This is topic Strange blue spotting on screen surface in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-07-2002, 12:51 PM:
The skin is burning off my fingers from all the different chemicals I've tried on this darn thing! Here's the long boring story: About 4 years ago, I purchased a SharpVision pull-down glass beaded screen. With less than a year of use, several areas of the glass beading began to flake off, causing dark areas of the picture when projected on the screen. The service guy said there is "no way to fix" it, so I decided to go ahead and remove all of the glass beading and just use a straight vinyl surface.
About a week later, all of the glass beading was successfully removed, but a lot of glue residue remained. Leaving the rest of the project for another day, I remounted the screen and left for college.
Fast-forward to present day. I decided the screen would look great in the new place, so I proceeded to use lighter fluid to remove the rest of the glue residue. Worked great. Except it was hard to see where I may have missed a spot. So after cleaning the screen, I rubbed a black fuzzy piece of cloth all over the screen to see where glue still remained. Here is where the problem started showing up. I noticed the next day when I went to remove the remainder of the glue that strange blue spots appeared where I had rubbed the fabric, as well as blue fingerprints. This was odd, since the material was black and didn't bleed. I thought the lighter fluid would take care of it, and it did mostly, but a LOT of this blue junk still remains!! 
I don't think it could have been caused by the material, since I tested it for bleeding, and it didn't do anything. It couldn't be the lighter fluid, because then the entire surface would be blue, but then again I am not a chemist. Anyway, here is a list of the stuff I have tried to get this blue stuff off with:
Bleach (diluted and straight), Simple Green, Oxy Clean, Orange Clean, Gum and Spot Remover, Carpet Cleaner, Vinyl Cleaner, Oven Cleaner, Fabric Pre-Treater, Foaming Upholstery Cleaner, Leather Cleaner, Kitchen Cleanser, Bathroom Cleaner, Goof Off, Chalkboard Cleaner, and CLR.
The only thing I haven't tried is paint thinner, because I didn't have any. Any advice or ideas would be great, but I think it's just time to bite the bullet and get a new screen 
=TMP=
"The man who is now missing fingerprints"
Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 07-07-2002, 01:09 PM:
I'm afraid your right. You could always get a piece of used screen material from a theater supply company.Anyone else got any other ideas?
Josh
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-07-2002, 03:25 PM:
Sorry that screen is dead unless you want to paint it
Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 07-07-2002, 03:30 PM:
Yup. It is dead. Kopoot! Trash. You can use it as a drip pan under your car to keep the oil off the pavement.
Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 07-08-2002, 12:10 AM:
It sounds like just a manufacturing defect that slowly crept up on you over time. It does happen, and sorry to say it is one of those unfixable things.My advice, check the online auctions for screens. Get a good deal on a new one and enjoy the new screen smell 
Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 07-08-2002, 10:47 AM:
*sigh* I figured as much. The new screen smell will probably help me forget how much I'm going to have to pay (this was the big 100" size)Gordon -- I thought about painting it, but the surface would be so uneven, I might as well just project on the wall.
Come to think of it, this screen had several manufacturing problems that seemed to "creep up" after the limited warranty. It didn't want to stay down after a while, then it didn't want to go back up, yadda yadda... Thanks to all for your help, though.
Oh well. Anyone interested in buying a slightly used SharpVision brand oil drip sheet? Cheap!!
=TMP=