I recently read in a J. Hedgecoe book where he talks of mounting prints with dry mount tissue and a clothes iron. Anybody ever tried this?

-- Gary Calverase (grcalveras@aol.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

Gary For all of the elaborate equipment I have the one thing I don't have is a dry mount press. I have used a clothes iron very successfully to mount prints. there are two keys to doing it successfully. Having a good piece of cardboard with a release tissue on top of the print, and keeping the iron moving at all times. Believe me, if you put alot of pressure on the iron and don't have it moving it will leave marks on your print and mount. Also, check your directions and make sure you don't use a setting that is too hot for the mount tissue you are using. Kevin

-- Kevin Kolosky (kjkolosky@kjkolosky.com), March 19, 2001.

Ditto Kevin's remarks.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), March 20, 2001.

I tried dry mounting with an hand iron. It can be done, but I found that I spoiled about 25% of the prints with wrinkles and bubbles and other marks. The typical hand iron doesn't put out enough heat to get through a mat board and get the tissue up to temperature. My print routinely popped off the mount board.

After doing this for about 5 years, and switching to RC paper (which is another issue), I finally got a dry mount press. Don't wait as long as I did. The press makes FB paper work easy. Flattening prints is a snap and drymounting is infinitely easier. I've only spoiled one print in the three years I've used the press.

Save yourself a lot of agravation and get some sort of a press. I picked mine up for ~$200 from a WTB ad on photo.net. I spent many thousands of $ on camera equipment, but the press probably improved my work the most.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@att.net), March 20, 2001.

Thanks for the info. I'll give the clothes iron a try this weekend.

Gene, if I could find a decent used press for $200, I'd probably jump, but everything I've seen in the local classifieds here in Seattle runs $400+ and I'm leary of buying used on the Web. I've never used or seen a dry mount press in use, so I'm not sure of the advantages, but it has to beat other adhesives and rollers I've used up to now.

-- Gary Calverase (grcalveras@aol.com), March 22, 2001.

Gary

If you have never seen a dry mount press in action, just go to a local custom framing shop and ask if they would show you how they use theirs. Almost every framing shop I know of has one. But again, you can use an iron if your are careful and use a good cardboard and release paper.

Kevin

-- kevin kolosky (kjkolosky@kjkolosky.com), March 24, 2001.

Get "The Print" by Ansel Adams for a good discussion and illustrations of using a drymount press. After you have flattened a few fiber base prints in a press, you will be sold on it.

Buying off the net can be tricky, guess I've been lucky so far. I had the press shipped COD, but found that UPS would not let me inspect the package before I paid for it. The safest way to buy, is a major credit card, if the seller will accept it. You can dispute a purchase up to six months later. I bought a used hasselblad on e-bay with a visa card and got the seller to honor their 6 month shop garantee by disputing the charge, after they did not want to cooperate.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@att.net), March 26, 2001.