Roller frame mesh bulk, shurloc panel or Newman panel?

[sweetts]

So all the roller frame guys and gals do you use bulk mesh, Newman panels or shurloc panels? What do you base your choice on? Cost, longevity, ease of use, wear, performance, Max tension?  Have you tried all three?

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[ericheartsu]

i use bulk mesh, as it's pretty easy!

[sweetts]

I just picked up some panels to try Dennis (DK) is a big fan of them


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[Denis Kolar]

I just picked up some panels to try Dennis (DK) is a big fan of them


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I like them. I use Shurloc, but some people swear by Newman brand panels. I guess that you can get better tension with them.
Unless I have issues with Shurloc, I'm nor switching

[Denis Kolar]

Stop by when you have a chance to take a look

[sweetts]

I picked up some Newman's so I LLC let you know. Next time I am out west I will

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[ScreenFoo]

I do bulk mesh too.  I've tried a couple of shur-loc panels, never tried newman. 

They really weren't any different than bulk, but for how fast I can stretch bolt mesh, twenty bucks is way too much for a panel.  It may be quite a different cost breakdown if you're buying by the yard.
I think my 305/34 costs just under five bucks a screen in mesh, that's the most expensive count I have a bolt of... 

[Socalfmf]

Shur-loc is the way to go in MY shop...we have a table and M3's....all of our screens are at the same newtons for each mesh count...just one less thing to minimize....

Plus we can do a screen in about 2 min....it is more about the cost of printing vs. the cost of mesh....we need great screens vs good screens....

just the way we do it.

sam

[ScreenFoo]

Was just about to edit my post but Sam had already posted and brings up a great point, if no one ever paid you to spend weeks stretching mesh from a bolt, or you don't pick up on technique quickly, you may never get a return on bolt mesh.  I slip, stretch, and stage tension a screen in about fifteen minutes--not to say I wouldn't like an L2 to forego the stage tensioning part, but at fifteen bucks a screen or so extra for panels, that's sixty bucks an hour without a roller table.

Don't expect to do it fast until you've done more than a few dozen screens, just work on doing it right.

[Denis Kolar]

Was just about to edit my post but Sam had already posted and brings up a great point, if no one ever paid you to spend weeks stretching mesh from a bolt, or you don't pick up on technique quickly, you may never get a return on bolt mesh.  I slip, stretch, and stage tension a screen in about fifteen minutes--not to say I wouldn't like an L2 to forego the stage tensioning part, but at fifteen bucks a screen or so extra for panels, that's sixty bucks an hour without a roller table.

Don't expect to do it fast until you've done more than a few dozen screens, just work on doing it right.

That is a reason I picked up the panels. I do not want to mess with the bolt mesh, and each panel comes the same and there is no guesswork.
I'm done stretching screen in 6-7 minutes, and with having only 24 Newman frames, I decided to go all panels.

[sweetts]

Another cost is the locking strips 85 bucks a roll, crazy

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[abchung]

I use bulk mesh because I live outside the USA.

I have problems with alignment clips when I use high mesh count. The alignment clip can cut the mesh while putting it into the grooves, or when I am doing corner softening.

[prozyan]

I use all shur-loc and have for the past 6 or 7 years.

[ZooCity]

You'll get a different answer from everyone and everyone is right when you think about it.  I've always said you can pay yourself and/or your employees to load your mesh or you can pay shurloc to do it...choice is yours. 

If you have the time, start with bolt and learn it.  Make a system you can train someone else to learn on and do it as well. 

No time to learn?  Employees not going for this?  Don't want to learn this junk, just want to print at higher tension?   Go with panels. 

The only thing you give up with panels is control and then some extra cash out of your budget.   Stretching a shur-loc on a roller master is deeeluxe, very easy to do and a low rate of failure.

Stretching bolt mesh is easy too and, personally, I enjoy doing it.

abchung - sand and polish your alignment clips. insert with care, allowing them to expand slowly, and never slide them in the channel

[ScreenFoo]

abchung - sand and polish your alignment clips. insert with care, allowing them to expand slowly, and never slide them in the channel

Remove with care too.   

Last time I nicked mesh it was taking a clip out stretching some 390... ouch.

And remember, you only need to buy locking strips when you screw them up.