Need help with memory Foam

[Franky66]

I just installed a mattress Topper behind my screen.I sandwiched the topper between 2 - 2x2 wood studs and hung that from the top of my cage. Do I need to do attach the topper to the sides or bottom? I thought ball would drop but it does not. I was thinking of adding a moving blanket and would that go in between screen and topper or behind topper. My cage is 18 inches from wall.

[tntfox]

I have a Carls Golf Premium screen and I had to do some work to control the rebound. With the screen bungeed all the way around, a driver shot would come back with alarming velocity. I have a very heavy vinyl tarp that I put directly behind the screen but the noise level went up way more than I could have imagined. I took that down, but saved it. I then went to hanging moving blankets behind the screen and it helped a lot. Rebound was down and the sound was deadened significantly. After only a few days (and a few hundred balls), I found that I blew a hole in the blanket behind the most common hitting area. To help with that problem, I hung an 8 x 10ft heavy mesh tarp between the screen and moving blankets and that made all the difference. I can now hit driver into my screen and I get a max of about 1 foot rebound. Since I still had the heavy vinyl tarp, I hung it up behind the moving blankets and it seemed to further reduce the rebound. I probably didn't need the tarp, but I had hammered a few extra grommets into it so I couldn't return it anyway.

In general, it seems like more layers are better and whatever you put behind your screen might end up with holes in it. My Mesh is holding up well as of now but I'll keep an eye on it. I've seen other posts that talk about mattress toppers that are destroyed pretty quickly when used by themselves.

[fortner28]

I have a Carls Premium screen also. What size is yours? I am wondering if screen size/weight makes any difference?

[tntfox]

Sorry for the delayed response. My screen is 8' x 9'. I have some room size restrictions and Carl's was the only place that allowed me to buy this exact size.

[Stre]

I'm going to have to do something similar... I have the same screen (but 8x10) and I just took off many of the bungees... but now the screen is wavy. I'll try the moving blankets. Do you attach the moving blankets to the top bar, or sides? Any idea how the hole was created if it was behind the impact screen?

[Franky66]

Thanks - I will give moving blankets a try. How many did u use?

[mthunt]

Mine is like this with two king size mattresses. Photo is upside down for some reason

[tntfox]

I bought 40" x 72" moving blankets at Harbor Frieight for a whopping $4.99 each. So one layer, but it took four blankets to cover completely across the screen. Since my screen is 8' wide, and 9' high, I pounded grommets into the blankets (which I also bought at Harbor Freight) and hung them loosely with ropes from the top horizontal EMT. Also, I made sure to hang them so they wrap around the corners to ensure that if a ball makes it past my protectors, they are caught by the blankets. Works perfectly.

[tntfox]

Just as an update to the screen backing discussion, I added a 6' x 10' mesh between the screen and blankets to try to further minimize the indentation I'm building in the screen. It certainly helped so I experimented with a heavy, 11mil thick plastic tarp directly behind the screen and I had to remove it immediately given the extreme increase in volume at impact. I could not believe how loud it was to hit into the screen with the tarp as the second layer. Since I have it and I put grommets in it, I just hung it behind the blankets and it helped to deaden the screen even more and seems to have made impacts even quieter.

My next test is something I learned in another thread on this forum - adding a polyester photo backdrop in front of the impact screen. Several guys are doing it and say that it is great for image quality and doesn't show wear after several months. I'm going to assume this is a cheap way to prolong the life of the screen and add yet another layer for bounce back reduction. When I get the new material, I will post pictures.

[khalespace]

I use a 5x8 area rug and it works well. However, with the driver it has a 5 to 7 ft bounce back.

[tntfox]

khalespace, that is how my impact screen reacted when I had it bungeed all the way around and nothing behind it. The first driver I hit into it went past me so fast I didn't see it. Hanging the moving blankets behind it and loosening the bungees did the trick. Incidentally, just removing some of the bungees didn't help as much as I would have thought so having something behind the impact screen was critical for me. My room is only about 12' deep so I can't have more than 1 or 2 feet of rebound. With all the stuff I have behind the screen now, I was able to reconnect some of the bottom bungees and still hit a driver into it.