Mounting advice for a huge panoramic print

I'm trying to frame a very large panoramic print, and running into some trouble. The print is 87x27 inches. I've already built a nice frame for the print, but I'm having trouble getting the print into the frame.

My first attempt was to mount it on foamboard. However, I couldn't find a single piece of foamboard that was large enough, so I got two pieces, cut them to size, and tried to attach them to each other in order to make an 87"x27" backer. I then glued the print to it with a spray glue (Scotch Photo Mount Adhesive). But, the seam between the two pieces of foamboard showed through on the print and it was visible. It wasn't egregiously bad, so I hung it on the wall for a little while like that.

I recently put up some new track lights in that room to light the print better, and now the seam down the middle is even more annoying. So, I re-printed it and tried to mount it to a piece of masonite instead, since I can get a 96x48 piece of masonite and cut it to size, and it's much more rigid than the foamboard. (I know that masonite isn't archival and that it might ruin the print 30 years from now or whatever, but I'm not too concerned about that.) The masonite is heavier, but the frame I made is pretty robust and should be able to handle the extra weight. I used the same Scotch spray glue as last time, but it seems like the masonite really soaked in the glue, and the instant the print made contact with the masonite, it was immediately and permanently stuck to it, with no opportunity to wiggle it around, line it up, roll out any bubbles, etc. Forcibly peeling the print off the masonite destroyed it, unfortunately. I just got done ordering yet another print, and it will arrive in a week or so.

Has anyone attempted to mount and frame a photo of this size before? Any advice you can give me on what material to use for the backing, and what adhesive to use?

Thanks in advance.

@DREW WILEY will have some thoughts on this, although I doubt they'll involve spray glue or masonite.

Also, welcome to Photrio! Would love to see your print, too.

A custom frame shop might be able to get some foam board that is larger than 60 inches but I would suggest you go with gatorboard or gatorfoam. It is available up to 8 feet long but you would probably need to get with a custom frame shop to get some. My company gets it but we do not ship larger than 40x60 since it the shipping cost is much more than board. I would not worry about archival because unless you use a mounting press the print will likely buckle and peal long before it fades. Spray adhesive is typically only good for 11x14 and smaller when applied by hand. What you are trying to do is very difficult and the type of thing custom frame shops do but of course they will charge a lot because of the dificulty and the expense of the large materials. Most framing materials and made 32x40 and smaller. There are is smaller amount made in what is called oversize that comes in sheets of 40x60 but the selection is lower and the cost per square inch is higher.

Large pieces like this, or even far bigger, are typically mounted in a big vacuum press under a rubber blanket. You don't stipulate what kind of print it is - fiber-based black and white or RC color etc. That's important. I'll assume you are referring to inkjet medium, which has its own challenges. But in general, a wet mount glue is generally used such as Seal Vacu-Mount or the current Daige equivalent. The skills involved are much like wallpaper hanging, and require practice. Lacking a vac press, you can use just a closed-cell high quality "weenie" paint roller to apply the glue, then a set of wallpaper brushes and rollers to get things flat. Expect to ruin quite a few trial runs; so save up scrap prints for test runs. Having the right humidity also comes into play.

When inkjet prints are involved, they should be well outgassed of any glycol, preferably a month or so, and the substrate itself must be permeable, and itself outgassed, thoroughly aired out, if you're even thinking of something like masonite or plywood.

I won't even go into cold foil adhesive mounting, the normal pro method these days - that requires expensive equipment and has zero tolerance for error.

There are pro spray adhesives which will work for this too, which I have good reason not even to specify, because they're proven to be very unhealthy and well as highly flammable, just like the hobby style art store spray you've already tried. These should only be used in a force-ventilated spray booth with an explosion proof fan motor, wearing a serious full-face respirator. I'm not exaggerating at all ! When these kind of sprays were popular in frame shops,
in the 60's and 70's, almost an entire generation of framers died prematurely in this country, and these sprays have been dreaded ever since. Permanent nerve and mental damage is also possible; I've seen numerous cases of that,
mainly in the insulation trade, which also irresponsibly uses these.

Masonite is bad in a number of aspects, unless for temporary display applications. There is a much smoother variety called Duolux available in 4 X 8 ft sheets. It should be sanded a little to give it more tooth. Art stores generally don't sell high quality fome core board either, although types of fomecore certainly are made in sheets plenty big for your purpose. It would be wise to mount on an oversized sheet of fomecore anyway, and then trim it down to size with a straightedge and knife.

There are speciality sources, especially for signage - that's where to look. Most only sell full packages, not single sheets. I can't go into many details here. The wisest thing would simply be to a serious frame shop already having the requisite equipment and experience. You might ruin any number of prints just in the learning curve.

Maybe this will help.

Any kind of "reversible mounting" is likely to fail in this case. I've seen big inkjets simply suspended behind matboard and Plexiglas, but it looks wavy and funky. Inkjets present special mounting challenges, just like RC. But there are so many kinds of inkjet paper that it's hard to give generalized advice. I know what I'd do; but I do have specialized roller press equipment, which costs quite a bit. Even a minimum order of pre-coated adhesive board that big would be around a thousand dollars, although in this day and age, there must be some kind of internet source willing to sell a single full sheet. The problem is with shipping a single sheet.

Doing it with a hand roller instead of a mechanized press is hypothetically possible, but about as realistic to the inexperienced as a matador without a cape. The trick is to use a slip sheet of silicone paper (like used in drymounting), gradually pulling it out as the hand rolling process proceeds. It's a lot like gluing Formica with contact cement, using a wax paper slip sheet, but even fussier. You want the same kind of rubber roller. Get a tiny bit of adhesive anywhere it doesn't belong, and all hell breaks loose. Keep some PEC film cleaner around.

There are plenty of how-to UTube videos on the topic. As usual, some approaches may be much more useful than others. One has to be careful with UTube advice.

Dibond or its equivalent is probably your best bet. More than sufficiently archival, available in 48x96" pieces as standard, and an industry standard print mount substrate. I'm not the biggest fan of the stuff for various reasons (hands-on experience mainly), but for what you are wanting to do, it or Foamex (rigid PVC foam) are the most readily accessible and realistic games in town

They both need to be used with an appropriate heavy duty (roller) mounting press and suitable double-sided adhesives (realistically that means leave it to those who work with it on a routine basis, it's very easy to make an enormous mess). At the size you are working at, a subframe or other reinforcement on the back of it will help keep it sufficiently flat.

It seems like you have spent enough on this to have had it all done professionally from the get-go...

Pieter12 said:

It seems like you have spent enough on this to have had it all done professionally from the get-go...

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that's probably true.

Masonite will drink anything that touches it so, if you ever want to glue something to it, prime it first (both sides. If you glue a photo to one side, you should also glue paper to the other side (to prevent it from getting curved). )However non-archival it is, you probably won't live long enough to see any impact it has on a photo. Light will have more impact. Prints are for viewing, not for archives.) Also, mount the print then cut the sheet.

You need a large bundle of little sticks to lay out over the surface. So many sticks that, when you lay the print on them, no part of it touches the glued surface. Remove sticks from the centre and work outward rolling the print down.