How to Steam out wrinkles from a drop

[AudJ]

Some of the drops we use have been painted over several times, and always show badly wrinkled. Our painter is artistically awesome, but does not care for the musiln, and often balls-up his work rather than hang in fly space between work sessions. Drives me crazy (one reason I've let it hang wrinkled) in addition to other things needing more attention. As other improvements are made, this is the next aspect of our show to clean up. I'd love to clean up the next drop before he paints, as I think painting over the old wrinkles might be part of the problem.

I would love to steam them out, but the last time I did that was decades ago, and I could use a "how to" refresher (rear of drop, front of drop, preserving painted image, flame retardant? etc.) I tried a small section recently with a small steam iron, and got nowhere in a 1/2 hour, so I dropped it.

If you have preferred equipment, that info would be handy also, I think I was working with inferior tools.

 

[Tom Andrews]

I'm sure you'll get many different valid answers about how to try to get the wrinkles out. Try this: hang the drop, add the bottom pipe (you might even want to overweight it to fight against the paint wrinkles), spray the back evenly with water so that it's very damp but not saturated or dripping. Let it dry. Since your paint has dried over a wrinkled substrate, the paint might maintain that from (wrinkles, hills and valleys), so this might not work.

From a flame retardant point of view, you'll want to add some FR paint additive to the paint AND spray the back side with a flame retardant after it's painted.

Good luck!

 

[AudJ]

Thanks for the tip- I wouldn't have thought to get the whole drop damp - but this is a good season to try it. The drops all have chain sewn in, but I'm sure I can add other weight if I keep it an inch off the deck while it dries. I've always wanted to use pipe, as we have it lying around, so as we purchase new drops I'll opt for that.

 

[kicknargel]

I was taught to add alum (from the spice aisle) to the water when spritzing the wrinkles out of a drop. I don't know why, but I do it.

 

[sk8rsdad]

I was taught to add alum (from the spice aisle) to the water when spritzing the wrinkles out of a drop. I don't know why, but I do it.

Alum has both fire retardant and antibacterial properties.

 

[kicknargel]

Yes, and adhesive properties as well. It may create some starching effect.

 

[RickR]

Does anyone strip all the paint anymore?

Back in my painting days that was how one 'restored' a drop to like new condition. Of course that's much easier with water soluble paint!

 

[gafftapegreenia]

Does anyone strip all the paint anymore?

Back in my painting days that was how one 'restored' a drop to like new condition. Of course that's much easier with water soluble paint!

Wow. That sounds time consuming, labor intensive and chemically noxious.

But I also haven't heard of this method, so I'm interested in how it was done.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RickR]

Lots of water and time, some scrubbing.

The resulting sludge was not harsh, but not pleasant.

 

[derekleffew]

Does anyone strip all the paint anymore?

Not since dry pigment and animal glue became obsolete some 30-40 years ago.

 

[JonCarter]

I was going to suggest laying it out in the parking lot, hose it down, scrub it off with brooms, then hang it while it's still wet, preferably with a little extra weight in the chain pocket. But I guess I'm a little out of date. Eh, Derek?