Question super oversize mat

mayos

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
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Oct 8, 2007
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670
Location
Clay Center, KS.
Hi! I never encountered this before and am curious if any of you have and may have a solution. I have a customer who wants 3 large text documents framed with a double mat. Size is the problem. The image is 48 x 36 with a 4" mat being requested. I let them know that one of the color mats they selected came only 32 x 40 with the other being available in 40 x 60 but this blows even that out of the water. When I told them the size was a problem, they told me to figure it out and come up with a solution. I had thought of fabric covering a spliced mat but ran out of ideas after that. I have a manual mat cutter but will handle 60" goods only, Has anyone ever encountered something like this? How did you handle it? Thank you!!!
 
Color can be made by hand covering the mats with fabric or by painting the mats. Fabrics will provide for a better metallic look than flat finished mat boards.
Rising has 8-ply rag up to 48" X 96" and 4-ply rag up to 60" X 106".
Strips of 4" wide matboard cut from 40" X 60" colored boards can be spliced to make larger boards.
Bainbridge, Crescent, Peterboro, and Artique all have colored boards in 40" X 60"
 
Thank you so much. I'll check on them on Monday. I'm thinking I'm going with the fabric covering. Sounds like a good option. Thanks!!
 
I deal with this type of project quite often to a point where I try to avoid these project. Not too many frame shop in my area can handle this size work. And other frame shops would have the same problems. I would offer these matting options.

1. Fabric wrap mat.
2. Jumbo rag mats that is only available in black and whites.
3. Splicing mat boards together to get the size they need. But I make sure they understand that the seams will be visible.
 
We can create fabric wrapped fibermats in sizes that large. The only size constraint would be the width of the fabric if you wanted it to be covered continuous. The crating and shipping costs would be high unless your client would accept an end wrapped chop and join.
 
Hi, mayos. This brings up three ideas, so will share as follows.

If you go to the Attach-Ez site and scroll down, you'll find some Foamwerks tools. One of the tools is this straight/bevel cutter (shown below). It works on both foam and mats, and since you're planning to cover the mat, it might be ideal. Another option would be to use a manual handheld mat cutter. And the third, if your 60" cutter allows it, would be to take the long bar off of your mat cutter, mark the back of the mat, and cut it by moving the long bar along it like a straight edge, having someone hold down the ends, and moving the cutting assembly along the bar like usual. That's quite a bit of effort, but a framer I know once did it, and it worked well.

shayla framing foamwerks bevel cutter.jpg
 
I had a job like this from a museum years ago and, like others, I covered the mats in fabric and hand-wrapped the inner edge. Since it was for a museum, they specified Lascaux 360 as the adhesive they wanted me to use to adhere the fabric, which they supplied. The mats were cut by hand, inner and outer edges, as they were beyond the size of my cutter. Luckily no one needed a double mat!
 
I had a job like this from a museum years ago and, like others, I covered the mats in fabric and hand-wrapped the inner edge. Since it was for a museum, they specified Lascaux 360 as the adhesive they wanted me to use to adhere the fabric, which they supplied. The mats were cut by hand, inner and outer edges, as they were beyond the size of my cutter. Luckily no one needed a double mat!
When you attached the fabric, did you coat the whole board with adhesive, then lay the fabric on and roll it flat? (Or did you do it in sections?) After that, did you weight it?
 
Hi, mayos. This brings up three ideas, so will share as follows.

If you go to the Attach-Ez site and scroll down, you'll find some Foamwerks tools. One of the tools is this straight/bevel cutter (shown below). It works on both foam and mats, and since you're planning to cover the mat, it might be ideal. Another option would be to use a manual handheld mat cutter. And the third, if your 60" cutter allows it, would be to take the long bar off of your mat cutter, mark the back of the mat, and cut it by moving the long bar along it like a straight edge, having someone hold down the ends, and moving the cutting assembly along the bar like usual. That's quite a bit of effort, but a framer I know once did it, and it worked well.

View attachment 43057
I used to cut my oversize mats like this, on my front counter, where I was able to clamp a 60" ruler in place with spring clamps, then move it as needed and re-clamp. I used a Dexter Mini cutter for the actual cutting. Worked great. I still do that occasionally, if it is larger than 40x60 so can't be done on the Wizard. The hardest part is getting the cut mat from place to place without it folding on itself because of its weight.
:cool: Rick
 
When it comes to that sort of scale I tend to abandon the concept of 'a hole in a big sheet' and construct a
wide panel using wide wood which is mitered. I can get plain 70mm wide Obeche, 7mm thick with either a bevelled or coved
edge. You do have to paint it though, which isn't altogether a drawback as you can make it any color you desire.
* Some paint surfaces need to be spaced slightly from the glass.*
To get a really wide mat you can glue strips of MDF on top. Blend the corners and you get a seamless flat mat. 🙂

** The reverse can be isolated from the art with a layer of thin rag board**

*** To avoid cracks across the miters due to shrinkage it's best to 'normalise' the timber in a household environment for
a few days before cutting/joining. ***
 
When you attached the fabric, did you coat the whole board with adhesive, then lay the fabric on and roll it flat? (Or did you do it in sections?) After that, did you weight it?
I used a roller to spread the adhesive on the mat board surface before putting the fabric over it and using very low heat in my vacuum press to adhere it. I think Lascaux activates at 120 degrees fahrenheit, far lower than most adhesives. It's sort of like a white soup which I spooned on and then spread. Pretty forgiving stuff in my recollection. I probably weighted it, can't recall exactly' that always seems a good idea w/a mount, and Ms. Paschke always recommends it.

It was another lesson from the museum conservators in what is acceptable to them.
 
Fabric would seem to be your seamless option.
Are you framing all 3 documents in one frame, or in three separate frames?
If they are separate, then the mats would be approximately 56"x44", so your manual 60" cutter should be sufficient.
If they are all going in one frame, then you also need to find a frame bigger than 10'.
 
All the documents are in separate frames, but when I presented the idea of fabric covered mats to my customer, she rejected the idea, even though they would be rich and beautiful. I showed her a couple examples. She's insistent on a couple colors in a Crescent mats. The thought of mitering the mats sounds do able, but I'm thinking about painting a white mat. When any of you have painted a mat, what type of paint have you used? Tempra, Acrylic, other? My mat cutter will handle cutting the opening so it's just the color we're dealing with. Thanks to all of you for your responses. You've been very helpful.
 
I would think you're going to be spray painting if it's a large mat. Some sort of water-based paint - that's what auto body shops are using these days.
Rolling paint would be problematic and forget brushes, unless the customer likes brush strokes around the documents.
 
There have been many cases over the years that we have fabricated extra large multi opening mat liners in order to allow framers to use a single frame. Mostly they have been fabric wrapped but in some instances framers have painted them to achieve a look or match a color. The benefit of using the ultralight MDF material for these mat liners is that we can create them in various thicknesses that will not warp or cup when painted with water based paints or when fabric is attached using water based adhesives.
 
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