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Where to find fine mesh sheets?

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dmg

Mon Jan 24 2011, 10:00PM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

I am trying to find some large metal mesh, but still fairly fine. simular to the kind used in strainers. exept instead of that little bowl, I am looking for a fairly flexible flat sheet, about 10 foot by 20 foot.

Anyone know a place that sells something like this?

Martin King

Mon Jan 24 2011, 10:17PM

Registered Member #3040 Joined: Tue Jul 27 2010, 03:15PM
Location: South of London. UK
Posts: 237

You might have trouble getting it in one piece, the widest roll I've come across in the UK is about 4 feet. Can you join several strips together (e.g. sew them together with thin stainless wire)? Do a search on "stainless mosquito mesh" or "insect mesh" or just "mesh"

. These are UK suppliers :-

dmg

Mon Jan 24 2011, 10:36PM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

I guess sowing them will work. It will be time consuming as I will need to make it pretty even, but I can work with it.

Thank you!

Martin King

Mon Jan 24 2011, 11:00PM

Registered Member #3040 Joined: Tue Jul 27 2010, 03:15PM
Location: South of London. UK
Posts: 237

You could try and get hold of an old (preferably industrial/commercial heavy duty) sewing machine (wouldn't want to try it with a new expensive one!) and treat the mesh like normal fabric. Overlap the sheets slightly, pin them at regular intervals to keep them even and then run them through the machine. Just replace the thread with stainless wire. No idea if this will actually work BTW but if you try it let us know if it does

.

Martin.

dmg

Mon Jan 24 2011, 11:08PM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
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I was planning to hand sew it for several hours, but this idea sounds good in theory.

Only issue I see with it, is that stainless steel wire isnt as flexible as regular thread, so I fear that the feed to the needle will most likly get jammed in a few seconds (breaking something in the process).

also, for that to work evenly, I think the machine will have to be in sync so to speak, so that it catches an opening in the mesh to push or pull a wire through. If it skips, it will wreck that even look.

Martin King

Mon Jan 24 2011, 11:24PM

Registered Member #3040 Joined: Tue Jul 27 2010, 03:15PM
Location: South of London. UK
Posts: 237

GBD wrote ...

Only issue I see with it, is that stainless steel wire isn't as flexible as regular thread, so I fear that the feed to the needle will most likly get jammed in a few seconds (breaking something in the process).

Hence the need for a heavy duty industrial machine.

GBD wrote ...

also, for that to work evenly, I think the machine will have to be in sync so to speak, so that it catches an opening in the mesh to push or pull a wire through. If it skips, it will wreck that even look.

If it skips on a stitch then it will only skip by a maximum of the diameter of the mesh wire, i.e. the needle will end up one side or other of the wire (hopefully forcing it out of the way in the process, although you may get the odd broken wire?). The gaps are bigger than the wire diameter so the odds are the needle will go through a hole more often than it will hit a wire. Pinning the mesh together should help keep it even over the full length. Experimentation is needed and that's what we do

EDIT: BTW not sewing but knitting :-

I think you'll find these machine are more robust than you think as long as you keep the wire thin enough.

Martin.

Mycologist

Mon Jan 24 2011, 11:57PM

Registered Member #2413 Joined: Sat Oct 03 2009, 08:27PM
Location: Essex, UK
Posts: 22

Just out of interest, what are you planning on doing with this big sheet of mesh? All I can think of is if you used it as the grid for an enormous valve... But 10' by 20', even enormous is probably an understatement! ^^

dmg

Tue Jan 25 2011, 12:11AM

Registered Member #2628 Joined: Fri Jan 15 2010, 12:23AM
Location:
Posts: 627

Hehe, yep, the world's first tube that doubles as a room. with a dissapation of several hundred megawatts (beat that Dr.spark).

Okay, really.
I did a small scale test with a few of these kitchen strainers and some carefull manipulation of a laser via a pair of galvanometers, while the setup itself was fairly poor, the laser source was unmodulated, it still made some very impressive effects on the mesh.

Since im almost finished building my RGB X-Y scanner (about 1W total @ 20-35KPPS), I figure if I stuck the projector in the back of my room, and placed the mesh across the other half, and then another layer further into the room (so two layers total, a few feet apart), I could recreate this effect on a larger scale.

3D scanning anyone?

Although at the speed of 20-35KPPS, I dont expect too much complicated effects without flicker, I will only be able to do some very basic 3D stuff (simple animations, etc)

There is special foil that was made for this purpose, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere in any decent quantaties, and the only source of it I found charged way too much then im willing to spend.
I cant use plastic either, as that will interfere too greatly with the beam.

Ash Small

Tue Jan 25 2011, 01:15AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

The sewing machine idea is VERT UNLIKELY to work. Stainless steel work hardens, it will be bent all over the place by the machine sewing process and will break, jam or be slack (or all three). Hand sewing should work as long as a suitable 'stitch' is chosen. (I bet this is the first sewing thread on 4HV.)

Dave Marshall

Tue Jan 25 2011, 01:35AM

Registered Member #16 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:22PM
Location: New Wilmington, PA
Posts: 554

You guys are over thinking this a bit. Stainless window screen is actually fairly easy to work with, if labor intensive. Here's how to link them.

The sheets are a grid of individual stainless wires like #. On the edges of the two sheets you want to join, work down the edge snipping the vertical wires between each horizontal wire so that you end up with sort of a frayed edge of sorts, so instead of -|-|-| it looks like ---|. Then bend these long wires at a 90 degree angle to the sheet.

Then you overlap them slightly, an inch or so, and work down the seam, pushing those long wires through the other sheet, and bending them backwards. This will form two sets of hooks that hold the two sheets together.

If you do it right, the snipping will be the longest part of the process. You should be able to just lay them down with the seam overlapping properly and bend all the wires together pretty quickly.

This might be about as clear as mud. If you can't follow my line of thinking here, let me know and I'll do a quick photo to describe it.

-Dave

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