How to adhere a LF film positive to paper or polyester support?

[sanking]

I have some LF film positives, 5X7 and 11X14 size, mostly on 7 mil polyester base. I would like to adhere these to thick rag mat board as a final support, or perhaps to a 14-20 mil white polyester base. Is there a very clear hot press roll or sheets that I could use for this with a dry mount press. I considered regular dry mount sheets but these do not appear to be perfectly clear and this might affect the look of the positive seen on the paper through the mounting. Or is there some type of clear cold mount adhesive that might work better?

Thanks for any suggestions. Note that I do have a dry mount press to use if that will work for this project.

Sandy

[Drew Wiley]

Double-sided mylar library tape. It's hard to find. A very specialized archival product used in the Library of Congress etc. Just realize that rag board is very hydroscopic, while polyester prints are not, so buckling or warpage is inevitable, esp if large sizes are involved. What you'd have to do is drymount a veneer of 2-ply rag board onto a dimensionally stable substrate like aluminum (like Durabond sheet) with a permanent adhesive first. I used to use Seal MT5 for this preliminary step. Or have someone like Bob do it with acylic adhesive foil using a roller press. An acquired skill. In other words, practice on throwaway prints first.

[sanking]

Double-sided mylar library tape. It's hard to find. A very specialized archival product used in the Library of Congress etc. Just realize that rag board is very hydroscopic, while polyester prints are not, so buckling or warpage is inevitable, esp if large sizes are involved. What you'd have to do is drymount a veneer of 2-ply rag board onto a dimensionally stable substrate like aluminum (like Durabond sheet) with a permanent adhesive first. I used to use Seal MT5 for this preliminary step. Or have someone like Bob do it with acylic adhesive foil using a roller press. An acquired skill. In other words, practice on throwaway prints first.

Drew,

What would you recommend for permanent adhesion of the the LF film positive to white polyester? And a fairly simple process with perhaps some type of pressure sensitive sheet?

Sandy

[Drew Wiley]

There are special clear pressure-sensitive adhesive foils intended for backlit transparencies available from several manufacturers. Best prices are from wholesale signage supply distributors. You might be able to work with them on small prints kinda like putting down formica onto contact cement using a silicone slip sheet. But they're utterly unforgiving. A single bubble or wrinkle, and it's all over. No forgiveness. No second chance. Best done professionally using a dedicated silicone roller press. And just like masking tape, once you buy a roll of this stuff you have to use it all up before the adhesive is no longer cooperative. The cheapest roller machines out there that really work are made by Daige. Of course, you could experiment with a professional formica roller first, available from cabinet shop suppliers and a few art stores. Drymount release silicone release paper is a good slip sheet. I could probably do stiff
Estar sheet film up to 11x14 by hand. Bigger than that would be risky. My roller press is about 42" wide; but I don't mount other people's work this way - too much can go wrong. Bob probably has a much bigger roller system. You want PEC film cleaner on hand. Get any adhesive onto your fingers and all hell breaks loose. I carefully mask off the exact image area (or in this case, film perimeter) using low-tack truly removable automative lacquer masking tape or low-tack drafting vellum tape. That way, if you have a surrounding larger surface, once you carefully remove the tape, the sticky stuff is only on the exact area you want it. I find that preferable to applying the adhesive sheet to the film or print first. The working area must obviously clean and free of dust.

[sanking]

Drymount release silicone release paper is a good slip sheet. I could probably do stiff
Estar sheet film up to 11x14 by hand. Bigger than that would be risky.

Drew,

I watched a few videos of the use of silicon drymount release paper and its seems fairly practical for the small size I will be doing, no larger than about 9X12" polyester film on 12X19" polyester base.

Would this be considered a permanent mounting solution for polyester to polyester?

BTW, I have already done some of this with 3m 568 cold mount repositionable release adhesive. From reading about it seemed that nothing could go wrong, my experience is that nothing goes right!!

Sandy

[Drew Wiley]

3M PMA is a low-tack amateur product that you're supposed to lightly pressure onto one surface, remove the cover sheet, bond your print or whatever, then strongly pressure to break glass micro-beads and get a semi-permanent bond. It doesn't work all that well with polyester-based substrates because the corners tend to lift. And you've probably already discovered that it doesn't always transfer completely. It's a very early product that hasn't changed since the 70's. High adhesion films are different, are tough for machine application, and made in a considerable selection from MacTac, Seal, Neschen, Gudy, etc. I'm not up on the latest selection or if small rolls are available. You apparently want a fully transparent type. There are quite a few distributors; but one which is accustomed to selling small lots and ships all over the country that you might try Oregon Laminations. They use mostly Seal. But I've had good results with MacTac too. With sizes as small as you need, hand application would probably work after some practice. But you will need a good roller.

[Pere Casals]

Sandy, I had been researching in that concern. I found 3M has four solutions I considered:

Most pro one should be 3M™ Vac-U-Mount™ Adhesive 6096 . But you need vacuum gear. Probably this way would like you.
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-...3240888&rt=rud


Then we have 3M Photo Mount, 3M Mount and 3M Re Mount.

There are reports that those glues will stay beyond 15 years without going yellow or having problems. But who knows? So I tried with 3M Re Mount that allows to take the film away.


So perhaps you may try to spray 3M Re Mount glue on the polyester sheet. It is critical to spray from far and uniformly, and to allow the glue to dry well before placing the positive film on it.

If you remove the film and it takes glue then the glue was not dry enough, I reiterate, we have allow the glue dry well before placing the film on it.

That glue may have some slight texture that may be perceived in the very clear areas, to me this was not a problem because I was mounting on paper that it had a texture anyway.

I cannot say how permanent (LE 500 ) this is, but at least we can remove the negative from the polyester if necessary.

I'm concerned about that because I wanted to experiement with the aesthetics from the high dynamic range of retroilluminated transparencies. Now my bet is printing on glass, coated with DIY emulsion, but I feel I've a long journey before I get good results with that.

[Drew Wiley]

Pere - Spray adhesives are very unhealthy to work with, and should be completely avoided unless you've got a controlled spray booths with an explosion -proof motor running the ventilation. It's like working with nitro lacquers. Backlit this will look ropey, is probably not ideal for nonporous material. Pro sprays that are permanent on polyester are even more hazardous and flammable. One bit of mist on the emulsion side and it's ruined....Optimount is just one brand among many that I basically descibed earlier.

[Pere Casals]

You can spray outdoors... I guess it's for infrequent use.

[Tin Can]

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1...r-adhesive.pdf