Many thanks to all who have made comments and suggestions for the making of
drying racks and screens.  I will keep my head down scrounging for some
discarded plastic mesh.  I also think I'll save the copper mesh for other
things, and use up the hundred or so scraps of galvanized woven hardware
cloth (and a 3 foot square chink of beautiful stainless steel cloth!)

Being in this field from what seems like the days when "plastic" was a
state of malleability, or a cheap useless material that wasn't good except
to discard, I have a tendency to shy away from it although I know better
now that they have the oxidation problem under control.  One of my first
construction jobs was replacing many many feet of PVC that had degraded to
the point where it crumbled to shreds under any kind of stress.

I think I'll make the usual bread-rack type gadget, with several kinds of
screens for holding various types of materials - I can't see the plastic
mesh holding the 20 pound cast iron plow share.  I'll snip out a chunk of
the great industrial weight 2 inch mesh I have for separating brick bats
and rocks out of the sifters.

Shame on George for not following up on the opportunity to teach us about
"locomotive cloth" which I understand was a fine wire mesh made to stop the
sparks coming from the stacks of steam locomotives.

As for plastics, I will forever be one of those people that has more
library cards than credit cards.  That is an economic necessity of being a
life-timer in non-profit, not a dislike of plastic.