PANEL frame users - check this out

[Homer]

after ZERO help from manufacturers, I finally made my own S mesh panels, I just stretched it to 30 newtons! We typically get at the high end, 20 newtons out of stock panels from nazdar. I made a jig, cut some bolt mesh I had here and BOOM....I am going to perfect my jig and adheasion system and I'm going to bang out panels....this is so damn cool, unless you use panel frames you really can't appreciate the badassness of this....game on!

[Denis Kolar]

sweet. panels are cool, you just have to test the glue, how long is gonna last

[sweetts]

Picture?


RT Screen Designs
www.rtscreendesigns.com

[Gilligan]

Word, don't be a Tony P (sarcasm)... spill the beans!

[Homer]

I made the first panel on my kitchen table after my "ah ha" moment...I put it in the frame right away and here is what I got. with the corners softened as well. came up to 30, after resting it went down to 26ish when I just looked. typically we pull 3 sides, let the frame rest for a day then pull the 4th side, so i may get back up to 28ish if I do that. I can make a panel in about 5 minutes. It' really easy, I'm a little annoyed I didn't think of this before....If anybody cares to make there own panels, I can show you the steps. I'm only talking panels for panelframes, not roller panels...

[Northland]

I'm interested.... I've a got a dozen 20x24 panelframes and six 20x28 panelframes. I've also got some S mesh...
So please. Give us the details !

[shurloc]

Very cool! Hopefully this will work out for you guys. We had zero luck with adhesives sticking to the locking strips which lead to the panels releasing almost immediately. Even with our own patented 2 part construction we couldn't get the glue to hold to the strips. Of course, Sefar's manufacturer has a patent pending on the sewing method, so that's out for manufacturing them also...

I would love to have the ability to tell people where to go to find the info for making panels for them - and maybe see if it sparks something in the boss' mind for getting this back on the front burner!

[mooseman]

hey Homer,
sounds like the adhesive is going to be the holy grail in your process.
You might check with these guys they have representation in your area
http://www.loctite.com/
mooseman

[Homer]

NOPE...no adhesive needed guys - do a double roll on all sides and there's your tension. I cut the mesh panels 2x the thickness of the locking strip, double sided tape from the dollar tree to simply hold the mesh while I roll it, then give it a double roll. think about it, it's just tightening on itself against the locking strip. my panel you see here is still in use -way WAY higher tension than stock out of the box panels. I'll go measure it if I can find it on the floor. 

If I can make it work, you guys would KILL IT....

[3Deep]

Good deal Jay, I saved my old locking strips from my busted panel mesh just thinking I might could use them one day, dollar store here I come!

Darryl

[Northland]

Homer.... are you have any luck with higher mesh counts (230, 305) ?
I don't remember how many panels I busted trying to use stock 205's... I just gave up.

FYI.... I think I sold you that tension meter a couple years ago ?
I hope it's working OK for you.

[Homer]

haha, yes you did, look familiar!? We went through around 6 boxes of 305 panels from Rex and nazdar trying to simply stretch them. I was frustrated too, and lost some serious coin. I have 3 screens with 225 S mesh at the moment , I don't have any mesh here besides 160 so i can't say anything about the higher counts. I am going to make all my panels from now on, even with standard threads. I will get a few yards of various counts and see what happens.

23x31 roller frame locking strips are perfect for these too, the length of the strip determines how soft your corners are...

[shurloc]

Homer! You are awesome... Now make a tutorial video and we can send people that are still calling us about these to it. Believe me, we would love to get into making panels for these, but we get fewer requests for them than Hix Retens... There just isn't enough market for us to even cover the cost of tooling to make them. Plus, as you said, your's work just fine... And you can see how easy it is to get them made up in small quantities.

So, send over some instructions or maybe a video tutorial and we will let everyone know that it's there! Thanks ^Ron