Wood VS Aluminum frames for your screens - which do you prefer?

RideOutWear said:

Wood really isn't that much cheaper. Where I get mine from it's 20 for wood 24 for aluminum. And yes remeshing them makes it worth every extra penny. It would be hard to mess up or warp an aluminum screen and it seems every wood I have ever cleaned has warped after first cleaning.

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If wood cost 20 and aluminum 24 then there is no more argument for wood. I use aluminum frames for more detailed images and wood for simpler images. However I also use a line table press where the frame is laid on top of the platen where we can get away with minor warpage. In contrast, frames on rotary presses are rigidly clamped on one end making slight warpage a much bigger issue. But to share some experiences.

Here, most of us DIY our own wood frames with regular S4S KD softwood where a 20x24 cost USD2.50-2.70 to DIY. "Branded" KD wood costs about USD2.85-3.00. Water resistant wood costs about USD 3-3.40. The mesh are not included. The price range merely says I forgot the actual cost. For reference, a static aluminum frame of the same size cost about USD24.00.

For us, the 7-8 fold price difference is enough reason to go wood and many professional printers use only regular KD wood frames even with photographic images. This brings us to the next argument.

Warping after a single wash seems to indicate that the wood has not been kiln dried. If they are, then they did a rather lousy job. Of my first 10 wood frames made from regular hardware lumber(coated with oil stains), after several months, about half have warpages where you can insert 2-4 coins underneath one of the corners. About half of these warped frames are still usable as explained, because we use a line table system. This makes 75% of my wood frames still usable after 8 months(but more like 4 months of regular use).

I expect less warpages(and/or a longer more useful life) on my "branded" and water resistant wood frames. Others apply varnish to resist water.

As we DIY our own frames, I can still convert these warped frames into smaller frames. I also expect less warpage on smaller wood frames such as the 18x20" wood frames or thereabouts which is also popular among printers. I also have smaller 10x12" wood frames where I expect minor problems from warpage.

And from experience, the wood we use here are actually lighter than aluminum frames of the same size. This lighter wood is more ideal for the line table printing system where the frame is held by hand and transferred from one platen to another.

Overall, there is no question that aluminum is better. Retensionables are best but this is not absolute. As one of our colleague here(a better professional printer) calculated to be more cost effective and productive, he remeshed all his frames instead of reclaiming them making retensionable frames of no advantage to him.

The choice of wood frame is therefore a function of cost differences and printing method. Many of us recognize this but the wide price difference is a little difficult to ignore.