How easy is Face Mounting on Plexi?

[Ron Marshall]

I would appreciate some guidance from someone who has experience face mounting on plexiglass.

Face mounting prints on plexiglass with a roller press and transparency mount film, what should I expect my failure rate to be for small prints, say 12 x 24 inches? I can think of dust and wrinkles as possible failures; are there others I'm missing?

I imagine prints on a polymer base would mount best?

[Drew Wiley]

True face mounting with a transparent adhesive foil inbetween is hell. You need specialized equip and skill, and will have a very expensive learning curve. You might
also need a special expensive version of baked-out plexiglas free of water vapor. Leave that task to pros who will appropriately skin you alive with the cost. Your
adhesive also has be bought relative fresh and used in a timely fashion. Aged adhesives are uncooperative. You'll need an actual clean room. There is ZERO tolerance
for mistakes.

[Kirk Gittings]

Ditto

[Ron Marshall]

What about mounting on Diabond and leaving the surface of the print exposed, as was done here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/es...omposite.shtml

I would use use a matt or baryta print surface so it would be less prone to fingerprints etc.

Any experience of leaving prints exposed? Obviously more UV damage, so I would keep it out of direct sunlight.

[vinny]

there are companies that print directly onto aluminum as well. aspencreekphoto.com is one of them. Just fpt them your TIFF file.

[Ron Marshall]

Vinny, how does the image quality on aluminum, dmax, shadow detail, color gamut etc. compare to inkjet?

there are companies that print directly onto aluminum as well. aspencreekphoto.com is one of them. Just fpt them your TIFF file.

[vinny]

Vinny, how does the image quality on aluminum, dmax, shadow detail, color gamut etc. compare to inkjet?

I have no idea. It IS inkjet they are using too. They run deals all the time and I've been meaning to get a small print done. Let us know if you try it out.

There's a guy in traverse city michigan that encapsulates prints onto something like masonite (not archival by any means) and it looks amazing. He did one for a hotel up there for me. http://www.woodengallery.com/
I've never seen anything else like it (not glossy but kind of a satin finish I guess) , the prints come to life.

[Drew Wiley]

Gosh. Encapsulation is a whole other subject. Simply pouring polyester resin over a photograph is an artsy/craftsy trick that has been around forever, but isn't technically the same thing. Printing on aluminum is a completely different thing, and another cutesy whatever reminiscent of dept store window displays, and probably expensive.

[bob carnie]

I do the exact process shown in the LL article , in fact that is Brian Barlow who I worked with 30 odd years ago .

For face to plexi you need an extremely clean room, which btw is not shown in that LL article, our work space looks like that as well.
Yes it can be done by us regular print shops but at the kind of level you would see at Peter Liks space you need a very special environment to do it well.
He is using fujiflex prints and then using an very expensive optically and stable adhesive($$$$$) to do this, he has built a clean room within a clean room and the
cold mounting machines you see in the article are within the hi tech room.
I have never been a fan of his images but his mounting technique is second to none, and anyone attempting this without all the tricks of the trade in place are opening
themselves for a huge can of whoop ass.



mounting to diabond, and putting hangers on back is very standard, and done each day here at our shop.

Face mounting to plexi, then mounting to a diabond backer is also a very popular process, and very expensive. I am considering building a room dedicated to this type of mounting but I am not
kidding when I say this is one of the hardest options out there to do well.
Any spec of dust will show and cause the mounter untold amounts of grief.

Smaller sizes are much easier to do and we do them, it more predictable, but when you go over 30 x40 size the complications really start to show.


We also are experimenting with the resin encapsulation ,as it is very visually appealing, I am not so sure of its archival status, but for those who do not care about the longevity , its really popular.

[bob carnie]

At this point the quality is not at a level one would expect , if you are use to Cprints or Inkjets, but this is an area that will improve leaps and bounds over the next few years
and the commercial labs are all going to go to this method to avoid the second step (cost$) of mounting paper prints.

Some day we will see this being a very viable option for large pigment load printmaking.

I have no idea. It IS inkjet they are using too. They run deals all the time and I've been meaning to get a small print done. Let us know if you try it out.

There's a guy in traverse city michigan that encapsulates prints onto something like masonite (not archival by any means) and it looks amazing. He did one for a hotel up there for me. http://www.woodengallery.com/
I've never seen anything else like it (not glossy but kind of a satin finish I guess) , the prints come to life.