Drymounting/Paper question

[kmeyers]

I'm sure this question is heretical to many, but I need to ask it anyway .

I come from the old school of drymounting and have tried drymounting various inkjet papers and have found some papers that work ok, and others that are so delicate or easy to screw up. I'm looking for any input from anyone else that may be drymounting, as to which papers that hold up well in the drymounting process. I'm particularly looking for papers that would be similar to traditional black and white papers such as Iford MGIV, Kodak Polymax FA, Oriental Segull, etc....

Thanks so much.

Ken

[cybis]

I'm dry mounting Hahnemuhle photo rag baryta with Bienfang RagMount at 180F. It works perfectly and is probably close to the look you are looking for.

[kmeyers]

Thanks for the reply. Any issues whatsoever with abrading or picking up particles into the emulsion when you are pressing the print? It's interesting to me to see the wide variations on the print surface and the ease of damage.

[cybis]

It hasn't been an issue for me. The paper doesn't scratch easily during normal handling. The surface is glossy with a very fine texture which help conceal the occasional dust indent. Once in a while a small particle finds its way between the print and the release paper and gets press into the surface of the paper; I usually pop it out with the tip of a fine blade and you can't tell it ever happened.

[datro]

I regularly dry mount Harman by Hahnemuhle Gloss Baryta with no problems.  I place my 4ply Rising mount board with the print tacked with Colormount tissue between a bottom 4ply and top 4ply board when in the press.  It's a thicker "sandwich" than what most people use but I find it works really well and provides good even heat.  My testing using the Seal wax test strips indicates I need 2 minutes 15 seconds at 225 degrees on my press for this paper.  The test strips tell me that I'm actually getting about 190-200 degrees for the mount tissue.

I think you will find that dry mounting itself is far less likely to cause damage to prints compared to scratches etc. that come from careless handling of the print in general.  I use an air compressor and blown air to keep everything dust free when mounting.  For me, the Harman Gloss Baryta is closer to the wet darkroom glossy papers than anything else I've seen...it has practically no gloss differential which is usually the first thing you notice that says "inkjet print".

Dave

[bill t.]

Not sure what kind of trouble you're having dry mounting some inkjet papers.  Although I have not done any dry mounts in the last few years, when I was using that method I never encountered an inkjet paper that couldn't be mounted, given the right tissue and the right temperature and the right time.

However, with my original ancient press I got instances where the surface of the print delaminated or developed bubbles, especially with RC papers.  The old mechanical thermostat on that press was swinging up and down about 40 degress F around the dial temperature, and it turns out that on the 220F end of the swing bad things started happening to the papers.  However, in later testing I found that the same papers could take 180 to 190 F for at least half an hour.

My solution was to buy a nice press with a digital thermostat.  With the old swinging thermostat, a temporary fix was to always press a dummy load of old matte paper just before the real press of the art package.  That would soak up any excess heat, but had the disadvantage that it would start another temperature cycle so one had to get the mount done and the artwork out of there within a couple minutes, max.

Well hardware is always fun, especially when it's cheap.  So here's a recommend for a neat little thermometer that can tell you at a glance how hot your press really is.  Just stick it under the platten (will work the larger presses) or measure a pressed piece of matte the instant it comes out.  Will also detect cold areas where the heating element may be burned out or uneven.  Also useful...peel away the cover sheet the instant the artwork emerges and measure the actual temperature of the print surface, it may not be as hot as you thought.

http://www.harborfreight.com/non-contact-pocket-thermometer-93983.html

Could dump all night on this subject.  Be sure to press out the moisture from the backing and the print (minus the tissue) on a separate de-moisturising press just before the real press.  Moisture is the enemy of dry mounting, and the cause of most of the bad rap about the process, that and pieces of grit stuff under the print, you want to avoid that situation, 'nuff said.  And there was a particular tissue that was just super for mounting RC papers (not Colormount) but it isn't made anymore.  So do a little bit of testing before you select a tissue for RC, it can make a big difference in your results.

Dry mounting was good enough for Ansel, and it was good enough for Edward, so it's good enough for us.  And I trust it a whole lot more than adhesive mounting, the stories I could tell.

Edit...more dumping...and a little known fact of dry mounting is that for some tissues the rate of temperature increase is important.  For instance, old Colormount tissue would not work well with heavy cover sheets like you might want to use with sectional mounting of large prints.  With a thin cover sheet, the temperature would climb rapidly and I'd always get a good mount.  But the slower temperature rise with thick cover sheets would result in a very weak bond no matter how long I left the package in the press, even if the temperature of the print came out correct out of the oven.  Go figure.  Was kind of interesting, since with the weak bonds I could later peel the print right off the tissue and mount.  Does that make dry mounting archival?