Roughing up Plastic Canvas

[Floyd R Turbo]

Made a YouTube video of the best way to rough up Plastic Canvas.

I have done this now over a dozen times and it works awesome. Thanks to Srusso for explaining it to me.

Use the Darice brand #7 Mesh material. There are 2 different types of this product available, the normal kind and one marked "extra stiff". The normal kind roughs up quicker but tends to rip a little easier if you rough it up to much, and it gets a little flimsy. I prefer to use the Extra Stiff material, it takes a little longer to rough up, but once it's rough it still retains the shape and stiffness.

Use a saw blade with really sharp pointy teeth. Time for a Monty Python quote. "Death awaits you all, with nasty sharp pointy teeth!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mrCWALt9Qs

[kerry]

Kewl, thats the best way I have found to rough up a screen too, I am glad you made a video of it. I use a big wooded clamp to hold it down as well.

[Rumpy Pumpy]

I've used a oscillating multi-tool with a metal saw attachment to do this and it works really well.

But I wonder if the type of roughness that a saw type thing can produce is ideal?

What looks or feels rough to us is not necessarily that rough at a microscopic level.

Glass seems very smooth to the touch but houseflies can walk up a vertical pane because the hooks on their feet can attach to the microscopically small imperfections on it's surface.

I wonder if algae might attach to surfaces in a similar way?

[Floyd R Turbo]

What I started doing is pre-roughing the screen with a wire brush attachment for my drill at low speed with the screen partially clamped down. This takes the "shine" off the screen - deep into the squares also. Then I do the rough-up with the saw blade manually, the first step makes the 2nd step easier. I've been told my screens are way beyond expected for roughness.

[Floyd R Turbo]

PS I'll try to take some shots with a microscope next time I'm at the local Marine Biology dept.

[Garf]

Floyd - do you bother re-roughing a screen when it's matured, growing well ?

[Floyd R Turbo]

I don't. I did once on the older T5HO scrubber, but I didn't notice any difference. The biggest difference I noticed on that one was when I cut 6 inches off the width.

[Garf]

Thanks, my screens as smooth as a babies butt (after 13 months of cleanings) but growing fine. I hoped this would be the case. :)

[Floyd R Turbo]

yeah IMO once the algae grows and attaches to the screen, and esp when it fills in the holes, that becomes the anchoring point. Roughing up is still important for the first probably 3 months of the screen though...

[alum]

What I learn is to make rough screen is for embed microbubble on screen.
so the screen has CO2 stay on there to make atrract algae attach on it.

[Floyd R Turbo]

gathering microbubbles is not what you want. What you are seeing on a UAS is excess O2 production (waste from photosynthesis) that is not being removed from the screen

[alum]

understood.