Is Multi-Pass Dry Mounting Oversized Prints Practical?

[nathanm]

I haven't used a dry mount press since college so I'm a little rusty. I have a show coming up in January and I want to do my prints float mounted on mat board and then stuck to a larger board and framed. My problem is that I love big prints but the cost of bigger dry mount presses is really out of my league. They claim you can run oversized sheets in separate passes but I would love some real world opinion on how practical this actually is.

I'm sure it can be done, but the question is; is it a pain? Is it half-ass? Does it just make so much more sense to do the whole print at once or is feeding it in sections a genuine workable compromise? Don't you get creases in there?

Thanks!

[Greg Lockrey]

I do it all the time with my Seal 210M with inkjet printing. Even with laminating too.

[photographs42]

I have done it for years with FB Glossy.
Jerome

[Robert A. Zeichner]

I do this regularly with 16x20 prints mounted on 24x30 mounts. I'm using fiber based B&W photographic paper on 4-ply museum board and I've never had a problem. I press half the print at a time (actually overlap by about 3-4") and cool with a steel weight designed for that purpose (Zone VI) after the first pass, and once again after the second. One piece of advice: The half you press first should be the end of the print that you tack down to mount board.

[Drew Wiley]

Seal has some good general instructions on this, even though my own technque is
a little different. I recommend buying the largest press you can afford, especially if
you need to mount a lot of prints. But if you do multiple pressings, be certain to use
an outer sandwich larger than your image area, so you don't get crease marks, and
predry these boards also, so that they don't steam your actual mount board.

[nathanm]

Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. I guess it's a wash ultimately as I'll use whatever money I save on mounting to shovel right into the ink furnace.

[willwilson]

I think you need at least a Seal 210 size press to make it feasible to mount 16x20 on 22x28. You can do 22x28 in two passes.

As Drew said make sure your top sandwich board is super dry or it might stick to your print. This, like dust, is a serious bummer.

[Kirk Gittings]

I agree with allot of the above. I want to emphasize preheating to get any moisture out of the print and mount. Moisture seems to be the source of allot of drymounting failures.

Also for a cooling platten (like the steel ZoneVI mentioned above). I have found a piece of granite to be the best. Really! I use a scrap piece from a sink cut out with handles Gorilla glued on. That granite just sucks the heat right out of the print and the weight holds it down great while it is cooling.

[Brian Ellis]

Yes. Just make sure you cover the print with a piece of mat board or something similar that's the same size as the print or larger. If you use one that's only the size of the print area you're heating at any given time the edge of the mount board may leave an indented line in the print (as I learned the hard way).

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I agree with allot of the above. I want to emphasize preheating to get any moisture out of the print and mount. Moisture seems to be the source of allot of drymounting failures.

Also for a cooling platten (like the steel ZoneVI mentioned above). I have found a piece of granite to be the best. Really! I use a scrap piece from a sink cut out with handles Gorilla glued on. That granite just sucks the heat right out of the print and the weight holds it down great while it is cooling.

Kirk, this is nice to know. I'm in the stone business and I can get some granite pieces without any problem.

Jim

[Tony Lakin]

I agree with allot of the above. I want to emphasize preheating to get any moisture out of the print and mount. Moisture seems to be the source of allot of drymounting failures.

Also for a cooling platten (like the steel ZoneVI mentioned above). I have found a piece of granite to be the best. Really! I use a scrap piece from a sink cut out with handles Gorilla glued on. That granite just sucks the heat right out of the print and the weight holds it down great while it is cooling.

Gorilla glue:( I have never used this glue, is it really so strong you would risk lifting a lump of granite with handles attached with this stuff???

[Roger Thoms]

Also for a cooling platten (like the steel ZoneVI mentioned above). I have found a piece of granite to be the best. Really! I use a scrap piece from a sink cut out with handles Gorilla glued on. That granite just sucks the heat right out of the print and the weight holds it down great while it is cooling.

Thanks for the granite suggestion, that is a great idea.

Roger

[IanMazursky]

I have one of the old Seal presses like the picture below. Mine is the 16x20 version.
I just redid most of the wiring to make is safer and added an on/off switch but i have a few questions...

1. Does anyone have a manual for it? I am a little foggy as to what the blinking lights mean and the proper temperatures i should set it too.
2. Is there a source to replace the felt covered rubber support?
Mine is ok but it shrunk from age, so it doesn't cover the complete base.

If anyone could help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.prepressexpress.com/sale/seal.jpg

Thanks!!

[Brian Ellis]

I have one of the old Seal presses like the picture below. Mine is the 16x20 version.
I just redid most of the wiring to make is safer and added an on/off switch but i have a few questions...

1. Does anyone have a manual for it? I am a little foggy as to what the blinking lights mean and the proper temperatures i should set it too.
2. Is there a source to replace the felt covered rubber support?
Mine is ok but it shrunk from age, so it doesn't cover the complete base.

If anyone could help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.prepressexpress.com/sale/seal.jpg

Thanks!!

One of the blinking lights probably means it hasn't yet reached the temperature you set. That's what the blinking light on my kitchen oven means. Proper temperature is whatever temperature you want to use. I kept the temperature low, around 200 IIRC, because I didn't want to bake the print and wasn't in a hurry.

[Merg Ross]

I have one of the old Seal presses like the picture below. Mine is the 16x20 version.
I just redid most of the wiring to make is safer and added an on/off switch but i have a few questions...

1. Does anyone have a manual for it? I am a little foggy as to what the blinking lights mean and the proper temperatures i should set it too.
2. Is there a source to replace the felt covered rubber support?
Mine is ok but it shrunk from age, so it doesn't cover the complete base.

If anyone could help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.prepressexpress.com/sale/seal.jpg

Thanks!!

The steady red light is while the press is heating or turned on, the green light indicates that it is to temperature. When you lower the platen, the blinking light serves as a timer, just count the seconds. You will need to work out the correct time for your process taking into account the type of tissue and thickness of cover sheet, etc. The rubber support does not cover the entire base until the platen is closed and pressure is applied. It may be that yours is the correct size, as is.

[vinny]

B&h sells the replacement pad.

[photographs42]

....... Proper temperature is whatever temperature you want to use. I kept the temperature low, around 200 IIRC, because I didn't want to bake the print and wasn't in a hurry.

The proper temperture is determined by thr type of adhesive you are using. The temperature range should be quoted on the data sheet that came with the adhesive.
Jerome

[Merg Ross]

Ian, to clarify my earlier post; when the green light goes off, the press is at temperature. The flashing red is for timing. The four hex bolts are for adjusting tension.

[IanMazursky]

Merg, Thanks for the help! Its not that intuitive unless you know what the lights mean.
Im still working on replacing the platen screws. Somehow the screws threads are stripped. Not the taps in the platen...go figure.

[nathanm]

Well, I got a used Seal 210M and it does work fine. It sure beats the iron (which never worked anyway) or the spray adhesive. I've been doing the second half without a cooling\weighting step but it seems to be okay.

I'm a little puzzled by the drying thing, though. It seems to make the matboard more warped than normal. I've been using two sheets of Kraft paper, perhaps this isn't thick enough? Not enough time? I haven't tried additional sheets of mat, though. Wouldn't the upper and lower sheets have to be drier than the center? It would seem that if you stick a sandwhich in there the theory is that the moisture will evaporate from the center board and into the outer sheets, but if you have three sheets of mat all from the same box aren't you effectively dealing with three equally moist boards with the only means of evaporation being the edges? I was thinking felt sheets might make more sense. Hmmm.

So I've been skipping the drying bit and just jamming the whole works in there and it seems to work fine. A few pieces are slightly wobbly, but I am hoping the frame will flatten them out. In any case, it's less tedious than cutting mat windows.

[Drew Wiley]

Nathanm - you are definitely headed for trouble if you don't predry your mounting
board and prints. You will either get blisters during the mounting process or bonding
failures down the road. I always dry the mount and print during separate steps between two sheets of 4-ply museum board. Kraft paper runs the risk of contaminating your print and won't evenly spread the heat. It only takes about 30
sec to predry boards. Flip them over so each side will dry. And don't wait a long time to do the final mounting, since the mount board might reabsorb atmospheric
moisture. Place your finished print under a firm flat weight. I use a large sheet of
3/8 inch thick glass. However, since the mount board and mounting tissue are very
different materials - one hydroscopic, the other not, the print will tend to bow toward the image side unless you keep it stored under pressure, like in a portfolio
box between other prints, or placed flat within a frame assembly.

[nathanm]

Will do. Although so far I didn't get any blisters or bonding problems, even when dangling myself from a hardhat glued to the surface of the print, as long as I left it in there long enough. (5 min. at 200˚F) I do weight the print down with a sheet of mat board and a chunk of plywood. Don't get me wrong, they're not curled up or anything, just a bit of a wavy border here and there is all. The print area itself is quite flat. I've also got a roll of silicone release paper now, to use in lieu of the kraft paper. I will give the 3-sheet sandwhich trick a shot. Thanks!

[Merg Ross]

Will do. Although so far I didn't get any blisters or bonding problems, even when dangling myself from a hardhat glued to the surface of the print, as long as I left it in there long enough. (5 min. at 200˚F) I do weight the print down with a sheet of mat board and a chunk of plywood. Don't get me wrong, they're not curled up or anything, just a bit of a wavy border here and there is all. The print area itself is quite flat. I've also got a roll of silicone release paper now, to use in lieu of the kraft paper. I will give the 3-sheet sandwhich trick a shot. Thanks!

What tissue are you using? Five minutes sound excessive.

[nathanm]

Seal Color Mount. I started off at 2 min. for just the print onto the matboard which was fine, but for the thicker print\floating mat\main mat combo the sandwich was coming undone so I upped the time to 5. The original melt temp I had read was 195˚F. Now poking around some more I've seen 180˚F and a 175-200˚F range at different websites.