Attention 3M ProSpray users!

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Jerry Ervin

Jerry Ervin

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Jul 13, 2001
Posts
8,115
Loc
North Carolina ... The Picture Frame Capital of th
Just a quick update for the 3M ProSpray users out there.

I have been experimenting with many different alternatives to our beloved product. It seems that there is a product on the market that has been around and stood the test of time. The cost is low and the ROI can be very substantial. It is Sure Mount. I tried this product years ago by using rollers and brushes and hated it. Guess what, it sprays just like ProSpray with the right equipment.


DSCN0902.JPG


My compressor in the store could not keep up with the full size gun on the right. However, it works just fine with the "touch up" gun on the left. The smaller gun uses 2.8 CFM at 30psi and works like a champ. It sprays a more even coat than the ProSpray applicator. You will need to leave the print package in the press a little longer because the Sure Mount is a little more wet. I have been going 15 to 20 minutes and all is well.


Or you could plonk down 4 to 5 grand for a heated press, hundreds of dollars for tissues and then whine here on the Grumble when you damage your customers poster, photos, etc from the heat.
 
Jerry,

Looks like a great idea! Is there any problem with the low air pressure and syphoning the thick adhesive out of the touchup gun? That seems like a minimal pressure for that thick of a material. How is atomization of the adhesive? Does it go on in a thin smooth coat or does it tend to get globby?

Any of these problems can be easily remedied with water. I have all my guns from my last career and I may dig out one of my touchup guns and try this method. I have a heat/vacuum press but I still like to keep up with other methods of mounting whether I use them or not.

Thanks for the idea, Jerry.

Framerguy
 
Jerry Thank you thank you thank you! Saves me having to by a heat press for another year!

Parts list available?

or do you have a JEPro Kit available for purchase?


I want the Grumbler discount (sometimes known as PITA charge or 2 X retail then 50% off!)
 
Framerguy

The full size gun had some problems with the viscosity so I added a little water. The "touch up" gun siphons the glue straight out of the jug. I was going to try a gravity feed gun, they will spray about anything, however all I could find locally required a much larger compressor than the one I have in the store. The paint guns apply the glue in a very smooth finish, even better than the ProSpray applicator gun does.

So far, playing around with different materials I have bonded cloth to wood, foamboard, and acrylic. Paper prints to every substrate in the shop multiple sheets of black core black matboard for a homemade 8 ply.

All the big suppliers carry Sure-Mount including United and LJ.

The color of the adhesive is similar and it almost smells the same. I wonder....
 
Bob,

The gun on the left came from Lowe's. It was around 30 bucks. There are a lot of places on the Internet that sell these or similar. Just make sure you get one with a stainless steel needle and not the brass or aluminum because of the water base of the product.
 
Jerry,

Many of the "gravity" feed guns are built for HVLP applications and might not work on low pressure air. I haven't used them enough to know how the air pressures affect their spraying capabilities.

All my guns are either DeVilbis or Binks as they were the standard in the autobody trade but there are some very good knockoffs on the market now that should work as well as the expensive professional guns. And many bodyshops are now using HVLP so anyone looking for a good gun might run into a bodyman who will sell one of their old syphon touchup guns at a good price.

Hey, I've had a gallon of Sure Mount sitting around my shop for years and hardly ever used any of it. This might be the reason I open the jug again!!

FGII
 
I've been rolling Sure Mount and cold-vacuuming the mounts for years. I think it is basically a starch paste, similar to wallpaper paste. Please correct me if I'm mistaken on that.

It should apply and work like ProSpray for wetmounting porous surfaces together, but I don't think it has the versatility of ProSpray.

What I liked most about ProSpray was the latex-like bonding power of it for non-porous surfaces. ProSpray would securely mount a slick-surfaced laminated map to Sintra PVC sheeting. Sure mount won't do that, will it?

Another big plus of ProSpray was its ease of use. Just plug it into the air supply and spray. And when the canister goes dry, throw it away and plug in another -- no prep, no mess. I imagine Sure Mount, since it is completely water soluble, would be equally convenient to set up and maintain the equipment.

The issue of overspray is a big concern. ProSpray was non-toxic and, being water-borne, the droplets of overspray dropped immediately, instead of floating in the air. The Sure mount is non-toxic, too, and its overspray might be minimal, too, depending on how the sprayer is adjusted. is that right Jerry?.
 
Jerry, Jerry, Jerry - that sure shows good old Carolina framer's ingenuity - what a great idea!

When I first learned ProSpray was going away we bought up a bunch - it's just about gone and we've been working on a solution. Just so happens we've got a jug of Sure Mount in the shop, too. AND I think we've got the gun....

THANKS
Tony
 
I still have cases of Pro Spray cartridges (both sizes) available for purchase. Anyone interested? If you buy all of it, I will even throw in the gun!

e-mail me at rmarkoff@cts.com
 
The Sure-Mount is, as Jim mentioned, starch or
modified starch, making it non-toxic to user and
the material it is used on. That should also make
it more stable, in the long run and easier to
reverse. It should also have a higher pH than some of the old dextrin pastes, which are no longer on the market. Unlike those acidic pastes,
it will require a preservative, making it less
attractive of use with valued material, but posing
little or no risk for users or ordinary material
to be mounted.

Hugh
 
Thanks for that information, Hugh.

Am I correct in thinking Sure Mount would not be an effective adhesive for non-porous surfaces, as Pro-Spray was?
 
That sounds reasonable. Dextrin paste was so tacky
that it might have held such surfaces, but Sure-
Mount is a fluid and designed to work with a press and thus will probably work best on porous
materials.

Hugh
 
I'm bringing up this old topic to see if anyone has any new thoughts on the topic of Sure Mount. We are looking to get rid of the 77, which we currently use mainly for photos and fabric wrapped mats. Is anyone using Sure Mount for those?
 
I went a different route - cold mount rollers. I do wish I had done so a long time ago now, hindsight is a wonderful thing! It is so much faster and less labour intensive, large volume runs just disappear and we can also mount and/or laminate very large sizes (to date the largest is 36m by 1.5m (118' by 5').
 
You are right to abandon the spray adhesives. Aside from bsing toxic, they are among the least effective adhesives for long term uses.

I use SureMount or its competitor, VacuGlue 300, for wet mounting of posters and other porous things under vacuum. Since 1989 we've kept a Tupperware marinating container with a half-cup of paste and a wet roller. It is very easy to use -- no preparation, no cleanup.

For non-porous surfaces such as photos, we dry mount in either the vacuum or mechanical press.

Lance may have the best idea. If I were shopping for a press today, it would probably be a heated roller press.
 
To those of you who still love/use the Pro Spray system, Valley Moulding in Caklifornia has all of their Pro Spray on sale for about half off. I still have cases of the product in both sizes that I will sell very inexpensively and also a gun.
 
Originally posted by Rob Markoff:
To those of you who still love/use the Pro Spray system, Valley Moulding in Caklifornia has all of their Pro Spray on sale for about half off. I still have cases of the product in both sizes that I will sell very inexpensively and also a gun.
Click to expand...
Rob:

Do you have a link to their website?

Thanks.
 
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