Two years ago, I travelled to Toronto to learn how to face-mount from the top technical people at Drytac, as I wanted to mount my own 24" wide inkjet prints from my HP 130nr printer. I bought the Drytac JM26 laminator ($1500, 26" wide capacity), and built the necessary input and output tables, laminating sleds, etc. In my own studio, I worked through the procedure for using Facemount UV (the Drytac double-sided, optically clear adhesive) and mounting on plexiglas (Acrylite), using an aluminum composite panel behind the print (Dibond). Having more or less mastered the process, my advice is that you not do it yourself. The adhesive films, from Drytac, Seal, or other manufacturers, produces a very fine pattern of small areas that don't completely bond, something that is called "silvering" in the industry. This isn't too objectionable if you don't look very closely, or the print values aren't too dark, but if you compare it against an image that has been mounted with Diasec, the difference is non-trivial. Because Diasec uses an adhesive that has a gel-like consistency, it completely fills the inescapable and microscopic gaps between plexi and print, and also encapsulates any dust particles, so the viewer is completely unaware of the mounting process. The problem with Diasec is that it is chemically incompatible with all inkjet prints, so the print has to be produced on a Lambda, Lightjet or equivalent. For all future commissions, my intention is to proof on my HP 130, then let Laumont Digital (New York), make the final prints and mount them. Laumont works with a number of the major New York photography galleries, and I have never seen work from them that was anything less than superb.
