Benefits of Dry Mounting?

[Ash]

The recent FS ad for a dry mount press got my curiosity up. I've looked around and the new price for a press is extortionate.

I see there are a lot of s/h models in some variety (as layman as you can get - hot, cold, heavy, vacuum).

Apart from the obvious benefit of being a medium to consistently mount prints, are there any benefits?

WHY should I get one?

And just as importantly,

WHY should I NOT get one?



Since this degree course I'm on is demanding the highest possible quality of us, I felt that having a mounting station at home might benefit me.


I also have issues with the FB prints I've produced not being totally flat (wavy/curled) regardless of heat on the FB print dryer. For this reason even using the mounting press as a flattening tool may help in presentation - this is called a pre-press or something isn't it?


I'm not looking to buy one that is too big, considering my standard size of print is 12x16 as this is the most financially and logistically viable with digital prints and darkroom prints.


Any thoughts?


I'm kind of looking for a bargain if I get one, I'd hate to spend out a lot of money on something that may be useless. I'm also interested in the heated variations that allow the use of the tape that melts as opposed to any wet form of adhesion.

[Don Hutton]

If you want to print in a wet darkroom on fiber-based papers, a dry mount press is almost an essential piece of gear - I've never found a better way to flatten fiber prints. I've also never found a better way to mount a silver gelatin print made on fiber paper for framing. AA's "The Print" has a nice little section on drymounting. I'd leave the FB print dryers alone too - a great way to get little bits of stuff embedded into the emulsion. Place your prints on drying screens (face up or face down - people do both - I feel face up is safer) and let them dry in the ambient conditions - anywhere from 4 to about 24 hours usually. When they are perfectly dry, give them 15-30 seconds in a drymount press and voila!

Drymount means using a tissue which melts under the application of heat and then sets as the tissue cools down - it is a heated process by definition. I've used a Seal 210 for years works fine. The thermostats are notoriously fickle - spend an extra $5 on a meat thermometer and you will know what temperature the press is. It's important - in my experience, you get one go to get the process right per print - if it doesn't work you throw it away....

In the US, I'd expect a decent 210 (which can do a 16x20 in a single go, although in practice you usually need to do it in two sections because of the mounting board size) to go for about $500 in usable condition. Smaller units are usually a lot cheaper. Seal still has excellent support - you can get just about any spare part for one made in the last 30 years. Try to find a local source as shipping a big unit is exhorbitant. If you're woking with 12x16 size prints, I'd expect a 210 would be about perfect for mounting them onto oversized matboards in a single pass (which is a lot more convenient and easier than doing multiple passes - the likelihood of getting it right increases dramatically....). You need a press with a platen larger than the maximum size print you work on if you want to mount in a single pass on an oversized (substantially larger than the print itself) mat board.

[jnantz]

i never liked dry mounting prints,
ive got some that i mounted 20 years ago
and the bond is lifting

when i need to get prints flat,
i slide them in a bookbinder's nipping press
(book press) between matboard or masonite.
i'd rather window mat, and tip the prints in using archival corners ..
if they aren't bound / stitched into a book.

[Nathan Potter]

I've used a Seal 210 for years, pretty much as Don says above. It's the larger mat size which creates a problem so I reconfigured my 210 by building an extended top bridge and adding longer bars attached to the top platen. By moving the metal side pivots between the top and bottom platens further out I can take mats up to 30 inches wide and infinitely long. Such modification takes some design and fabrication effort though.

As Don says I was unsatisfied with the temperature control so I use a surface thermometer (Pacific Instruments I think) which I calibrate with a good lab mercury thermometer. The temperature control was really critical when used with Ilfochrome prints.

As for the ripple effect with dry mount tissue I can't eliminate it completely but with critical lighting of the print on display it's not really objectionable.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Bruce Watson]

Dry mounting fiber darkroom prints has been the normal way to present silver gelatin prints (and most alternative process prints) for a long time. The main reason for this is it's one of the few ways to get and keep a print flat. Recently (within the last 20 years more or less) it's been discovered that there's at least one other benefit. Dry mounting a print to a matte board seals the back of the print (the [factory applied] gelatin overcoat does a pretty good job of sealing the front). Any atmospheric pollution now has an additional bit of material to migrate through to get to the print itself.

The main reason not to dry mount is because curators don't like anything that is not reversible. And dry mounting is really not easily reversible. In other words, if anything happens to the matte board (dented or bent corner, water damage, flocking, staining, etc) then the print is fairly well screwed as well even if the print itself is fine at that point.

It's the combination of reversibility and the general lack of waviness of inkjet prints that has led to dry mounting being replaced by hinge mounting for inkjet prints. But from what I can tell dry mounting is still going strong with darkroom prints and many of the alternative processes.

Clearly then, dry mounting is just another tool. Whether our not you choose to use it perhaps depends on your purpose.

[Ash]

Thanks for the input so far. A few of the points I had picked up from various threads.

I guess the size of the press is the worst part of this process. I'm pretty sure I could afford and maintain one so long as I find the space to put it, and the strength/manpower to position it where and when. I'd hate to buy one then have nowhere to keep it.

I'm not sure of the weight I can get away with upstairs in this house. Doubtful there are any locally.

As per more help and comments, keep em coming!

[Pete Watkins]

Ash,
Our local picture framer uses a hot mounting press.
I've got a couple, one bigger than the other, and they are great for flattening fiber based prints. I also hot mount some of my prints. They are flamin' heavy though!
Pete.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Drymounted prints look neat and flat, but conservators don't like drymounting, as Bruce Watson has pointed out. Not reversible=not archival by definition, independent of whether it makes the print last longer. That doesn't mean that, if you become a successful artist, curators won't accept your drymounted prints. They deal with what they get, but they'd rather have unmounted prints or prints that are easily remountable and that take up less space in storage.

In New York galleries, one sees less and less drymounting of new prints. They're pretty flat, but not perfectly flat, and that doesn't seem to be having an influence on sales. I think that perfect flatness may just be a passing fashion, though some have told me that it is heresy to say so.

Thin prints, like single weight Azo prints or albumen prints that are much more prone to curl than gelatin prints, usually need some sort of secure flat mounting. Starch mounting is an alternative that conservators find more acceptable than drymounting. I've experimented with it a bit, and it takes some practice to do neatly.

On the other hand, other forms of mounting, like face mounting, are popular for some kinds of work (large color prints typically), and that's certainly not reversible. I suspect face mounting will last as long as a color print will last, so perhaps this is why it is accepted for big color prints.

Permanent mounting to aluminum is another option, and I suppose that the fact that it isn't easily reversed is balanced by the fact that aluminum is much more stable than mount board.

That said, even if you don't drymount, a drymount press is handy for flattening prints. I drymount albumen prints (until I feel more secure about starch mounting), but silver prints I usually print with a wide border, flatten the prints in a drymount press, hinge mount, and overmat.

[claudiocambon]

Agreed with everyone above. I only use my press to flatten prints (which I finish off under a heavy weight).

Just by basic physics, when you marry two materials of different compositions and densities, they will expand and contract at different rates from heat and humidity. Similar as board is to paper in the larger scheme of things, I feel it is essentially flawed for this reason.

[Peter Rip]

BTW - I have a Seal 500T with a large 26”x34” platen that I've used to dry mount super large (> 40x50) prints. I'd like to sell it. But it weighs 300lbs. So, if you're in the San Francisco area, contact me at peter [at] ripster.com