Drymounting 20x24 Prints on 16x20 Seal Press?

[neil poulsen]

I've heard about dry mounting a print half at a time. For example, one could dry mount a 20x24 print on a Seal 16x20 press by doing one half, and then turning the print around and doing the other half.

How well does this work? Can it leave a visible seam down the middle of the print?

[willwilson]

works great, make sure your cover board is the same size as the board you are mounting your work on.

[Roger Thoms]

works great, make sure your cover board is the same size as the board you are mounting your work on.

This sounds like good advise and explains why my one attempt failed.

Roger

[Brian Ellis]

I've done that many times. As long as the cover board is thick enough a seam won't show.

[ROL]

I've been drymounting up to 30"X40" (on 36"X48" board) on a Seal 210M press for years now. Not sure if the 210 is larger than your "16X20", but the largest single piece that can be done in one shot is 16"X20". 20"X24" (on 28"x34" board) is just 2 shots overlapped. The only reason a seam might appear is if you piece together smaller pieces of mounting tissue. Once, several years ago, I was warned a seam would appear if I did this, but was similarly entirely successful, at least on double weight paper.

Mounting larger sizes from 18"X30" to the aforementioned 30"X40" is simply a matter of 4 rotations in the same press. The tip here is preventing the board-print sandwich from sagging as each of the four overlapping corners is heated - and very importantly: Press each corner one time through the rotation only enough to begin melting the tissue in the sandwich (this might be something like half the recommended pressing time, depending on your press and temperature). After one complete rotation of all 4 corners, check to see if any bubbles have developed, smooth them down with a cotton-gloved hand (which you can do because the tissue will not have fully adhered with the first rotation). Then proceed to a final (or two) complete rotation of full pressing time on each corner, before cooling under weight (where the real adhesion occurs).

[Peter Mounier]

I've done this many time too, and I have successfully mounted large prints with smaller sheets of dry mount tissues pieced together. The trick there is to not have the tissue pieces touching each other before you put the image in the press. You can have them 1/16th" (+-) apart and it will not show on the surface of the print.

Peter