I have just started doing 16x20 prints in my darkroom. Everything went fine until I started the mounting process. I have an older Seal Dry Mount Press that accommodates 16x20 mat board. Unfortunately I am now dealing with mat boards of at least 25x28. I am looking for a used Seal 210M Dry Mount Press. Can anyone point me to a source of used ones? I just missed several that expired on Ebay and it might be a wait until they appear again.

Any input would be appreciated.

-- Robert Bedwell (rlb@triad.rr.com), January 17, 2001

Answers

Just use the press you have and mount a part at a time, overlapping the regions you press. If you overlay your photo/mounting-tissue/board assembly with another clean mat board, no marks will show where you overlap the press treatments.

-- Tim Nelson (timothy.nelson@yale.edu), January 17, 2001.

Thanks for the note Tim. I will take a look to see if it will allow me to do this. The Seal that I have looks like an antique.

Thanks Bob

-- Robert Bedwell (rlb@triad.rr.com), January 17, 2001.

It's quite common practise to mount larger prints in 'nibbles' using a smaller press. An old blanket on the cold side of the press and some thin white card on the hot side are all that's needed to stop the lines showing.
In fact, I can't remember a darkroom I've worked in, or visited, where an old grey wool blanket wasn't draped over the mounting press!

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), January 18, 2001.

I have a book "Mounting photographs" where author states that mounting using smaller than print press (overlapping) will cause air to get under the mounted photograph after few years or months on display. This will happen in the places where overlapping happened. Can anybody comment on that? It that true? I checked Seal presses and the one to mount 20X24 weights 275 pounds, I can't handle that. Do the smaller presses provide good and stable quality mounting?

-- Boris Krivoruk (Boris_Krivoruk@ams.com), January 18, 2001.

This question is kinda right up this alley.

I'm wondering if I can use 8x10 inch sheets of glue on a 11x14 inch print.

I was wondering if I can combine two sheets of glue to cover a larger 11x14" print. I'm guessing you'd get uneven marks underneith the image. Is there a good online source for larger sheets of glue?

thanks.

-- Scott Haraldson (bike@minister.com), January 19, 2001.