Dry mount press problem

[Monophoto]

Having a problem with a Technal Dry Mounting press.

It's not heating evenly, and it seems to me that the indicator light that is supposed to mean that it is actively heating up, and that is supposed to go out when it reaches the set temperature, is on most of the time.

I was mounting a group of prints, and passed them all through the press along with their mount boards to bring them up to a common temperature, then let them sit for a few minutes while I tacked the tissue, trimmed the prints, and then tacked the print/tissue to the boards. So there was an period of an hour or so when the press was just sitting there doing nothing while I was working through the pile of prints. Then, when I put the tacked prints into the press for my usual time and temperature, I found that the prints weren't adhering uniformly to the mounts.

No change in mount board, printing paper or tissue since the last time I used the press. And this is the first time have had any problem at all with this press. It's 'vintage' - I bought it used about 20 years ago.

Any ideas?

(I'm letting the press cool down, and plan to open up the thermostat box to see if perhaps the rheostat needs to be cleaned, and will then try again.)

 

[doughowk]

Also have a Technal press, and do get adhering problems the longer the press stays on (over heating the tissue). So maybe there is a rheostat problem with them. A friend uses a thermometer in his to better judge the temperature.

 

[Jon Shiu]

I have an old Technal 550 press that only heats on the left side of the platen. I opened it up and found that the heating element had apparently broken in half. There is a lot of asbestos inside, and the element isn't repairable, so I strongly recommend against opening the platen. Now I just use it as a cold press.

Jon

 

[Monophoto]

I just spent a couple of hours working on my Technal press, and as Jon indicates, it was definitely ahead of its time. We would never expect to be able to repair something that we buy today, but my press was made in the late 1960s or early 1970s and it was clearly designed for obsolescence rather than repairability.

The problem turned out to be that the nickel-chrome heating wire was broken. The good news was that the break was at the point where the wire connected to one of the outgoing connectors. The connector was a crimp connection, and it appeared to me that the heating wire broke at the crimp - not a surprise since any kind of nick or other deformation will weaken heating wire. I have tried to repair it, and it does appear to heat up now, but only time will tell whether the fix will last.

 

[George Collier]

One late comment - I just read this.
I did a lot of mounting years ago with a Seal 200. One thing that always worked better for me - I preheated the print, and while tacking the tissue to the back, preheated the board. Then took the board out, trimmed the print, then tacked to the board (I put light "position marks" on the board ahead of time) and mounted. Someone told me that if the board is allowed to cool, depending on the relative humidity in the room, condensation may occur and interrupt adhesion. It made sense to me, so I always did each print all the way through, and never had a problem. The total time for a given number of prints is more or less the same, as long as you are never waiting for something.

 

[Monophoto]

Followup report:

The initial repair was to simply lay the heating wire against the riveted connection to the outgoing lead, and try to bind in it place with fiberglass tape. That worked temporarily, but it wasn't a permanent fix.

This time, I used crimped sleeves made by clipping the rings off of StaKon wire lugs. Time will tell.