My hardware store guy, Bob, saw me enter the store and asked if I had any issues with the long sides of the screen frame pulling in to the center and I told him I did, and that I used a wood dowel to keep them apart, until I figured out what to do.
He said, "Are you going to use crossbar clips?". And, of course I said "yep". Although I was looking for an aluminium tube that I could place where the wood dowel was currently and then put a screw into the top & bottom to hold it in place (I didn't tell him that was my "dreamed up" idea).
So I then continued, "Where do you keep the crossbar clips?"
These little buggers fit into the end of a spare piece of aluminium side frame material and then hook into the place where the screen gets attached to the side frame.
Seems to be pretty strong, and not bad looking...
And, this afternoon I did do a "re-do" and made a tighter fitting screen frame. Took me just about as long as the first time, as I more carefully measured twice and cut once to get the fit exactly right. In the process I found out that the window is just a little "out of square", the top is bigger than the bottom.
So, here's the first frame on the left, not very tight to the window frame, and on the right, the second frame, with all four corners, just like this one... a nice fit.
Turns out I added 1/8" to the length of measurements for all sides, which cut down the gap to next to nothing.
And, lastly, the overlap of the screen anchors are a lot better on the second frame.
And, the loose sized first screen (below, previously shown photo)...
My feeling is that the screen is not going anywhere, as I can't budge it much.
So, the exterior screen on the front slider window is done, if I encounter any issues in the future, I'll post them here, along with the durability report that Jay asked for after some time on dirt roads.
Now on to the next project, stay tuned.
