Matte Dura-Lar

I was looking for an environmental friendly way to protect my wooden dining table, or to avoid washing the cotton table cloth all the time. My wife wouldn't approve off any plastic table cloth that look a lot worse than her current beautiful one. I tried the temporary plastic table cloth for parties, and try to let it stay on the table as long as I can. That won't be a solution and they are too thin to be convenient. They are easily punctured. I was looking for a clear plastic sheet to cover the current table cloth so she wouldn't notice much. The ones on the market are mostly PVC. When I replaced the kid's shower lining last time, I though I was lucky to discover the cheapest plastic liner on the world in Target in a very hard to find corner. I didn't realize that the awful smell that we tolerated for days were toxic. Now we have PEVA instead. So obviously I won't get a PVC anything for my dining table. I didn't thought of just using a large piece of glass. But this will only be applicable for putting on wood directly. It will be too much trouble to change the table cloth if the glass is on top. For glass you need other table mats for cushion. Now this polyester sheet is perfect. It is actually 40 inch by 12 feet. It wouldn't make sense if it were 12 inch long. The only con is that I have to pay for 12 ft rather than 6 ft. And I have to cut it to size. Once unrolled, it has a tendency to stay flat. So it was easy to work with. It looked like glass, but you can't find the thickness at the edges. I boiled a pot of water, stopped the heat, let the bubbles subside, and put it on a piece of spare sheet. It didn't do anything to it. No marks. No signs of softening or melting. There is absolutely no smell of any type. This particular sheet is not FDA approved for food contact, but polyester the material can be approved in some applications. It's competitive with cotton because it doesn't need all the water to grow. We have mats for the forks and spoons so there's zero concern for us. The alternative is acetate sheet that is FDA approved for food contact. But it is not tear resistance and not heat resistance. The thickness is about a piece of normal paper. It can easily be cut to size with a scissor, but not a paper cutter. So you need not worry about damage by forks and knives. They may make a dent but no holes. The dents may be healed by a hairdryer but I don't worry about that. My other uses for the rest of the roll. Obviously, it makes good drawer liners. If there is a reasonable fit, it's pretty hard to lift the liner up. I cut the sheets with scissors by hand and get reasonable "straight" lines to fit the bottom. Update 11/2020 - Amazingly, it still looks like that. It's still in one piece. The edges and corners are intact. There are fine swirl marks due to daily use but you have to get close to see it. There are also one or two slight dish impressions and distortion when dishes are accidentally put on the table straight from the oven. But you can see a vague circle, and the sheet is still pretty flat around it. I must confest I haven't washed the table cloth under since!

very useful for print making.

I use this product as a topsheet for letterpress printing with a traditional platen press. Oiled tympan paper is not as commonly available as it once was, but it can still be found. What I do is place my tympan paper on the platen and lock it in, then cut a sheet of Dura-Lar to cover the printing area, taping it in place with vinyl tape. I ink up my form and run an impression directly on the Dura-Lar. Once you have the impression, you can set up "compressible gauge pins" or other adhesive-based paper guides. Once this is done, tissue paper with a little kerosene or lighter fluid will serve to remove the impression. This is accomplished much more easily than with a traditional oiled tympan topsheet as you can never seem to get all the ink off, which means that the back of your work will have a residual impression on it for a few cycles at least. Adhesives commonly used on Scotch double-sided adhesive tape and similar products typically stick to Dura-Lar much better than they do to oiled tympan as well. Dura-Lar cuts easily and lays flat. It is durable and doesn't seem to harm lead & wood type or common photopolymer plates. I have not tried to use it with traditional gauge pins, but I see no reason it would not work. If I wanted to do this for some reason, though, I would cut the Dura-Lar very close to the impression area and place my gauge pins in the tympan paper. This seems a good way to avoid smashing type and increasingly difficult-to-find gauge pins, if nothing else. If you have to, you can use the same sheet of Dura-Lar to run a second impression if the press run wasn't too long and I have done this for jobs that are not critical. Realistically though, get another sheet for subsequent press runs, it isn't very expensive and this will avoid problems, especially if the first impression was at all heavy as is common practice these days in order to get a "bite" on the paper. I am not sure what this product was designed to do, but as a pressman's topsheet, it is just about as good as it gets!

I had a dwindling supply of some drafting Mylar that I've been using for 25 years to make hinge material for my R/C aircraft. I thought I would give this a try so I purchased it. It actually is the same exact material that I have been using over the years. You can not tear this material. It is extremely durable, thin enough, yet very flexible. The lightweight is also extremely important because one needs to keep airframe weight to a minimum. It also takes glue fantastically. Beside benefit is that it ends up creating a self-centering flight control surface. I can draw on it with pencil yet extremely easy to erase the pencil marks after I make my cuts. Oh yeah I will be also using it to make stencils for the final painting and marking of a finished subject. I've already found multiple other uses already. I can highly recommend this material and would give it over five stars if I could.

I probably haven't tested this enough - it's an interesting surface that can be worked on both sides. For layers of colored pencil, only so many can be applied, and apparently, if erased more than a few times, all "tooth" is lost and it literally can't hold any more colored pencil (oil or wax based). I found that out the hard way, and had to apply some ink and craft paint in a few areas in order to salvage my parrot drawing. The experts call this particular surface "student grade," so just be aware that it's great for inks, but just okay for serious colored pencil use. It seems fine for less detailed work, such as cartoons and illustrations. Most often, a backer sheet is used to either add color or make the drawing pop. The artist grade film is much more expensive, so this is fine for learning!

Works amazing for my project! Built a wind tunnel for my son!

Just what ineeded

I think I may have already reviewed this so I will keep this brief. It was my first time using drafting film and it was satisfyingly thick - like strong tracing paper - and so smooth. It worked like a dream with coloured pencils and I was thrilled with the results. An easy 5 star product and I’m hooked!

Crei que era un rollo pequeño, pero en realidad es un rollo grande con bastante material.

Idéal pour faire des arts plastiques

The discreption does not say it being a wrap.For the price I paid I expected something sturdier for my craft.This is disappointing ,and a rip-off!