Magnetic masking frames

[Jonathan R]

Has anyone tried using magnetic sheet materials as masking frames for standard print sizes?

 

[SMBooth]

I think it would be hard to centre the paper.

 

[Jesper]

I have seen them commercially available but not that frequent. Perhaps not as good an idea as it sounds.

 

[Jonathan R]

My idea was to make a magnetic sheet mask that would centre the image on the paper. (I'm using 35 mm, so there is otherwise one very wide margin.) Mask and paper would have the same outside dimensions, and in practice both would be placed on the (metal) easel together, after placing the easel in the right place on the enlarger table.

If no-one here has tried this and discovered unforeseen snags, I think I am going to give it a whirl. The magnetic sheet is cheap enough.

 

[ann]

Years ago I was working on a project that needed a mask to place the image in a specific area on the paper and I went to a sign shop and had one made.

In fact several I ended up with several and they worked fine, and as an aside, easy to store, as I just put them up on a steel cabinet in the lab

 

[Jonathan R]

Thanks, Ann, that's very encouraging. Did your sign-maker cut the inner edges square or bevelled? I wondered whether light would reflect back from a square-cut inner face, creating a smudgy edge. I have had this with a cheap easel previously.

 

[ann]

just a straight edge, however , the images were printed with the rebate showing. But as I remember, when I tested them I used a straight print, no problems.

The magnetic sheet was not thick nor was it flimsly and thin either, just the standard sign type.