Red River papers and face mounting

[tektrader]

I bit the bullet and ordered a few rolls of paper from Red River 2 weeks ago. The Z3100 is my first real WF printer so I didn't want to make a mistake with expensive papers.

The freight to Australia wasn't pretty but you just cant buy good papers here for a reasonable price.

I bought 2 rolls of 80lb polar metallic pearl, a roll of 60 lb Aurora art White and a roll of 68lb Ultrapro gloss.

Have only used the Polar metallic so far and first impressions are this is a fantastic paper, Very White with quite deep blacks, The gloss seems very smooth with very little dimpling. I love the look of Kodak Endura but of course I cant ink jet it. This is not quite the same but it may be the closest I can get for Z3100 printing.

I cant wait to try the Aurora white

Red river is a class act when it comes to shipping, 5 days door to door US to Australia. I expect that's what sort of service you should get for the shipping cost.

I want to try some face mounting and I expect the Aurora white may be best for this.

Comments anyone?  Can anyone suggest other nice art papers that lend themselves to face mounting?

Lastly, can anyone suggest a good face mount adhesive film that isn't too expensive?

[dgberg]

Most good acrylic mounting adhesives are not inexpensive. I use Seals Opti Mount Ultra. Unisource (Canada) sells the 25"x25' sample rolls. In Trenton,NJ. KFI Technology also sells the product.
The sample roll is the best buy around but very few companies offer it anymore.
Seal sells 31",41" and 51" by 200 foot rolls. At about $1.50 a sq. you are going to spend upwards of $850.00 just for a 31" roll. Since most facemounting is done by cutting the sheet off the roll it is not necessary to purchase a large wide roll unless you print/mount wide.
I purchased a sample roll and after it was used up I bought the 41" roll and cut it into a 17" and 24" roll. Much easier to work with but alot of money put out for an adhesive.
I use Pictorico hi gloss film and Ilford Prestige smooth hi gloss film. Both have no texture and can be printed on either a dye or pigment printer. (The dye by far looks the best.)
The pictorico is a bright white where the Ilford has a tint of metallic. I just keep an eye on how much background white is in the image . If their is much at all I stay away from anything metallic.
When wanting a true metallic I use Photochrome Metallic also very nice.
When you use the term art papers I consider that matte papers. Not sure if you want to introduce matte papers with textures to facemounting.
Maybe someone here is facemounting on matte papers,I am sure they will chime in.
For me the goal has always been to find the smoothest paper with no texture at all for facemounting.

[jferrari]

I bought the 41" roll and cut it into a 17" and 24" roll.

How? Do you have a slitter/re-roller? Curious. Thanks.    - Jim

[dgberg]

I searched for someone that might have one with no luck.
I taped over the cut line with masking tape and cut it with my chop saw with a 120 tooth blade. You need to cut at just the right speed so you do not melt the adhesive on the ends. More of an issue if you have the adhesive webbed on your laminator. It might stick at the ends when unrolling if you melt those ends by mistake.
I mount mosly smaller plexi sizes and use a cut sheet off of the roll which works well.

[jferrari]

Ok, thanks Dan. I had envisioned trying to do it that way and even thought that I might rig some compressed air to cool the blade but have yet to try it. Someday...         - Jim

[tektrader]

Boy you weren't wrong about them being expensive. 

I suppose I need to start small until I get the process right. Need to find a starter roll here in Australia to give this a try.

Bought a manual 36 inch laminator the other day. I can get acrylic sheets no problem. Just have to bite the bullet.

Is gloss paper or matt paper the way to start ?