Dry Mounting

[Jan_6568]

I heard that when you attach dry mounting tissue to the print, you have to mount your print to the board in one hour. I am just wondering if this is true, as it would be much more conveninet to me to wait for longer. May be someone of you could answer this question.
regards,
Jan

[David A. Goldfarb]

You mean you want to tack a bunch of prints and mount them later? I don't see why not, as long as they stay tacked.

[Jan_6568]

Yes, that is exactly what I mean. The point is that I have a cutter at home and I need to use one at work but I do not want to bring print, tacking iron etc, to work. It would be ideal to attach the tissue at home, then take the print to work, trim them and bring back home to finish mounting.
I remind Ansel Adams wrote something like this (about avoiding delay with mounting) in his The Print book.

[Arne Croell]

I think that rule is based on the assumption of major humidity changes. Papers and other materials shrink and expand with humidity and temperature, and different papers (like your print base vs. the mounting tissue) behave differently. So you could end up with a tissue that is either slightly smaller than the print, or larger, or both for different directions (the paper change depends on the fiber orientation), even though they were the same size after cutting. In reality, if you work in a climate controlled environment, I wouldn't worry too much. Waiting several weeks with major weather changes in between might be problematic. The longest I waited was about a day, and I never had problems.

[Jan_6568]

Thank you very much,
regards,
Jan

[Paul Metcalf]

I think more important than expansion or contraction issues with humidity is the impact on adhesion. I have to "dry" the print and mounting board first (place in press for a few minutes each) in order to assure good adhesion prior to tacking on the mounting tissue and performing the actual mounting. I'm in Seattle, which nominally has above 50% humidity, so this may not be an issue in other dryer locales. I believe Adams suggested drying the print prior to mounting, as well, so it may have been a concern he had with the print/board absorbing moisture after it has been pre-dried and not achieving a good adhesion.

[robc]

Why not just trim the print at home with a craft knife and cutting ruler. You need a knife with a curved (not straight) blade. Attach dry mount tissue then on a cutting mat with print facing upwards, place cutting ruler on print and hold firmly while trimming.

A proper cutting ruler with rubber base will not mark the print. The curved blade will stop the knife from pulling the tissue.

[Jan_6568]

Why not just trim the print at home with a craft knife and cutting ruler.

I just do not think I am able to keep 90 angles

Jan

[robc]

I just do not think I am able to keep 90 angles

Jan

but there are very cheap tools to make it simple to mark up where to cut:

this is one:

http://www.lionpic.co.uk/index.php?s...productid=1425

and another:

http://www.lionpic.co.uk/index.php?s...&productid=256

[Jan_6568]

Thank you, the tools look very good.

Jan