Cleaning screens?

[islandtees]

We have a septic and would like to go that route but we worry about ink in the septic.

septic.. if you're not hooked up to city sewer then the last thing you want in that hole is printing chemicals.

You have septic and doing it this way?

[ebscreen]

We use the plastic drywall/putty knives, and do round the corners. I'd bet the metal ones work better
and are probably easier to clean but I don't know how we wouldn't rip screens with them around here.
Drop one and you're done son.

I'm largely interested in reducing chemical and water usage as well as exposure to the screen dude.
Greg's video the other day was eye opening in that regard, more akin to how I use to clean flatstock
screens rather than textile.

Do automatic screen reclaim machines actually work? It seems like that would be the area to invest in...

[Gilligan]

We started seeing weird worm like lines in our mesh once coated.  Under a loop you could see slight abrasions in the area.

After much discussion and pondering we came to the conclusion it was our plastic ink scoops (the good ones) that was causing this as the corners were scoring the mesh when we carded off ink.

We no only use rounded plastic spatulas and Business cards to card off ink

[Maxie]

Gilligan, thanks, I was wondering what was causing those worm like lines on the screens.
We use plastic spatulas, now I have the answer.

[mooseman]

even with the metal knife you should round the corners and break the edges of the blade.
We hit them with a disc sander to bust down the corners then hand sand them with 220 grit wet dry silicon sandpaper, the automotive (black) kind.
Also if you are using  a scrub pad to spread around your reclaim check it for dried and hardened reclaim gook. That crap will cut a screen faster than a putty knife!!!!!
mooseman