Anyone Ever Do Their Own Mounting of Transparency Films? What Do You Need?

[DF]

I have dozens of sleeved transparency rolls I wish I had come back mounted. I could send them back to get them cut up & mounted, but it'll cost,
so instead, would it make sense to get ahold of a splicer, glue, cardboard mounts and do it myself? For instance, are used splicers on Ebay for reasonable rates?

 

[Kino]

You need a film cutter (illuminated is best), some snap-together slide mounts and a pair of cotton gloves. The glue type need a hot press and they are a pain if you need to unmount the slide for any reason.

Ebay has a large selection of all of the above ...

 

[DREW WILEY]

Some cardboard mounts came with heat sensitive glue. All you need for that is a simple drymount tacking iron, or even low temp ordinary iron, preferably teflon coated. Apply heat only to the perimeter. This is easy to do.

Plastic mounts came with or without glass. The best had anti-Newton glass. Since film in glass mounts lies completely flat, you ideally need a flat-field slide projector lens too, if you with to do slide shows with them.

 

[darkroommike]

I've actually worked in a college AV center where we shot copious amounts of duplicate slides and processed a ton of 35mm slide films (E-4, just to date myself). We had a semi-automatic cutter and a "clunker" that heat sealed the mounts and impressed a 6-digit date code on the mounts. I picked one up from a friend a while back and also have a mounter for plastic Pako mounts. I've also mounted using smaller machines of both types and the open frame plastic mounts are the easiest to use. The 100 packs of Pako mounts used to come with a jig to open the end of the mount so you can slide the film chip in. If you plan to project your slides use the plastic mounts, the glass ones are pretty thick and you will have to use Carousel 80 trays, the skinny mounts fit the 140 trays.

 

[eli griggs]

Some cardboard mounts came with heat sensitive glue. All you need for that is a simple drymount tacking iron, or even low temp ordinary iron, preferably teflon coated. Apply heat only to the perimeter. This is easy to do.

Plastic mounts came with or without glass. The best had anti-Newton glass. Since film in glass mounts lies completely flat, you ideally need a flat-field slide projector lens too, if you with to do slide shows with them.

I’ve used Grep (?) anti-Newton plastic slide mounts 135 &120, for color and b&w film and like them a lot.

 

[GregY]

I’ve used Grep (?) anti-Newton plastic slide mounts 135 &120, for color and b&w film and like them a lot.

Gepe ?

 

[Bill Burk]

Pako mounts. There are some kits on eBay. The little blue tool pulls the lip down and you slip the cut slide in. All you need is the kit and a pair of scissors.

 

[Taylor Nankervis]

No special tools needed, certainly not a film cutter, though that's what I used when 35mm was more widely shot than it is now. A steady hand and precision Fiskars shears, straight down the rebate that delineates individual frames. Pre-cut archival polypropylene card mounts (35mm, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9) have been my go-to mounts preparatory for scheduling scanning and printing. These are made Clear>File / Black Mask Transparency Sleeves. Individual frames are secured over the pre-cut opening with ScotchStrips, secured to the rebate of each frame. Each mask is then labelled with scan and print-step references for the lab.

You may want to experiment with using any sort of scissors, but they must be sharp and provide a clear, unobstructed view between frames.

 

[Truzi]

If you decide to use scissors, practice cutting some leader. It can be easy to cut at a slight angle. This would, of course, be hidden by the slide mount, but may annoy you anyway.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I had a quantity of the pin registered AN Gepe glass mounts along with a little matching punch. Those were designed for sandwiching title slides along with the image itself, back in AV presentation days. But I used them in 6X7 version for my first experiments in unsharp masking for color printing. It was the poor man's precision negative carrier. It worked surprisingly well for a tiny investment.

That phase didn't last more than a few months once I got my confidence up. I quickly sold the MF enlarger and acquired a 4X5 one, along with much more serious punch and register gear. I also had the 35mm punch and slide set. It's probably still in some drawer somewhere. I know where the Carousel projector is.

Once in awhile one can still run into old pin-registered Nikon cameras designed for exact positioning of slides in mounts. But those didn't need a separate punch because the slide mounts mated to the sprocket holes in the film instead. It all might sound Paleolithic today; but it seemed pretty darn fun back then, and was an easy way to make side money.

 

[Tom Taylor]

If you are mounting using Gepe type slide mounts, you can find Gepe hand mounting presses for35mm through 6x7 used. I use the tip of a nail file to lift slightly the mounts lip to insert the film edge. This is a reasonable priced film cutter.

Thomas

 

[Sirius Glass]

I prefer that the slides come mounted, however if they were not or a crop was needed, I mounted the slides, preferably in glass.

 

[Truzi]

This is a reasonable priced film cutter.

Thomas

Years ago I bought a parts camera on ebay, and the seller threw a bunch of other stuff in the box, including the cutter Tom Taylor linked to. It works reasonably well for my hobbyist purposes.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

I have an old Polaroid slicer/mounter from their instant slide films that works pretty well. I use it for slicing up film into strips for negative sleeves. Somewhere I have some old Polaroid plastic mounts to go with it.

For remounting slides I use Gepe glass mounts - I still have a few boxes left, enough for a 'lifetime.' Funny a lifetime supply when you are a teenager is an unlimited amount. In your 70's it is suddenly not that large a quantity.