I certainly agree with the trickiness of manipulating the mount, adhesive film and the print. Decades ago, while working in a lab offering display/advertising mounting services, we had an enormously heavy roller-table device for arranging the three materials, up to 60" wide, and it was always a bit nerve-wracking even then.
As you wisely pointed out some time ago, the spray-mount adhesives are not very healthy and not very strong, so I looked for an alternative and found the adhesive-film pre-coated foamboard. In order to control the adhesion of the print, I rolled the release paper (covering the adhesive film on the mount) around a piece of 20mm plastic pipe for removal. In this way the release-paper could be peeled back an inch at a time, while the height of the pipe kept the prints from randomly sticking to the instant adhesive. Smoothing and adhering of the print was done manually, also an inch at a time, using a cotton pad.
Two years ago I mounted two dozen, borderless, 50cm colour prints in this way, for a tiny-budget exhibition that was hung twice in a marquee(!). The prints have all stayed on the backing but some pictures (on a cheaper order of foamboard) are now a little bowed, presumably from the dampness at night. The 'customer' charity was happy with the results and so was I, but this is not something for a more formal 'museum' sort of exhibition! Anything larger than these prints and there would probably be some wastage - or at least another pair of hands would be needed, plus some sort of back-frame to keep the foamboard straight when hung.
Thank you all for your advises and tips.
Martin thanks for the tip in the NL.
Your last advise with the tube sounds workable when you mount borderless, but I want to mount my prints not borderless so the dry mount method feels more workable.
Best regards
Hans
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