Cost effectiveness of Speedmount vs. Foam and tissue

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tnframer408

tnframer408

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Dec 11, 2001
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Knoxville TN
Tommorrow I need to reorder Speedmount. Before I do, I'd like input: does anyone feel Speedmount is way more expensive to use than Foam and tissue like Colormount, Multimount, etc. I don't care about the time issue, just cost of material. If my math is correct, I'm seeing in my calculator that Speedmount is almost twice as expensive to use than foam and tissue, but wold like this confirmed.

I say I don't care about the time because often I find Speedmount "grips" the piece and makes it hard to move around the surface for positioning before you tack it down. So that may be a tradeoff.

Input from anyone would be appreciated.
 
Time is in fact part of the calculation!

We switched entirely from using tissue to heat activated foam products. We mostly use Bainbridges standard board since the speedmount does not come in 24x36 and 40x60. I used 2 boxed of the speedmount early this month and it seemed to need less dwell time.

If I can process:

15 items per hour with speedmount
12 items per hour with std heat activated
8 items per hour with tissue

What is my profit from one hour of labor after material costs and overhead costs
?
 
Hi Jerome-But do you do 15 pieces an hour, or is the time saving really less significant. I'm not trying to lessen the value of time, but I don't hope anybody overstates that same value.

Most framers do something else while the item is in the press (cut glass, cut frame, etc). I think this exercise needs to be cost comparative in a week's worth of work (of actual work in real time, real world numbers).

We've done it and the speedmount didn't come ahead for us. But the way I buy could easily affect that outcome.

Not being comfortable with posting real numbers, I shared with Mike our findings, but I will share that the tissue and board, for us, was more effective.

Do your own analysis and see which does work, but do it in real time examples. It's worth it to do the same in other components as well
 
I'm glad you brought this up. I've been thinking of switching to speedmount. I know I would save some $$ on labor. However, we often need a piece of foamboard for a simple rigid backing with no mount. I can't see wasting the speedmount for something like that. I always drymount any photos to artcare foamboard with fusion 4000, and I mount pieces that require 48" x 96" board on a fairly regular basis, which is not available in speedmount, so I would still need to stock the fusion. Right now I stock regular foamboard and artcare foamboard in 1/8" and in 3/16" thicknesses in 32 x 40 and in 40 x 60, and black foamboard in 32 x 40, all by the case. I also keep a few sheets of 48 x 96 foam in stock. The way I see it, I would need to keep all that PLUS add several cases of speedmount to the stock list. I'm running out of room! For those of you that use speedmount, do you still stock plain old foamboard as well?
 
Michael, it has cut our mounting time in half and we have fewer, if any 'wooopses' due to the fusion overlapping onto art, things slipping in the press etc. We keep fusion around for black foam mounts and gator etc. But our default is speedmount. It is more cost effective for us. ;)
Jerome, speedmount does come in 40 X 60 in both 3/16 and 1/8", check with your supplier.
 
Don't forget the process time is about half for speedmount as it is for fusion4000. And yes, we do other things while a piece is in the press, like clearing a space to get the next piece ready, cutting the fusion4000, while keeping a clear space to put the finished piece under glass to cool. If I'm lucky I have the next piece ready to go when the one in the press is finished. If I'm not that quick, the heatpress sits there sucking up electricity while empty until I'm ready. Speedmount is a little pricey, but I think it's worth it considering the time (& electicity) saved doing a task that I hate. We still stock five other types/sizes of foamboard (and fusion4000).
 
I forgot that it came in 40x60.
We mount our posters and prints in bulk. That is when we process a batch of orders we do all of the mounting at one time. One warm up period, and away we go. Yes, I can do 15 mounts in about an hour. Even more if I group multiple items on a single board (ex 4 16x20's on a single 32x40).

We have 2 commercial jobs this month and I have gone through 1-40x60 box, 4-32x40 boxes and 3-24x36 boxes. It was good to get the press going after such a weak winter and spring.

The figure were just to make a point that efficiency does make money.
 
Hi Jerome-Your point on efficiency is well taken. The point I was making is that very few of us do 15 an hour or even 15 a day. Sometimes the discussion wanders from the everyday to the once in awhile.

If an "average" shops does 4-5 mounts a day and saves 3 minutes, we're only talking about 12-15 minutes spread over a day's production.

But if I was doing 15 an hour, I'd get a Pot-devin machine and crank those babies out like printing money.

But I absolutely agree on looking for more efficient methods of doing everything. Just balance the cost with the efficiencies. And we just don't know that would be without a real over a period of time analysis.
 
Numbers I ran verified that Speedmount is twice as much as foamboard plus tissue. Like some ofyou, I keep on hand Fusion for oddball projects, but if I'm gonna drymount, I still prefer tissue/foam over Speedmount.

And what the hey, if it becomes too inefficient costwise, I'll pass it on to the customer and charge them an extgra 10 bucks or so.

One issue, though: does anyone find tht on some substrates, speedmount "sticks"? Like on some posters I have an awful time getting them to slide around on Speedmount to get them lined up properly.
 
Michael, it is 'stickier' for positioning, I agree. That's especially difficult when doing multi-opening mounts.

Bob, we used to fire the press up daily and then decided to only run it twice a week. We plan all the mounts for those two days and do it all at once. It has saved time and electricity.
 
Most of the time I use Foam-X heat activated board; but photographs and color copies go on Speedmount. We use fusion for newspaper articles. I keep all of this in stock, as well as regular foam board. We dry mount twice a week, not daily. I cut the heat activated board two inches bigger than needed and then trim after.
 
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