Thanks everybody for the input! Nothing like some alternate perspectives to clear out the cobwebs.
As much as it goes against my do-everything inclinations, I have decided to farm out the panel cutting.
A few phone calls revealed that there's a machine shop very close to my AluPanel supplier (Denco Sales), and I can basically order order panels and have them cut to highly accurate sizes with a single phone call. A little more expensive than doing it myself, but cheaper than hiring an assistant. For less money the AluPanel supplier will shear pieces to "approximate size", but with slightly rounded edges which I fear might undermine the adhesive integrity along those edges, so I'm gonna pay the extra for super clean cuts, at least on this job.
Would have been fun to pick up some new equipment. But one must learn to keep an eye on the desired end point without getting hung up in the joi de tools. I'm betting the "farming out" paradigm will increase my overall productivity and lead to a prettier bottom line. Theoretically.
Hey Dan, have you mounted any art papers like BC Pura or Epson Cold or Hot Press onto ACM? I wonder if those will have less tendency to pull back from the corners than canvas. I just today put some test pieces of Pura on ACM in the window, using an 8 year old roll of Drytac SureTac. Pretty aggressive stuff, if I try to pick up the edges with a fingernail or knife all I get is paper. I'm wondering which way I should go with the adhesives, stronger or weaker. And I wonder if thicker adhesive might have better shear properties as the ACM expands and contracts, maybe 2-layer adhesives are better in that respect, dunno. Anyway, I'm gonna order couple rolls of adhesive tomorrow for some quick tests. On the test piece I sealed the sides of the paper and also the black stuff with some thick acrylic varnish, will see if those edges hold up any better than the bare ones. The data sheets on Dibond specify the amount of expansion that be expected, if I work the numbers around I will get about 1mm of expansion over a 40F temperature rise, for a 90" wide panel. Might be a major source of corner pull-back. That's not actually too bad though, some of the frame moulding I use can expand 2 or 3mm for the same temperature rise and size.
Way back when I did a lot of experiments with canvas Mucked to white surfaced ACM. As I'm sure you know, I could get a bond, but it wasn't very hard to peel off the canvas with the Muck perfectly attached to it. Didn't try sanding, that may be the trick.
FWIW, I was able to get a really good bond between the canvas print with the dried muck layer and some museum board in a hot press! Dried Muck is basically the same adhesive as used on drymount tissue. Or to look at it another way, Muck is liquid drymounting. The mind boggles.
