"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
I was told by a fellow Printer today that they were unable to get Locking Strips that there was a shortage. They were telling me that they use two strips stacked on top of each to get them to hold the Mesh in the frame. I have never heard that.
After buying 40 or so used frames off Digitsmith all without strips I was in the same boat. It would have cost the same amount or more than I paid for each frame to put actually locking strips in. Plastic banding does work, and that's what I went with after measuring the strips I do have.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006LS93U8/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i007/16" x 0.030" are the dimensions of the strapping.I put one layer in an M3 with 110 and stretched it up to 36 newtons, waited a while, then retorqued it, holding strong. I'll probably double stack them though if they slide in nicely for the all the frames even though it's overkill for S-mesh.At 1 cent per foot I think I can handle stacking it and having enough strips to last 12 lifetimes!
.03" is too thin for me, I'm not doubling up but to each their own, whatever works for ya's. The 7/16 width is spot on. .04" is the right thickness for the universal locking strips, but they come thinner and thicker for different mesh counts. All the mesh that us textile guys use work with the .04" thick strips.
Quote from: alan802 on August 01, 2012, 10:59:57 AM.03" is too thin for me, I'm not doubling up but to each their own, whatever works for ya's. The 7/16 width is spot on. .04" is the right thickness for the universal locking strips, but they come thinner and thicker for different mesh counts. All the mesh that us textile guys use work with the .04" thick strips.Yeah .030 is much thinner than the thick white plastic strips (.050 ish if I remember correctly), but almost dead on with the black newman strips (if the black strips that some of the frames I have are actually newman strips). I searched high and low for a thicker strip in 7/16" and couldn't find anything.So far a single strip is holding more tension than I'll need day-to-day so I'm cool with the method. I'll try doubling down with a frame and report back!