Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: huguito on January 16, 2014, 07:51:56 pm
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I recently got my hands on a old working hot press
I want to try mounting canvas to gatorboard, either with mounting tissue or using miracle muck. Looking for a cheap alternative to stretcher bars
Most of the suppliers I found locally carry Gatorfoam, Is that the same as Gatorboard?
I tried regular foam panels before and they curl when the adhesive dries after a couple of days.
Tried to let it cure between two heavy plywood panels but as soon as I let it stand on its own it curls again inwards towards the print side after few hours.
Hugo
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Gatorfoam and Gatorboard are the same thing.
Gluing works the best. Gator is very expensive, at about $44 per 4 x 8 foot sheet. What makes it worth the money is that you can easily glue prints to one side, and it will not warp. Well, it will warp for about 6 hours after you glue the print, but finally it will flatten out forever. So when you see that curl just after gluing, don't panic, and don't try to "fix" it, just wait.
Search "miracle muck" on this forum for an ear full.
All you need is 3/16 inch thick for prints up to 40 x 80 if you are going to frame the piece. If you plan to wrap the print around the Gator, then use 1/2 inch or thicker, which is pretty expensive and probably will not be normally stocked by your supplier.
If you decide to dry mount, be sure the dry mount pad is still flexible enough, and the platen pressure is correct, otherwise you can crush Gator just like foamcore.
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Gator brand has a gator on the box. I have used the original and some knock offs all seem about the same.
Best way to mount is miracle muck IMO.
Paul Caldwell
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And if you plan to use glue, use black Gator because it's easier to see how well you've spread the glue, and black Gator is much easier to cut with a utility knife than white Gator.
However, if you are mounting very thin art that is not completely opaque, black Gator may dull down the artwork slightly. An example would be some of the very thin canvases with polyester (only) substrates. Lay down a print over some large, high contrast type against white. If you can see the type don't use black Gator.
The knock-off brand is OK. It comes 1/4" thick, instead of Gator's 3/16 inch, so I generally don't use it because of issues driving Fletcher point to keep it in frames with shallow rabbets.
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Hey huguito! If you're in the US Southwest you might want to drop in next Monday through Wednesday at the "West Coast Art and Framing Show" in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Paris Hotel. You can see all kinds of display options for prints, canvas stretching machines, heat presses, framing supplies, you name it, it's all there.
http://s19.a2zinc.net/clients/ezhobbypub/wcaf14/public/MainHall.aspx
I'm not going this year, too much hiking involved with those shows.
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Should I let the miracle muck cure between two flat boards?
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Should I let the miracle muck cure between two flat boards?
No, don't put any weight on the curving, warped looking print mounted on Gator. It will straighten out by itself in about 6 to 8 hours. Just lean in against the wall, or lay it down on a table. Really!
It will flatten out sooner if you don't use too much glue. But no matter how much glue you use, it will flatten out eventually. Worst case is maybe 16 hours, if you slopped on way too much blue. I usually mount prints in the evening, and then frame them the next morning when they are flat.
Be sure you have a wet paper towel to wipe any glue off the face of the print right away. It's also best to wipe down the back of Gator when you're done, because little dried dabs of glue there can mess up another print if they're stacked together. I have not trashed a print during mounting in at least the last 1,000 tries, it's so easy and so fast when you have the technique down. Also, have a scrap piece of foamcore or matboard or a cut up cardboard box or something like that so you can remove glue from the roller if you apply too much to the Gator. Press the roller hard against the whatever to squeeze out excess glue. It's best to pour what you think is too little glue on the Gator, then add more as you start to spread it out with the roller.
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Thanks Bill
How do you cut and trim the sheets of batorboard?
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A utility knife. Get a quick-change handle and change the blade often. Stanley "1992" utility blades are very well suited for Gator. A lot of the fancy blades at Lowes and Home Depot are junk. Buy blades by the 100.
Use one of these cutting mattes. They last forever, or at least about 2000 large prints, whichever comes first. Don't worry how bad it looks after a few 100 swipes, and carry on. The supplier can cut them to size for your table. They also make a great general purpose working surfaces for framing, print trimming etc. No prissy little 32x40 cutting mattes, please! Cover the whole darned table and cut anywhere, anytime. Table-sized cutting mattes make rotary trimmers look silly.
http://www.cutting-mats.net/custom-mats-nogrid.html
Also get some heavy straightedges. I have the 64 and 100 inch versions of the on the link. They weigh enough to stay in position on the art. Sometimes I gently clamp (http://www.rockler.com/irwin-quick-grip-6-mini-bar-clamps-2-pack) the art and straightedge together when they are hanging off the end of the table, that way I can easily cut 8 foot wide prints on my poor little 36x80 doorslab-on-folding-table work bench. The way they show the straightedge being used in the pictures is ridiculous, you'll figure out the right way soon enough.
http://www.cutting-mats.net/pro-safety-straightedges.html
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^Thanks for the tip for the rhino cutting mats. I was just looking for something by Olfa (my partner uses this for her sewing) or uline and was lamenting that I couldn’t find a bigger single piece. The rhino guys have a 4x10 piece, which is perfect for my work table. It will be a big and clean improvement over the matt board on top of cardboard I’ve been using.
Sometimes I gently clamp the art and straightedge together when they are hanging off the end of the table
I want to emphasize the term gently to the comment above. For longer pieces I clamp a long aluminum ruler to the work table and use the ruler to hold the work in place, so it doesn’t shift while I’m making a long straight cut. It doesn’t take a lot of pressure with the clamps to cause an imprint in the gator or artwork along the straight edge. Use just enough pressure with the clamps to keep the ruler from slipping.
Btw if you google 2” x 96” aluminum ruler, you should be able to find one for about $20 and a 2” x 72” one for even less.
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And as long as we're being gentle, I should mention that the biggest rooky mistake is putting a lot of body weight on the Gator as by pressing into it with some part of your hand. It's not that hard to create an expensive dimple that basically trashes the mounted print.
The second biggest rooky mistake is moving the blade away from you and having it unexpectedly snag into the Gator with the tip of the blade. What can happen then is that your hand continues to slide forward along the stalled knife grip and into the blade edge, cutting the !*#% out of the finger next to your thumb. Keep a firm grip on the knife at all times, and don't fly too low over the Gator between swipes. Best to pick a knife with a good guard between the blade and the grip. Have never done this, thanks a diligent graphic arts mentor long ago who scared me with his scar.
Hot tip...before making any cut, grab an end of the straight edge and while applying whatever hold-down strategy you plan to use, make sure you can't move the straight edge left or right. Will save a few prints sooner than later.
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Thanks for this link! :o
A utility knife. Get a quick-change handle and change the blade often. Stanley "1992" utility blades are very well suited for Gator. A lot of the fancy blades at Lowes and Home Depot are junk. Buy blades by the 100.
Use one of these cutting mattes. They last forever, or at least about 2000 large prints, whichever comes first. Don't worry how bad it looks after a few 100 swipes, and carry on. The supplier can cut them to size for your table. They also make a great general purpose working surfaces for framing, print trimming etc. No prissy little 32x40 cutting mattes, please! Cover the whole darned table and cut anywhere, anytime. Table-sized cutting mattes make rotary trimmers look silly.
http://www.cutting-mats.net/custom-mats-nogrid.html
Also get some heavy straightedges. I have the 64 and 100 inch versions of the on the link. They weigh enough to stay in position on the art. Sometimes I gently clamp (http://www.rockler.com/irwin-quick-grip-6-mini-bar-clamps-2-pack) the art and straightedge together when they are hanging off the end of the table, that way I can easily cut 8 foot wide prints on my poor little 36x80 doorslab-on-folding-table work bench. The way they show the straightedge being used in the pictures is ridiculous, you'll figure out the right way soon enough.
http://www.cutting-mats.net/pro-safety-straightedges.html
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To add,remember to order your product before winter.
Unless you live in the desert southwest or the Ca. coast.
Raphaels will not ship Miracle Muck in the winter due to the possibility of freezing.
So here I sit still in Jan. and only a pint or so left in the jug.
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Best to pick a knife with a good guard between the blade and the grip. Have never done this, thanks a diligent graphic arts mentor long ago who scared me with his scar.
Great thread.
Having sliced my "hold-down" hand index finger, I can relate to this caution.
1) do the linked straightedges provide adequate protection?
2) what knives offer the "good guard between the blade and the grip" I've never seen one.
3) any experience with matt cutters cutting 1/4" Gator? It cuts 1/8" foamcore just fine.
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1) do the linked straightedges provide adequate protection?
2) what knives offer the "good guard between the blade and the grip" I've never seen one.
3) any experience with matt cutters cutting 1/4" Gator? It cuts 1/8" foamcore just fine.
The straightedges I linked are supposedly designed to protect your fingers. The problem is, the way they show the straightedge being held down in the picture requires you to be at one end, with the axis of the straightedge pointing towards your body. Doesn't work for large pieces more than about 30" long. My presumably unsafe practice is to have the straightedge oriented 90 degrees to my body, and while cutting with my right hand I press down on the upward "wing" extrusion with my left hand, frequently changing positions as I cut the length of a long side.
I presume this sort of knife (http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/2b/2b6fcc3a-19ac-4f57-82b9-265677891e21_400.jpg) is a whole lot safer than this classic sort of knife (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTv6X9rJbkwnAqB57lOV86C30JuiPD8gQUX50uhfFGqgQc2QEwVfw). I won't say what type I use, which is unsafe but allows me to press down almost on the top of the blade with the finger next to my thumb, very not recommended but I am old and have practiced doing this stuff as a young man.
Some matte cutters have optional long style blades designed for cutting 8 ply mattes, they might just be able to cut 3/16" Gator, but I can't say conclusively. My retired Logan matte cutter allowed blades to be mounted somewhat hanging out from the recommended position, which is probably an unsafe thing to do. So called "media wall cutters" (http://www.framingsupplies.com/Onyx90/Onyx90WallMountedMediaCutter.htm) are very good with Gator, and also with matboard, glass, acrylic, and all that stuff. About $1000+ for a good one, kiss you wall goodbye for displaying prints.
I cut up 4x8 Gator sheets on my meager 36 x 80 table with a 48" drywall t-square (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Empire-48-in-Drywall-T-square-41048-12/202035306#). A few swipes of masking tape on the contact side adds some hold-in-place friction. For rip-cuts across the 4 foot lenth, I position the sheet so it's hanging about 1 inch over my side of the table, then cut an 18" swipe towards me being careful not to endanger future generations. Then I flip the Gator to its other side. Using the previous 18" cut as I guide, I make another longer cut to part the board. With Gator, it's OK to make cuts in areas supported only by the air if you gently clamp the straightedge to the Gator, as previously discussed. Just don't be too aggressive with those air cuts.
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One more "helpful hint":
Don't try to cut all the way thru in one swipe. The first swipe should cut thru the top layer of the GB, then the next one, thru the foam center, and the last one thru the bottom layer.
This is just as important with the 1/4" stuff as it is with the1/2" stuff.
Take your time and do it right.
Even regular foam core likes to be cut in 2 swipes.
It just makes it easier to stay on line even with a straight edge.
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To continue being helfpul...
If you need clean looking cuts on the sides of your Gator, make a first approximation trim that is about 1/16 to 1/8" out from the position of your final trim. You will have to apply MUCH less cutting pressure on the final trim cut, and it will usually be cleaner. Use a fresh blade, don't be cheap! And as framah says, you needn't feel embarrassed about taking many swipes to make your cut. If after all those cuts you see a lot of shredding Gator, you're not holding the knife consistently.
There's a problem, though. The basic art of cutting with a utility knife involves holding the knife perfectly vertical. HOWEVER, for those fine trim cuts, it is sometimes necessary to tilt the vertical knife orientation very slightly towards you, and rotate the long axis of the kinfe so the angle of the bevel on the cutting edge is parallel to the straightedge. If you are right handed, the rotation seen from above will be slightly counter-clockwise. You need need to go from thinking about knife orientation, to thinking about the orientation of the cutting edge bevel on the blade. You'll see what I mean. Be careful, because that orientation has a tendency to move the straightedge during the cut. The tilt only applies to trim cuts. Practice makes perfect. Spend some time whittling away at some scarp gator, it will make you a gentler person.
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Superb, boys. I thank you.
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We use these, http://www.martor.com/condex_203.html?&L=0#information together with this, http://www.martor.com/condex-guide_rail_207.html?&L=0
It cuts most rigid substrates including 10mm foam board, paper, canvas etc. As with all cutters, keep a sharp blade insatalled.
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What adhesive would you Gatorboard experts suggest for inkjet paper? I mounted some photos to what I thought was reasonable quality self-adhesive foam board and they all quickly warped. Glueing wood strips to the back helped take out some of the warp, but they still don't look all that great. I guess I'm going to have to ante up for the good stuff, if I want flat prints. There's a company in Chicago that will cut Gatorboard to the exact size of the print for a fairly reasonable cost. I have a cheapo dry laminator to put some pressure on the print, but I need an adhesive that will give me some time to get the print properly aligned with the board before laminating.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
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"Miracle Muck (http://www.raphaelstoday.com/Pages/MiracleMuck.aspx)" from Raphaels is great stuff. But it's really only PVA glue with slightly longer polymers than say Elmer's White Glue which you can but a office supply stores.
"Lamin-All (http://www.drytac.com/lamin-all-adhesive.html)" is the same stuff, but with some sodium bicarbonate added to buffer it to pH neutral. I don't think that's very import for dried glue.
No need for a press! Search "Miracle Muck" on this forum for 20 different, equally good ways to roll out your tube-wound print over a Muck-coated piece of Gator. Piece o' cake! You press it gently down with your cotton-gloved hand. Much easier than any process involving adhesives. Muck is also reversible! If you heat a Muck-mounted print in a heat press at about 170F for about a minute or two, you peel it right off the substrate, clean as a whistle. And if it ever starts to peel up, you can reseal it with a household iron. So far I have had zero problems with Muck-prints, and I've got many thousands of those babies out in the field.
No need for custom cutting! Gator cuts easily with a utility knife and a straight edge. You can even use an Xacto knife if you don't value your fingers.
Try to buy your Gator from a professional sign supplier, or a wholesale supplier like Piedmont Plastics. Most suppliers that carry plastic sheets will carry Gator, even though it's not strictly plastic. If you pay more than $43 for a 4' x 8' x 3/16" sheet, you are being robbed. The online stores are run by crooks.
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What adhesive would you Gatorboard experts suggest for inkjet paper? I mounted some photos to what I thought was reasonable quality self-adhesive foam board and they all quickly warped. Glueing wood strips to the back helped take out some of the warp, but they still don't look all that great. I guess I'm going to have to ante up for the good stuff, if I want flat prints. There's a company in Chicago that will cut Gatorboard to the exact size of the print for a fairly reasonable cost. I have a cheapo dry laminator to put some pressure on the print, but I need an adhesive that will give me some time to get the print properly aligned with the board before laminating.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Check out Artgrafix one of many companies that handles precut Gatorboard sizes with cold mount adhesive.
Many sizes to choose from and the only thing that is easier then Miracle Muck.
You do not need time to align your print
Peel back an inch of the adhesive liner and fold it back. Line your print on the exposed adhesive and burnish that end down.
Pull the liner from underneath the print while burnishing the print with a brayer or your hand.
If you have a manual laminator run it through and that is it. For the bigger ones it makes it easier to have a little bleed.
After laminating flip it over and trim with a razor and your done.
Probably 25 videos on Youtube showing the process. (Drytac's videos are good.)
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Here's another little trick for working with GB.
You know how the back edge gets all chippy? Well... go to your local Home Despot and buy a sheet rock sander.
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h216/framah/FH00DJA_SANDDR_01_zps18e9f7e8.jpg) (http://[URL=http://s65.photobucket.com/user/framah/media/FH00DJA_SANDDR_01_zps18e9f7e8.jpg.html)]
This will allow you to sand off those edges nice and smooth.
Another little fun fact about GB is that the surface isn't always clean and smooth. Run your hand over the surface and feel the little bumps of schmutz that is there. This sander will help with that as well. Once you have sanded it, wipe it with a slightly damp cloth to get rid of the dust.
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Here's another little trick for working with GB.
You know how the back edge gets all chippy? Well... go to your local Home Despot and buy a sheet rock sander.
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h216/framah/FH00DJA_SANDDR_01_zps18e9f7e8.jpg) (http://[URL=http://s65.photobucket.com/user/framah/media/FH00DJA_SANDDR_01_zps18e9f7e8.jpg.html)]
This will allow you to sand off those edges nice and smooth.
Another little fun fact about GB is that the surface isn't always clean and smooth. Run your hand over the surface and feel the little bumps of schmutz that is there. This sander will help with that as well. Once you have sanded it, wipe it with a slightly damp cloth to get rid of the dust.
Or take it to your jointer with a helical head and run all 4 edges over the jointer head. (Yeah I know not everyone has one,but you should.)
Comes out smooth as glass even with the print attached.
For the customers that wants to hang their gator prints with no frame that is what I do.
The only gatorboard/print mount that you cannot trim smoothly this way is canvas on gator. You get tiny little tearout threads showing,no good.
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For the customers that wants to hang their gator prints with no frame that is what I do.
The only gatorboard/print mount that you cannot trim smoothly this way is canvas on gator. You get tiny little tearout threads showing,no good.
It would improve the legibility of your posts if you could post your comments OUTSIDE the quote box !
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If you pay more than $43 for a 4' x 8' x 3/16" sheet, you are being robbed. The online stores are run by crooks.
More excellent data. Thanks again.
Is 3/16ths the optimum thickness? 3/16ths seems pretty close to regular foam core.
Does the thickness requirement vary with image size?
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Great advice. I checked Artgrafix and they sell 17X22 self-adhesive Gatorboard for about $10 each ($105 for 10). Is that a reasonable deal? I'm sure it would be cheaper to buy it by the 4X8 sheet, but I don't have a vehicle that will transport anything that size.
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Look at:
http://www.foamboardsource.com/gatorfoams--gatorfoam--3-16--gatorfoam.html
They are usually very competitive on pricing, and pack products for shipping better than I have ever seen.
bob snow
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Those 17x22 sheets are priced at about $3.80 per square foot, versus the $1.35 I pay to my local supplier for 4x8 sheets. About a 3x markup. But hey, convenience is worth something and it costs something to cut down those sheets. Maybe I was being too harsh with the "crooks" designation. They are merely Mafia wannabees.
Gator is a prime example of stuff you should be buying from a local supplier. For my local supplier, I can buy a case of 15, 4x8 sheets for $0.00 shipping and they deliver for free. If I order it in, I have to pay the minimum freight charge of about $150.00, and about 10% to 30% of the sheets will be somewhat (or hugely) damaged by the notoriously gentle handling it received on the shipping docks and trucks. The avoidance of shipping is worth something, even if you find a technically better deal online, which you probably won't. I know a guy who drives 300 miles round trip from Northern New Mexico to pick up his Gator at my Albuquerque supplier.
3/16" is fine for very large prints. You're probably OK up to somewhere around 36 x 72 inches. A lot depends on how you're going to present it. The vertical dimension is your limiting factor since it is subject to sagging. For instance a 30 x 120 x 3/16 mounted canvas would be just fine, but a 44 x 120 x 3/16 would probably be a bad call. All that assumes the pieces are rigidified by frames. If you are presenting just a print on Gator, you would need to go thicker at much smaller dimensions.
1/2" or thicker looks better for cosmetic reasons, especially if you want to wrap the print around the back a la gallery wrap. For extremely large framed pieces the Gator becomes the major structural element and essentially carries the frame along for the ride, at least in cases where you are using polystyrene frames to keep the total weight under control. In certain cases you may need to hang the piece from the Gator rather than the frame, that's when 1 inch may be called for, and that will make a dent in your credit card.
Edit: oh yeah, the user-cut edges of Gator can be like very sharp serrated knives, especially as a result of sloppy cuts. Watch out. If you handle Gator you WILL bleed, sooner than later. Always know the shortest route to your bottle of Bactine and box of bandages. When you grasp a cut piece of Gator, be darned sure you don't let it slide against your flesh. Always say to yourself, "I'm gonna hold on to this piece of Gator very firmly, and it's not going to slide along my fingers, because I hate the sight of blood, especially when it's my own." 'Nuf said.
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Hey, Bill...
Thus the sheetrock sander! ;D It's just like seaming the edge of glass. Both take the sharp chisel off the edge. No blood, no fainting, no stitches from hitting head on bench while fainting, no crying when receiving the Ambulance bill...
You know about seaming glass, right?
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Haven't got time for sanders! Or the dust removal equipment, either. Prior to gluing the print I run a wad of slightly-wet paper towels over the bare Gator, then give a final tactile check by sensuously running my fingers over its naked body. If you gotta do framing, you gotta have some fun, right?
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Now you guys is scaring me. :)
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Oooooh, bare Gator!!! Oh baby!! Oh yeah!! :o
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With 1/2 gator all you need it one cut as you can snap it after that. The results will give you a clean cut 100% of the time. This does not work with the 3/16" in my experience. It took me a few months of working with the 1/2 before I realized this feature and trust me it saves a ton of time with large prints.
If you are working with large prints, say 36" x 72" or 40" x 60" on 1/2, making 3 separate cuts can be tough. It's so easy for the ruler to move during a cut and that's all it takes to mess up the entire mount. I work alone and don't have anyone to hold the ruler on the far end.
All my gator on canvas goes into a frame and if you happen to get a snag, the frame will hide it.
Paul
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If you want to present the paper or canvas print on gator by itself, without a frame,
What simple options are there to dress the sides of it without maknig it too expensive or complicated?
Hugo
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A local graphics house mounts all my prints to 1/2" gator. We laminate with a luster material for papers like Canson Baryta, and with glossy laminate for metallic papers. All mounts receive an edge treatment with black glue-on melamine. What are you all fininshing your edges with, and what are you using for face protection if not laminates, please?
Thanks,
John Caldwell
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My Dibond/Gatorboard supplier Harbor Sales in Sudlersville Md. sells 8 foot lengths of pvc edge cap. Black,white and silver.
This is really for 1/2" gator but I use it on 3/8" with a little ATG 3M tape to keep it tight.
It is just too tight to slide the 1/2" edge on to 1/2"gatorboard especially if you have a canvas print attached.
If you wanted to go crazy you can miter it with a razor and put it on all 4 sides.
It is a very hard durable pvc and is way better then some of those black or colored edge veneered edging for gatorboard.
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Hi John
You have any pictures of that treatment to the edges of the gator panels after the prints or the sheets of canvas have been attached to the gator? Or maybe a little more of an explanation of how to do it by steps?
I hate how the laminates I have tried make prints looks foggy and flat, maybe I have tried stuff that was too thick.
So far in canvas I use a spray from Hanhemhule, almost no gloss, just a light spray on 2 coats, seems to make Epson Exhibition satin canvas images nice and deep. Great blacks. I tried to running my fingernails on the front on the print and no marks at al.
For paper, like Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, I just spray a coat or two of the same aerosol cans, I like the look of a paper print mounted to the matt without glass.
Hugo
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We use polymount Dry mount film in a heat press for canvas and prints to gator.
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How does the gatorboard compare to MightyCore 1/4"?
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Gatorfoam 3/16", Mighty Core 1/4". Otherwise essentially the same characteristics. I prefer Gatorfoam because I install my mounted prints in frames with relatively shallow rabbet depths, the slightly thinner Gatorfoam gives me more leeway to drive Fletcher Points, which are the flat nails that hold the mounted print in the frame.
Oh, Mighty Core is a little cheaper.
PS, make that 4/16" rather than 1/4". Reducing fractions is ridiculous, busy work for grade school kids. In my shop, it's strictly inches and sixteenths of an inch. "How long is that print?" "It's 4-8" comes the reply. Pronounced "four dash eight." Meaning 4 and 8/16, or 4 and 1/2 for second graders. It's almost as good as the metric system. OK, so if you need 13/32, that's 6+ sixteenths.
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It's almost as good as the metric system.
No.
It's not.
:)
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The metric system centers around counting on your fingers. Base 16 would have been the optimal choice for these modern times, uniting man and machine with a common way of representing numbers.
When one is given the registration passcode "0123 4567 89ab cdef" or when a computer crash screen delivers similar chicken scratches, we are viewing base 16 (or hexadecimcal) numbers in all their enlightened beauty. Computers do not waste time fooling around with a brain dead number system, and often laugh at us behind our base 10 backs. Blame Bishop Wilkins.
So my take on this is, until something a lot better than that silly base 10 metric system comes along, I'll stick with imperial thereby avoiding the replacement of a lot of tape measures, cutting tools, and rulers. And the 3 sections on my right middle finger are exactly 1" long and immediately available for approximate measurements although discretion is advised in public places.
TUTORIAL: How to divide a fractional measurement in two.
Suppose your tape measure reads 47 and 3/16 inches. Quick, whats half of that? You often need to know that for framing.
1. Find the next lowest EVEN, whole inch number, in this case 46. Don't worry about the fractions yet.
2. Now represent the remaining distance in sixteenths, in this case 19/16. 46 and 19/16 is the same as 47 and 3/16.
3. Halve 46 to get 23.
4. Halve 19 to get 9+.
5. The answer is, 23 inches and 9+ sixteenths.
I figured that out all by myself.
Machiavellian mental conversions of this type will undoubtedly extend the useful life of my brain another 10 years, beyond what I would get from merely slamming some soulless metric number into a calculator. You gotta have the right outlook. Consider that Newton used to do completely pointless and very complex long divisions for the simple pleasure of it, and you begin to understand. I wonder when they're going to dig him up to see if he had the MAOA gene mutation, but that's another story.
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Suppose your tape measure reads 47 and 3/16 inches. Quick, whats half of that? You often need to know that for framing.
No, no you don't. ;D
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No, no you don't. ;D
Yes, yes you do! If you're adding vertical center braces to the backs of frames more than 5 feet wide in a very dry climate. 1/2" x 1/16" x 72" strips of aluminum from Lowes, cut to a length 1" less than the vertical dimension, punch a hole 1/4" in from each end, attach with #8 x 3/4" lathe screws. Bye bye warping sagging moulding! And fractions galore!
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Ok... Yes, Yes you do!!! (once in a blue moon!) ;D
Of course, you could just do what I do and add a wire vertically on the frame. I use the aircraft wire and swaging sleeves system of wiring a frame instead of that old braided wire junk. No intricate measuring, just snug it up and swage it and it stays.
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Boy could I tell you all kinds of stories about tape reading.
One of my favorite questions for new hires in my cabinet shop was "can you read a tape"
The answer was of course always yes. Then I pull out the tape and have them measure a board and you could not believe some of the fumbling around counting the little lines to come up with a number.
This little test held more weight then you can imagine.
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I overheard a gallery owner ask an applicant what size a particular piece was. "Ummm, it's kinda mediumish." Don't know if she got the job. Not a bad answer, actually, at least she correctly placed the piece in the overall spectrum of sizes, and she didn't get flustered.
And who else hates tape measures where every single 1/16, or even 1/32 on an inch is labeled in text on the tape? Totally unusable! The measurements on my Phaedra miter fence is broken down into 1/64ths below about 10 inches. Extremely difficult to use!
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I don’t trust tape measures for critical measurements. If you use the same one, the tang becomes looser over time and can become off by an intolerable amount in a fairly short time span. Even worse, the tang is not consistent from tape to tape and the problem gets even worse because almost everyone has several tape measures in the shop or tool kit.
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And who else hates tape measures where every single 1/16, or even 1/32 on an inch is labeled in text on the tape?
Yup. Me. My time on a big DeWalt chop saw when I was building my house cured me of those tapes forevah.
At Lowe's once, I saw a tape that auto locked when you pulled it out and you clicked the button to retract it. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
WRONG. It sits unused, forlorn, alone.
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Regarding metric vs imperial measure:
1. Particularly for Justan, the tangs do get loose so the standard method is to measure from the 1” mark. The challenge becomes in remembering to allow for the extra inch;
2. In woodwork, if you have a metal rule engraved with anything finer than 1/16 it is usually used for a nail file;
3. A quote I will always remember came from the CEO of a large US corporation who happened to come from Oklahoma. He was the keynote speaker at a convention in Canada. He said “Ah don’t know about these Killo-meters, where ah come from we use White Man’s Measure”.
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the tangs do get loose so the standard method is to measure from the 1” mark.
The tangs are supposed to be "loose" as to allow for inside and outside measurement. The amount of travel is equal to the thickness of the tang. If you never want to perform an inside measurement then just peen the rivets down when the tang is in the extended position. If your tangs are truly getting loose - get a Stanley. Keep in mind the days when we had to use folding rules!
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30 year Pro cabinet maker here.
Switched to metric 20 years ago because, hey, all the hardware is metric!
But more to the point - in Inch standard, I can eyeball to 1/32" pretty easily (1/2 of 1/16" markings, that is, I aim between the marks)
1/2 of millimeter marking is equivalent to 1/50th of an inch.
Metric FTW...
Super useful information in this thread by the way, thanks all!
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Dang those tangs! I have always used the "burn 10 inches" technique rather than the more treacherous "burn 1 inch" method. If I measure a 20" side and forget to subtract a burned inch, that's a subtle difference that could slip by when I go to cut a matte or frame. However, if I forget to subtract a burned 10", that's an obvious, easily picked up discrepancy. So for flat art I always start measuring from the 10" mark, even if that does allow base 10 to sneak into my workflow.
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Hmmm I was born in 1960 when Australia was Imperial for everything. I started school and learnt feet, inches, gallons and yards for the first 5 years. Then we changed to the METRIC system. As a consequence I tend to use both to some extent.
Anyone who thinks the Imperial system is superior is living in a dream land. Sooner the US wakes up the better. Even NASA saw the light........ But of course the 95% of the rest of the world who use the METRIC system. What would we know? :) LOL
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In fact, the US is almost the only bi-measurement country on Earth, after those guys up North caved in so easily. Milk in gallons, Coca-Cola in liters, etc. Nobody complains.
I still think the 12 units per foot thing is rather beautiful. How nicely it subdivides: 3 x 4, 4 x 3, 2 x 6, etc. Versus 3 x 3.3333333333..., 4 x 2.5, 6 x 1.6666666666.... etc which is highly irrational. An Imperial system re-configured to base 16 would be a mathematically far superior system to one based on counting on one's fingers, and we could have that with nothing more than looking at 1/16 inches in a fresh light. Base 10 is exceptional only for failing to be base 16 while revolution was still possible.
Would be so nice if people would only think of 1/16ths of an inch as proper numbers in themselves, and drop pointless fractional reductions to least common denominators. Would be much like centimeters and millimeters, except using a superior number base. A mile of 3200 or 6400 feet would divide up so much more rationally into useful subsections than kilometers. 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200... sound familiar? All perfectly nice base 16-like progressions, which would be far more elegant expressed in hex.
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What about mounting to Gatorboard?
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map of countries not officially using the Metric System ::)
http://www.boredpanda.com/fun-maps-they-didnt-teach-you-in-school/?image_id=fun-maps-38.jpg
from Maps they didn’t teach you in school
http://www.boredpanda.com/fun-maps-they-didnt-teach-you-in-school/
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What about mounting to Gatorboard?
Just as imperial adjustable wrenches outperform metric adjustable wrenches, so do prints mounted to Gatorfoam cut with imperial straightedges adhere better than their metric counterparts.
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I've been a machinist for the last 35 years, working with everyday tolerances as small as +/- 0.001" and at times as small +/- 0.0001 inches.
To this day, I still convert almost everything metric, to inches.
Early in my apprenticeship one of the older journeyman machinists told me the following.
A trained human eye can resolve about +/- 0.005 of a inch. Take that tape measure and a precision steel rule, looking squarely over the lines, bend that tang until the lines on the tape match the lines on the precision steel rule, you now have a calibrated tape measure.
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versus the $1.35 I pay to my local supplier for 4x8 sheets. I know a guy who drives 300 miles round trip from Northern New Mexico to pick up his Gator at my Albuquerque supplier.
Wow. I can see why. A wholesale supplier in Spokane just quoted me $75.45 per 4X8 sheet of 3/16ths black Gator. That's $2.35 a square foot. :(