trouble with Restore board

[MichelleR.]

Hello Grumblers

After a long night of helping out a friend with a last minute order I am left perplexed over a mounting issue. She is a photographer and has 7 30x38 blk and white ink jet images printed on heavy paper. She opted to use the rstore board as it would be reversible. Her photos were rolled for quite some time and we wrestled to put them into the press, set at 160 degrees or so with release paper followed by release board. We set the time for 3 minutes, vacuum kicked in after one minute and when we took the images out the corners and sides did not adhere to the board.
I thought that perhaps the thickness of the paper required a longer dwell time and a higher temperature. We increased both of these at small increments with each new photo. By the 7th they were in the press for 5 minutes set at 200 degrees. Still the sides and corners did not adhere.
We examined the boards closely and it looks like there is less adhesive on the edges than in the middle.
This whole project needs to be completed ASAP. In this case I do not have time to reorder new board. I do have alternative, but permenant methods but I thought I would ask here first. Can I put the boards back into the press? Will increasing the temp and time really help, or hurt? Why is this happening? This press is getting up there in age and recently I have had to put pressure on it for the vacuum to kick in. Could this be a problem with my press or the Restore board?
Any theroies would be appreciated. Thanks!

[tnframer408]

Foudn the same problem with Speedmount--adhesive not as aggressive on the edges as in the middle. Do you want reversibility??? If so, keep experiementing, maybe lower heat, longer dwell times. If reversibility isn't an issue, we often use Perfectmount for photos.

[apetty]

I've had the same problem in the past. I now use a temp of 180 and dwell time of 8 minutes, but I also use an oversize board and cut to the correct size after weighting for 24 hours. I know that won't help you at this point, though...

[dougj]

I have been using Restore for some time and found that temp of 150 to 170 and dwell of 30 to 45 sec works for most.
I am using a Seal 500T mechanical press.
I believe 3 min is too long and the adhesive is drying up.
It is hard to think it will work with a short dwell.
I would try backing off on dwell time.
Looking at the mounting guide a vacuum press should be about the same temp and dwell.
Have heard of complaints with the adhesive not being consistent but I have had no problems,YET.

[Jerry Ervin]

With my vacuum press and using a release board, I have found that 170-175 degrees is needed.

It takes a little extra heat to get through the release board.

Keep playing around with the time and temp settings until you find the right combination for your setup.

[CAframer]

Are you cooling under weight? Makes a huge difference!

[Gustopher]

Perhaps we're fortunate; we have a heat press that was new when we opened 15 months ago. Our experience has been 150-165 degrees. The dwell time depends on whether we use a release board or release paper on top. I generally use a release board on top and 2 minutes of dwell works well for photos and signed posters. My understanding is a longer dwell time is better than higher temperature for this application. I've never attempted a reversal of this process, though...

Mostly for photos, though, I agree with Mike... we use PerfectMount so long as reversability is not an issue.

Gus