Advice needed on old dry mounting press

[Benny]

I've bought an old (very antique) dry mounting press, that I'd like to use to flatten my FB papers.

The heat seems to work, but the fabric is damaged. Also when I removed the fabrics there was two sheets (some kind of paper?) behind the fabrics. These sheets were also demaged.

Does anyone know what kind of fabric and sheet that I should use to restore the press?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Benny

 

[photographs42]

This isn’t any help as far as your question is concerned, but it sounds to me like you have a print drier rather than a dry mount press. I have never seen a dry mount press with any fabric anywhere. You did say it was old however, so, who knows.

Jerome

 

[photographs42]

I've bought an old (very antique) dry mounting press, that I'd like to use to flatten my FB papers.

The heat seems to work, but the fabric is damaged. Also when I removed the fabrics there was two sheets (some kind of paper?) behind the fabrics. These sheets were also demaged.

Does anyone know what kind of fabric and sheet that I should use to restore the press?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Benny

That is in fact a very old Dry Mount Press. Mine is a much newer Seal 360M. On the bottom plate of mine there is a fairly dense black rubber mat about 1” thick with a yellow scrim material on the top of it. This pad allows the top to put pressure on the mount material while allowing some give.

In use, I place two sheets of 4 ply mat board in the press and insert the mount and print between them. I don’t see any reason the pad would need to be anything special as long as it doesn’t melt with the heat of the press and provides a bit of cushion but not too soft. If all you want to do is flatten fiber prints, I would try three or four layers of mat board on the bottom and one layer on top.

Try it with a trash print until you figure it out.

Jerome
PS; I guess I should explain that Benny e-mailed me the attached photo

 

[Benny]

Thanks a lot, I'll try to use mat boards as suggested.
/Benny