Trading in the Hot Press for a Cold Mounting System?

[John Gornall]

After 20 plus years of dry mounting and laminating with heat I feel it's time to sell off the heat presses and get some kind of cold system. This idea is brought about by the many digital prints we are getting to frame. Some of these prints are fine with heat - many aren't and the problem is that we don't know what we're dealing with as the prints are not identified. Case in point: customer brings in a 20 x 24 black and white photo - looks like a photographic print, feels like a photographic print, has a photo company name on the back, and the customer says it's a photographic print. Drymounted as we have done thousands of times and the print comes out all melted and green. It becomes obvious it's an inkjet print of some sort. The customer is not mad at us - she's mad at her lab because they told her it was a photographic print. Second issue is my print agent telling me that soon we will be getting art and poster prints which are printed on demand - not a lithographic run printed in real ink - again these will be inkjet and printed in various techniques and inks. So I'm looking for a serious cold system - no sprays and cold vacuum - no expensive positionable mount boards requiring time and labour for burnishing - I'm lookin for rolls of mount medium and laminate and a cold roller machine that can mount a 30 x 40 in about 1 minute. Anyone gone this way?

[JRB]

They used to make cold mounting machines that used rollers and Yes Paste or any other non curling vegetable glue. The print and mounting board was fed through at the same time, the print would feed through on the top rollers, glue was applied to the board, then a set of rollers would bring them together and the mount would be complete. It almost looked like a printing press, sort of, anyway. Aaron Brothers had a couple of them at their old factory at 960 North La Brea in Los Angeles.

They took up way to much floor space for the average frame shop. I've seen smaller versions of the same idea, but they didn't work all that great.

I'm sure someone will come up with a winner, sooner or later.

In the meantime, we have a small hand held microscope we purchased at Radio Shack for around ten dollars. We check just about every print we mount with this. All prints have a pattern of some sort that lets us know what we are dealing with before we mount them.

John

[katman]

About five years ago I invested in a Seal roller laminator so I could cold mount and apply low temp laminates. I also have a 500 tx for "traditional" dry mounting, and would love to have a hot/cold vacuum press so all the bases are covered. Holding off for now on the vacuum press.

My roller laminator has two rollers that can be heated or run cold. Each is individually temperature controlled. The machine has several thickness settings. Speed of throughput and pressure are separately controlled. Usually run mine at about 3 feet/min and 50 psi. The machine came with a small compressor. You can work materials up to 40 inches wide. Length is not really an issue--I buy my adhesive in 24 and 38 inch wide rolls. Two hundred feet per roll. Pretty much the same story on laminate supplies.

The machine has performed flawlessly. It is unforgiving--your set up must be correct. But, like any tool once you know its limitations it is pretty easy to use. There are several different adhesives that address a wide range of substrates. They are all very aggressive and permanent.

There are other, less expensive machines out there, lot's of different features, but I am very pleased with my Seal. They do make a larger model (I think it does up to 60" wide)that I have occasionally wished I had. Don't have the space for it. There have been a few nice jobs that I have had to turn away because they exceeded the capacity of my machine, but not many.

[preservator]

John's point is a good one. Separating out heat
sensitive material is becoming increasingly
difficult and cold mounting will benefit all
materials that need mounting. In the past, there
were high tack modified starch wet mounting pastes
on the market, which had a rather low pH, but which could be used without a press, once the
technique had been mastered. There are still
pastes available that have a higher pH and lower
tack, so they require a press, but which should
do fine in a cold press. Overall mounting can never be considered to be preservationally sound,
unless the artist does it, but where it is done
less heat is better.

Hugh

[Jack Cee]

We have cold mounted since going into business in 1990 and have found our purchase of a cold frame press to be a wise decision. Our idea was to eventually convert it to a combination press but the model was discontinued shortley after our purchase. No regrets; anything that lended itself better to heat mounting was accomplished with an old seal press that we purchased for about $150.00. Today the only thing we use heat for is lamination.

I believe that there are several cold frame presses manufactured today (I thing so anyway). Look around for a used one. Buy the largest one that your shop will accomodate; ours will mount a 40 x 60 piece.

I have never been happy with anything with a crank or anything that must be pealed. We use Vacu-Mount in the spray can.

Jack Cee

[Alan Sturgess]

Hello John and others,
Yes there is a new system for you. It was introduced at the Atlanta Show by Art Materials Service and is available from their distributor network. It is a complete manual cold mount system for mounting as well as laminating. It was developed in Germany and uses a roller similar to the one introduced 25 years ago by 3M to apply their PMA adhesive. There are a series of laminates - gloss, satin matte, smooth matte, canvas, and linen. In addition there is a cold mounting/glue material that can be applied to any substrate. The mounting glue/film comes on a roll with a carrier sheet and a release paper. The glue is applied to the substrate with the release sheet remaining on the top of the substrate. In a second pass through the machine the print is applied while the release sheet is removed as the print rolls through the roller.

The laminates come on 3” cores in a variety of widths – 13”, 25”, 41”, 50” and 60” and the lengths are 148 or 164 feet. The films range from 2.4 to 3mil thick.

The mounting/glue comes on 3" cores in the following widths – 25”, 41”, 50” and 60.” The length is 164 feet.

In addition there is a PH Neutral cold mounting /glue that comes in the
Following widths – 25”, 41”, 50” The length is 164 feet.

The double roll hand cranked table top applicator 41” wide would sell for approx $1800 US.

Here are some approximate prices to the retail shops in US$
Laminates – plain $ .45 USD per sq ft
Laminates textured $ .60 USD per sq ft
Cold Mounting Films $ .60 to $ .70 USD per sq ft

This system is definitely a solution to the problem of how to mount and laminate the variety of digital output now flooding the market.

We can readily find a new home for your Seal Vacuum press.

Alan

[Frank Larson]

You might check out Daige (http://www.daige.com/index.htm) . I haven't actually used the system but I did buy their hand applicator just to try out the adhesive and it seemed to work.

[rosetl]

We have an older model than katman--no heat, just cold press, and are very happy with it.

And, JRB -- we used to have what you decribed. I believe it's brand was "Potdevin". It would be great for open edition swap meet type mounting if one did hundreds at a time.

[Jerry Ervin]

Originally posted by Jack Cee:
We use Vacu-Mount in the spray can.

I also have a cold frame and used Vacu-mount for 6 years. I bought the Scotch ProSpray system as soon as United started carrying them. I am slowly leaning more toward it than the cans. If for nothing else, the chemical smell that the cans have will drive you out of the back room. The ProSpray has no chemical smell. It is water based instead of solvent based.

[DesignsInk]

John,
This same querry comes up again and again on both Hitchhickers and The Grumble, plus I have been lecturing and writing about it for a few years now. I just went back into HH to look for my last answer to this question and I see I have already responded to you over it.

But, for the other nonPPFA members here was my reply...
John, you are spot on about the roller system. I have been predicting this shift for a few years now. Contact the following for information on systems and adhesives:

Coda, Inc./New Jersey/201.825.7400 www.codamount.com (http://www.codamount.com)
Daige Inc/New York/800.645.3323/www.daige.com
Drytac Corp /Canada/416.660.1748/www.drytac.com
GBC Films Corp/Illinois/800.723.4000 www.gbcConnect.com (http://www.gbcConnect.com)
Repro Technology/Texas/936.539.4419 www.reprotechnology.com (http://www.reprotechnology.com)
Seal Graphics Americas/410.379.5400 www.sealbrands.com (http://www.sealbrands.com)

Good luck.
Chris A. Paschke, CPF GCF
Designs Ink

[JFeig]

Does this mean that I can dust off a massive 30x40 wet mount press in the back room.

I have a wood frame screw down press that was used in the 50's. It must weigh at least 300 pounds. It kinda looks like an old fashion book binding press, but, made from wood and much larger. ;)

[PurplePerson]

We use an old vaccuum mount press that uses paste. The press is longer than I am and probably 40 inches across. Those measurements are not exact :confused: but it is very, very old and works very, very well.

We also photo mount.

[Less]

Less loves his seal 40x60 combo press, and I'm keeping it. Although, I have to admit, I don't use it much. Nowadays, I rarely put even real photos in a press. I don't like orange-peel. I find 3Ms PMA applied by hand does the job if hinging is not the best solution.

[AWG]

We were looking to add a heat press until recently. Like others here, we've found more and more problems with heat. We've got an old Seal cold frame that we're using in conjuction with a ProSpray.

No orange peel, no fumes, a good firm bond and water clean up. The biggest problem with the ProSpray we've found is the tips clog easily. Other than that we're happy with it.
With PMA on occasion (but not very often) we're not missing the heat.

And we're using the space for our new Wizard (in 6-8-10 weeks)

Tony

[tnframer408]

Having taken the CPF recert course taught by William parker a while back in Lexington KY, I'm now scared to death to drymount anything other than the cheap $30 poster which I can replace easily.

So I've got a 48 x 60 press which we "fire up" only to do the occassional poster or other such replaceable stuff.

Most scary was the lessons on digital prints, how transient they are and how heat sensitive they are.

We're now investigating several "archival" adhesives on the market (I know that's an oxymoron) but until such time we're simply hinging everything to either Bainbridge foam, Bainbridge Artcare foam, or 4- or 8-ply rag.

[DesignsInk]

Cold vacuum frames used for picture framing and roller laminators used for sign, reprographics and digitals are apples and oranges. There are numerous types of cold mounting. Vacuum with paste and sprays is one, rollers with high tack pressure-sensitive is another.

Chris A. Paschke, CPF GCF