your opinions on d/mount and vac/presses...

Julie-Tulie

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Posts
797
Loc
Western Wisconsin
I am starting a home based frame shop after 14 years of doing the job I love for other people, and I am looking for opinions. For the last 7 years I have used a vacupress and been very content with the results, but now that I am starting my own business, I am wondering if I am going to be as happy if I get a more affordable drymount press...am thinking about the Seal 210. I have seen quite a few of them on Ebay and am wondering why...what goes wrong with them, and will it be a hard switch going from a v/p to a dm/p.
Any opinions?
 
I think what goes wrong with them is that framers perhaps discover they need something bigger or nothing at all.

The Seal 210 has a platen of about 18x23, I believe. While you can mount larger pieces in multiple passes, I personally rarely find myself dry mounting anything much smaller than 20x24.

None-the-less, the 210 is a workhorse* and won't require a huge amount of space or special wiring. The shipping weight is going to be substantial, but if you visualize yourself mounting a lot of 16x20s with the occasional larger item, it might be a good buy for you.

* Edit: I meant work-pony.

[ 04-25-2005, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: Ron Eggers ]
 
Feeling a little "Coltish" are we this morning, Ron?

Julie, if there is one thing that is a standout truism it is the hitting ones head for buying the cheap little one, when you know that down the road you need the big better one.

Get the one you are used to using, be cause you know it, and you will gravitate to selling that size of job.

If on the other hand, you are shifting to mounting thousands of 8x10s nad 16x20 for swap meets and garage sales... by all means the 211 is as Ron puts it: "a work-pony". We have one and work the daylights out of it.

Over the 28 years, Shar has replaced eveything but the metals... new heat coils, thermostates, switches, and cords are becoming a regular search subject.

But we still lust for a 50x72 HVP.
 
What's up with that is that I had no idea what I was doing when I hit the quote button...me bad!
 
How'a bout the d/m in sections thing...do you get any marks or indentation where you overlap?
 
I would get the 40x60 heat and vacuum press and be done with it. This is not the piece of equipment to cheap out on. Heat and vacuum with good quality dry mount tissue will do the job quickly, easlliy, and with minimal mistakes.

You will probably use it a lot just for flattening stuff too.

The problems arise with ink jet prints and other computer printed art. Some are very sensitive to temperature, others are very sensitive to moisture (wet mounting) It's really hard to tell from the print what will happen when you put it in the press.

You will have this problem regardless of which style press you end up with.

The spray adhesive systems are comparatively quite expensive, cumulative in your lungs, and not very permanent compared to heat activated dry mount tissue.

And... yes! Chances are very good that you will get marks by mounting large pieces in a small press.

Heat/vacuum presses are great for doing fabric mats too. Much faster and more permanent than any other system IMHO.
 
I'm with Greg on this one. It's too much of an investment to spend the money twice.

If you don't have room for a 40x60 vacuum press, then at least buy the larger Seal 500TX

There's nothing wrong with the Seal 210, per se. It is a professional-grade machine, and it does very well what it is supposed to do -- mount small things. For a photographer in a mall-studio who snaps 8x10 pics all day long & needs to dry mount them, it is the perfect machine.

But if you buy the smaller dry mount press, yours will end up on EBay as soon as:

A) you realize how much you're limited by its size, and

B) you manage scrape up enough money (again) to buy what you should be buying now.
 
Thanks to you all for your help...any more tips are always greeted with a smile...not that you can see me or anything!
 
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