the bottom of the art peace won't be on the ground. The crossbars will be the length of the cloth you are going to draw on. If you have to screw the peices together make sure the screws don't stick out the backside because they bite if you get to near them. So break off or bend over any screw points that may be sticking out of the wood.
After you have the peices cut to the right size seperate the legs from the cross bars. Take out your hinges, screws and drill and find a comfortable place to start assembling. Remember your going to need a good size spot to do this and perferably as flat as you can find. Lay out the thicker peices of wood as the legs. Butt one end of the wood against the other and procede to join the two legs together with the hinge and screws. Before you put all the screws in bring one leg up and over to make sure that the legs are aligned. After you have them aligned put the rest of the screws into the hinges. After your done fold the legs together, checking to make sure they are aligned and put them off to the side. Then do the other legs. On the legs I want to recomend that you use a 2X4 for the bottom. This makes it easier to put in a nail for the bottom cross board where you will mount the wheels.
The cross bars will be the length of the easel. However long the cloth is how long the crossbars are. Take the legs and lay them apart as far as the crossbars are. Opening them up makes it easier. But sometimes you might not have the space. Then you can fold up the legs and do one side at a time. Place the crossbars at the height of the cloth you are using. Try to leave some space at the top so that you can put the guidelines up. Put one nail or screw in each top crossbar. Then go and set the bottom crossbar making sure that the A-frame is in square. Nail or screw the bottom with at least 2 nail or screws in each side. Then go to the top and put in the last nails or screws making sure the easel is square. Then do the back side the same way. If you are doing art on both sides of the easel then make sure that you have the size of the cloth right so the crossbars are in the right spots. It works best to have the same size cloth on both side.
The back corner cross brace is a very important part because they give you the stability you will need. The back corner cross braces should be at least 18 in. but not longer than 3 ft.. Most of the time its whatever peices you have left that you will use. Making sure the easel is square before fasten it down otherwise you'll get and uneven easel. In these I beleive screws to be better than nails, but if you use nails make sure you bend over the pointy head of the nail on the back side of the wood. This keeps the nail from wanting to pull out when pressure is applied and makes it safer. A pointy nail or screw will eventually draw blood!
After you have the cross braces on stand up you easel and admire what a good job you have done. If you are going to have wheels on the easel its much better to put them on when the easel is laying down and the back cross braces are not yet set. Here is a picture of an end of a finished easel.
Notice how the wheel are attached. I like to use old shopping cart wheel because they are easy to find and plus they last forever. One thing about them though is that the shaft that the nut goes on is only a inch and a half long so that make using a two by four out, a peice of 1x6 or a 1x4 works best. Don't make it too long or a person drawing on the top of the easel will have to bend over too far. Keep it about 3 to 3 and a half feet. To connext the wheels to the easel you can either use hinges or like in the picture nail or screw it on.
Your easel is where your collective art is going to be done so take special care in setting it up. It take a little longer the first time but after your have set it up a couple of times you can have it up and ready to draw on in less that 30 min..