"Zilch Cloth" - The Original

Does anyone know, first hand, if this material will shrink?

I have some frames I built a while back and covered with the material I acquired from Evan

The frames I constructed are made of small square stock and were painted prior to covering, so as stated not interested in completely re-working them (the one actually) The inserts have been in storage to keep them clean and I have just now noticed I didn't get one of them as tight as I could have

It is a bit "looser" on one than I would like but not bad enough so as to warrant me ripping it off and starting over (besides the fact that my stash of original studio blue Zilch material is low and the installed cloth has already received the final trim, no selvage to work with and I don't want to risk fouling things up with a re-do; it's not that bad but could be better) I use the contact cement and heat method for grille covering

But I am willing to give it a go with some distilled water and a nice Sunny spot if I can get any sort of confirmation that this weave will shrink; if this material doesn't shrink then I'm not going to subject things to a wetting

Please let me know if you know and to what degree

Thank you,
Thomas

Thomas,

Wetting the cloth isn't going to hurt it but I would put very hot water in a spray bottle and spray the grill and let it set until it dries. Years ago I used to install carpet and would put hot water on a wrinkle and it would shrink it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by quindecima

Thomas,

Wetting the cloth isn't going to hurt it but I would put very hot water in a spray bottle and spray the grill and let it set until it dries. Years ago I used to install carpet and would put hot water on a wrinkle and it would shrink it.

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Thank you
Yes, I have a technique that I have used before on other material (a beige AR linen weave texture type cloth with some cotton content) to get a nice taught result; just wasn't going to wet it if it was going to be a waste of time

They've been well wrapped up since I made them, but there is always the risk of splotching, spotting or other weirdness after time has past but if I can be reasonably certain this particular material does have some shrinkage built into it it would be worth the risk to me (versus "un-gluing" and resetting at this point)