Question Coroplast uses?

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dawntaylor

dawntaylor

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New Castle, IN
How do framers use coroplast? I thought it was used for backing boards, but when I checked with my distributor, I found foamboard is cheaper.
 
Sadly, you are correct. Coroplast (the inexpensive) was hi-jacked
into something that has become IMHO MuseumFluteBoard.

Call a sign supply house (not a sign company, but a distributor), for
3mm-4mm CoreX. We get it 48x96 delivered for $11/sheet.
Which makes it about half that of foamcore.

It also can be bonded together with the flutes running perpendicular
and the board becomes amazingly ridged. [Yes, Frank's Fabric
Adhesive works fine over night - - under weight.]
 
I used Coroplast almost exclusively for backing mirrors. Especially in a humid environment like a bathroom, I believe that foam board has too much potential for absorbing moisture and providing a vehicle for mold growth.
 
I like it for a work table work surface too. Easily brushes off, fairly indestructible (except if you cut on it)and becomes pristine white again when cleaned with glass cleaner and then wiped with acetone.

Scrap pieces make a non-absorbive surface for brushing wheat paste on rice paper hinges and also to put Frank's Fabric Adhesive on to roll onto the foam roller.

It's great for making a mailer pack that stays very rigid when you cross flute the two pieces... one on each side.

Better for eating cake off of than mat board scraps too. :thumbsup:
 
Bill Henry- said:
I used Coroplast almost exclusively for backing mirrors. Especially in a humid environment like a bathroom, I believe that foam board has too much potential for absorbing moisture and providing a vehicle for mold growth.
Click to expand...

One of my most recent additions to stretching needlework is the use of 1/8" Coroplast as the board. The big difference in CP and regular Art Care foam board is that with Coroplast, you must first tape the edges of the board with linen tape. Or use a padding under the needlework such as feldt or cotton batting. This will protect the needlework from the sharp edges of the CP board. The 1/8th inch works really well when the needle art doesn't have much of an edge to work with, when the rabbet is not very deep in the frame you want to use......or when adding a fabric edge to the needlework for lacing. The board is strong and won't warp or bend and is light weight. And since CP is acid free, it's archival as well.

Baer, I've been told that CoreX is not acid free. Someone on the G can probably verify that as fact or fiction. All I have to go on is what I have been told by the company and the reps who sell CP. So.........whoever is in the know out there in Grumbleland, I'm asking, is CoreX acid free like Coroplast? And is there a big difference in what the two products are made of?
 
Pull the MDS sheets on both.... and do your own comparison.

one is PET the other is PEX

Neither one contains acid, neither one off-gasses and they used
to be about the same price..... until they chopped one into
32x40 and made a big deal out of it.

I remember a time when salesman of one group used to say
that the other group's product contained paraquat and
agent orange and shouldn't be used in fram. . . .

never mind
 
Depending on where you purchase it and the quantity puchased, the price can be very competitive to regular foam board, and you have a totally inert backer. I buy and use the "archival" product (no UV inhibitors for outside use, no pigments in the poly, and no sizing on the surface for printing) as a substitute for the "acid free" foam board products such as Bainbridge's Artcare.
Screwed to the back of the stretcher of a painting it provides a light weight barrier against foreign objects and accidental pokes, and serves as a vibration dampener to boot. It is pretty much the default support backing for Museum grade framing.
 
I was told by an instructor at the WCAF show that coroplast might help with some moisture build up that happens under the glass in my window displays. I have west facing floor to ceiling windows. During the summer when that beautifully bright Arizona desert sun gets to 3pm, my fog rolls in. ;-) it can be so bad that it'll actually drip. Any insights?
 
LJ distributes 1/4" sheets and the sign company distributes 1/8" With the sign company I get a price a little more expensive than Baer's but I have to buy twenty-five 48 x 96" sheets at a time. LJ is a lot more expensive but the sheets are twice as thick, available 40 x 60 or 48 x 96, and available as single sheets.

Because of the price difference, even given the 1/8 vs the 1/4, I figured there must also be differences in the suitability for preservation framing but I've never had the time to look into it. And LJ had a special on theirs a while ago so I got a bunch to hold me over.

We'll use it to back mirrors as well, especially when there will be no backing paper. The coroplast and some infinity hangers used as turnbuttons gives a really nice look.

For some higher end mounting packages we'll book hinge the matting to 6 ply backing and mount the piece, then use coroplast behind the mount board and tape the glass down to the entire package, coroplast included.
 
Coroplast is polypropylene, and is chemically stable. We use the 'Archival' stuff -which has not chemical additives- for backing almost everything that goes in a frame. We also make storage folders from it, and I once used it to make parts of a large bizzaro sink mat. Two weeks ago we paid $13 a sheet, delivered, for a 48" x 96" sheet.

Polypropylene can be difficult to glue together -I did not know about using Frank's for this. When I need to glue polypropylene to polypreopylene, I use low-temp hot melt (which is mostly solids, and off-gasses little). 3M's 415 double-stick tape works, too.
 
05 said:
Coroplast is polypropylene, and is chemically stable. We use the 'Archival' stuff -which has not chemical additives- for backing almost everything that goes in a frame. We also make storage folders from it, and I once used it to make parts of a large bizzaro sink mat. Two weeks ago we paid $13 a sheet, delivered, for a 48" x 96" sheet.

Polypropylene can be difficult to glue together -I did not know about using Frank's for this. When I need to glue polypropylene to polypreopylene, I use low-temp hot melt (which is mostly solids, and off-gasses little). 3M's 415 double-stick tape works, too.
Click to expand...

Price is dead on to mine. Do you get it from Byrne?
 
I use it to back one of my IKEA shelving units! It's awesome! lets the light in too!
 
I use it to back extremely oversized things, like the 6' x 8' quilt I framed, place two layers running opposite directions and it is super rigid, lightweight and you can use your attach-ez tags in it very easily! :thumbsup:
 
johnny said:
Price is dead on to mine. Do you get it from Byrne?
Click to expand...

Nope. Team Plastics. Most of my Op3 comes from there, too. (But OP2 I usually get from Jensara.)


At home, I like to line shelves and drawers with coroplast. Far outlasts paper, and stays where it's put.
 
05 said:
We use the 'Archival' stuff -which has not chemical additives...Two weeks ago we paid $13 a sheet, delivered, for a 48" x 96" sheet.
Click to expand...

Really? You get the translucent archival stuff for $13 per sheet? For that price, I might drive to Cleveland and load up the van.

In Columbus, the industrial distributors for plastic sheet/tube products stock the standard Coroplast in several colors and sell it in that price range for small quantities, but none of them stock the translucent archival stuff. I'm envious.
 
05 said:
Nope. Team Plastics. Most of my Op3 comes from there, too. (But OP2 I usually get from Jensara.)


At home, I like to line shelves and drawers with coroplast. Far outlasts paper, and stays where it's put.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info!
 
blackiris said:
I use it to back one of my IKEA shelving units! It's awesome! lets the light in too!
Click to expand...

I have a cabinet in my bathroom here that came from Ikea. The cabinet door frame is "maple", with a panel of translucent coroplast. Unfortunately that line has been discontinued, although I have seen the coroplast panels in some of their other doors too.
:cool: Rick
 
Rick Granick said:
I have a cabinet in my bathroom here that came from Ikea. The cabinet door frame is "maple", with a panel of translucent coroplast. Unfortunately that line has been discontinued, although I have seen the coroplast panels in some of their other doors too.
:cool: Rick
Click to expand...

It comes with?? :nuts: And here I thought I was being all crafty!!! :D:D:D
 
If you are thinking of buying quantity in the archival variety (and have no local distribution) talk with the folks at SmallCorp.
 
Jim Miller said:
Really? You get the translucent archival stuff for $13 per sheet? For that price, I might drive to Cleveland and load up the van.

In Columbus, the industrial distributors for plastic sheet/tube products stock the standard Coroplast in several colors and sell it in that price range for small quantities, but none of them stock the translucent archival stuff. I'm envious.
Click to expand...

Yep. The 4mm stuff. She can't get the 6mm in manageable quantities, so I get that from Smallcorp, at almost three times the price delivered. Call Cheryl at Team Plastics: 216 408 3499.
 
johnny said:
LJ distributes 1/4" sheets and the sign company distributes 1/8" With the sign company I get a price a little more expensive than Baer's but I have to buy twenty-five 48 x 96" sheets at a time. LJ is a lot more expensive but the sheets are twice as thick, available 40 x 60 or 48 x 96, and available as single sheets.

Because of the price difference, even given the 1/8 vs the 1/4, I figured there must also be differences in the suitability for preservation framing but I've never had the time to look into it. And LJ had a special on theirs a while ago so I got a bunch to hold me over.

We'll use it to back mirrors as well, especially when there will be no backing paper. The coroplast and some infinity hangers used as turnbuttons gives a really nice look.

For some higher end mounting packages we'll book hinge the matting to 6 ply backing and mount the piece, then use coroplast behind the mount board and tape the glass down to the entire package, coroplast included.
Click to expand...
The one thing I think is important here is that when you buy anything that is an alternate for a known product you should know where it came from. Are there additives in the chemical make up of the less expensive product that may not be conducive to archival framing? My experience has always been, when something is way cheaper than the branded product, there is a reason for it. It may not appear to be any different, but generally the difference in price comes down to quality of manufacturing materials.
 
We have black on top of our counters in our backroom. When it gets too scratched you can flip it.

If you have tiny pieces of the clear left over, they make super plant identifiers. You cut it in two places to make a point and grab your Sharpie and identify your plant, variety, the date planted...

Susan
 
It's been at least 6 months but I paid a little less with no delivery charge.
 
Off topic, I know, but it is useful for other non-framing and non-signage things too...

I used it at home to make a kitty litter-box surround. Super easy to clean, and came in a color that matched the rest of the bathroom decor! (And these need not be archival!)

I also used it to make the flooring for my hedgehog cage for the same reasons as above. It's easy to score and bend too, to you don't need to join pieces with adhesives for 3D objects.

I used a piece to stabilize the bottom of my mostly-fabric popup hamper.

I've used it to build displays for the shop too.

If you used the acid-free archival stuff, you could make boxes out of it for customers to keep their pieces in that need to stay out of the light.
 
you can not believe how much of this stuff we sell for hamster cages.........there is actually a video on how to build it
 
I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Coroplast as a backing for projects involving formed rod mounts. The rods are held in place by opening a channel in the coroplast and anchoring the bent base of the rod in the channel using hot glue. See Jim's mounting book for details.
:cool: Rick
 
Jeff Rodier said:
Call here and ask for a list of suppliers to your area.

http://www.coroplast.com/
Click to expand...

I spent quite a bit of time this morning talking to the Coroplast company about Coroplast ARQ. What I found out about the differences in the archival quality Coroplast and the cheaper types that are used for sign making, is that there is a big difference in the manufacturing process of the Archival quaility CP to the type used for signs and such. In order for it to be archival, the materials used to make it must be cleaned and purified and the machines the AQCP is made on must be cleaned of chemicals and impurities as well. This same process is not required or used when making the cheaper types. From what they told me there is a good reason for the extra expense, and IMO if you are using Coroplast to back artwork, pay a little more and get the good stuff.
 
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