Dry Mount problem

[Willie Jan]

Hi,
I am using a t-shirt press to dry mount my FB paper onto a museum (archival) board.

What I do is that I put the photo with the tacked tissue onto the board, on top of that I put a piece of baking paper and a piece of paper on top of that. Than i close the press. 85C for 1.5 minutes.

When using matt adox paper, i get strange figures on the surface because the baking paper is getting structures in the paper due to the heat and these while pressing can be seen by the eye as a more shiny area.

Is there a better way?

 

[ann]

use seal release that is what it is made for and you should't have a problem

 

[degruyl]

Seal / Bienfang release paper. I also use matboard (not paper) between the release paper and the press.

 

[Willie Jan]

How thick is your matboard?

 

[Willie Jan]

What I found out until now is that baking paper can be used once. They say that there is a variant with silicone that can be used more than once...
Baking paper costs 3 dollar for 10 meters... Bienfang 83 dollar for 18 meter. So it is worth to try since i can not get bienfang products here (shipping is 40 dollar).

 

[degruyl]

What is referred to as parchment in the US cooking world (it is not parchment, it is paper with silicone) is what is most similar to the release paper. I have no idea how many times it can be reused.

Release paper can be used many times. 18 meters might be a lifetime supply for a hobbyist.

The mat board that I use between the platen and the artwork is the same as the board I am mounting to. Typically 2 ply. I use this board for a bunch of prints, until it is so marred that I toss it. I find the board helps distribute the pressure more evenly.

I heat the press before I put the art in, open it and arrange the "sandwich" inside then close it. Once it reaches temperature I give it about 2 minutes, turn off the heat and let it cool a bit in the press. I don't think you are doing anything wrong with this part of the operation, though.

 

[Jim Jones]

Like degruyl I use mat board between the artwork and the platen. I promptly remove the mounted artwork from the press and let it cool under moderate weight. The mat board doesn't imboss particles into the artwork as much as release paper does in my dusty darkroom. It's easier than to do proper housekeeping.

 

[degruyl]

For reference, I don't use release paper when I am not using dry mount tissue. I do use the press to flatten prints between two pieces of mat board.

If I were more careful about tissue placement, I would probably go without it when mounting as well, but I am not and the window mat covers the edge of the print.

 

[Willie Jan]

Using a mat board is a good way to go i think. Just have to figure out the proper temperature increasement for the mat board heat consumption.

 

[degruyl]

Don't. The mat board heats up, just let everything get to temperature before you turn off the press / take out the artwork.

 

[ROL]

Dry Mounting

 

[Willie Jan]

That is a really nice description.

Thanks.
In europe dry mounting is not that known with photographers.
A lot use spray glue which is a pain in the ...

 

[Ian Grant]

You need to warm up & dry out the mat board first, otherwies you get problems with water/steam and the board can stick to the print surface.

Ian

 

[Jed Freudenthal]

Hi,
I am using a t-shirt press to dry mount my FB paper onto a museum (archival) board.

What I do is that I put the photo with the tacked tissue onto the board, on top of that I put a piece of baking paper and a piece of paper on top of that. Than i close the press. 85C for 1.5 minutes.

When using matt adox paper, i get strange figures on the surface because the baking paper is getting structures in the paper due to the heat and these while pressing can be seen by the eye as a more shiny area.

Is there a better way?

First of all, one should use silicone-release paper. But don't think: the wrinkles disappear. They might show up with silicone release paper too. The wrinkles are a result of too much water in the materials, like the board, photographic paper etc. Therefore, one should remove the surplus of water first. To that end, I heat the materials first and let them cool outside the press first, to remove the moist. Further, therte are different qualities in the siliconen-release paper. Some give the wrinkles easily, others less. The siliconen-release paper can be obtainede from Cami, Oostende, Belgie.

Jed

 

[Willie Jan]

That is a good one Jed. To much water in the material. That i didn't think of that before...
Thanks.

 

[Willie Jan]

Someone mentioned to use teflon backing foil which is used to cook for example meat without any additional oil.

Anyone experiences with this?