Grill Cloth Stretching-Any way to keep it taught?

[nicksorenson]

I cannot for the life of me keep my grill cloth tight. It will stretch no matter how tight I get it. Any clue on how to keep it from stretching. Here's a photo.
thanks in advance,
Nick

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

I cannot for the life of me keep my grill cloth tight. It will stretch no matter how tight I get it. Any clue on how to keep it from stretching. Here's a photo.
thanks in advance,
Nick

When I use to build all my own cabinets I would be careful to not over tighten/stretch the grille cloth while stapling... just make sure it is straight!
After it was installed and I was sure straight as possible, I would put the baffle in front of a 1000watt quartz heater... about three or four feet away for about 20 mins to a half hour.
The radiant heat would seem to uniformly pull the cloth taught enough that it seemed like I did it while installing it on the baffle.
Try it and see if it works for you.
DO NOT use a heat gun or hair dryer as the heat is too high and too small of an area, causing all kinds of ugly distortion patterns in the stitching.

[52 Bill]

Nick:
How are you attaching the grill cloth to the back side of the panel? The sag shown in your photo is quite dramatic.

[nicksorenson]

Thanks guys for the replies. To 52, I put the cloth on with a stapler and glued on another occasion and both seems to want to get baggy after pushed a few times. It just seems to like to stretch.

[nicksorenson]

When I use to build all my own cabinets I would be careful to not over tighten/stretch the grille cloth while stapling... just make sure it is straight!
After it was installed and I was sure straight as possible, I would put the baffle in front of a 1000watt quartz heater... about three or four feet away for about 20 mins to a half hour.
The radiant heat would seem to uniformly pull the cloth taught enough that it seemed like I did it while installing it on the baffle. ...

Bruce, I will try your idea. Thanks for the tip. I think it will work. It's been such a burden trying to get these things tight.

I build electric guitars and wind pickups for people who've dealt with you, and everyone I've talked to about you and your work has nothing but great things to say.

thanks!!

[Bruce / Mission Amps]

Bruce, I will try your idea. Thanks for the tip. I think it will work. It's been such a burden trying to get these things tight.

I build electric guitars and wind pickups for people who've dealt with you, and everyone I've talked to about you and your work has nothing but great things to say.

thanks!!

Thanks...
I use to do this with a clamping jig I made, mounted to one end of my 4' x 8' cabinet making workshop tables.... just to hold the baffle board so I could use two hands... you can use the cool clamping system of a Shop Mate type table though.
the main thing is to start by finding a single horizontal line in the the grille cloth's pattern to fold the grill cloth on and really fold it over tight... then put the folded edge right on the horizontal top edge of the baffle board so it follows it perfectly.
Always keep your folds right in tension with the edge of the baffle board.
Staple that line as straight as possible right across the top (unseen) edge of the baffle board (or grille cloth frame) with wide crown staples about 1/2' to 3/4" apart and try to keep the staples on about a 45 degree angle.

Like this: ////////////////////////////
not this: ------------------------
or not this: ||||||||||||||||||||||

This folded and stapled line is now the critical reference point of the entire grille cloth.
EVERYTHING from that point on will always be parallel to it, or at a perfect 90 degree angle to that line. This is very important.

Gently pull the grille cloth down to the opposite side of the baffle and find the closest horizontal line that when just barely pulled semi-snug-tight to the edge, will go over it, fold that one line straight across too. try to keep coming back and refold that one as you work the vertical sides.
Always use one line to make your folds.

Now go back up to one of the corners where the grille cloth is stapled and find some kind of vertical line in the grille cloth pattern.
Fold it straight over the edge of the baffle and all the way down to the bottom.
Pull it away from the baffle board a little so you can really fold it over.
Start stapling that down an inch and follow your perfect straight fold...
then gently pull the final opposite vertical side over to another vertical line you can fold tight and follow too.
Staple that other top corner an inch and go back to the bottom horizontal folded line in the grille cloth.
Pull it on and over the baffle edge board and line up your vertical fold on one corner (so your two folds meet right at the corner) start stapling the hother horizontal line down checking your vertical folds to make sure you work from a folded edge across.
Occasionally go over an work your vertical folded sides down a little to check and make sure you are still on, but always follow your folded lines no matter what you think...
The when done, you have stapled all four sides.
The parallel folded lines should still be parallel and the one that you folded at a near perfect 90 degree angle should be also.
Now you can set it up across from the room heater... far enough that it only warms it up hotter then room temp. It should keep itself reasonably straight and get fairly taught.
I have done this many (too many) times and every once in a while I will have pulled the grille cloth a little too tight on the parallel lines and the baffle board (or more often, a grille cloth frame) will actually start to twist from the pressure of being drawn taught... but the grille cloth patterns almost always look REALLY straight.
I know that was very wordy and I'm a little tired tonight so I hope it made some sense and I wasn't babbling!

[dorrisant]

I realize this is a very old post, but that is some great info right there! Thank you Bruce... I wish I could buy you a beer!!!