Re: Help with heat seal mounts

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Josephson inquires:

>1) what do you heat-seal users do to get the film straight & mountable.  I
>know that reverse rolling is supposed to work...but in my experience it
>only seems to curve the film the opposite of the way it came.  I've got 3
>rolls hanging in my closet with binder clips weighing down the ends right
>now.  

I gave up on reverse-rolling also, and use the same method as you.  The
trick is not to use too much weight, just enough to keep the film straight.
A couple of days should do it.

>2) I have some silver mounting tape like reel 3d sells, which should
>theoretically hold the film down OK, but the tape is too wide & gets in
>the way.

Use the Wess tabs, they're unbeatable.

My heat-seal mounting mething evolved to something like this, mostly
through trial-and-error (note, the amount if verbage it takes to
describe the method reads much longer than the actual process):

Prepare your Wesstab dispenser by pulling out the carrier to dispense
the next pair of tabs.

Take a chip (left or right first doesn't matter, but DO try to be
consistent; being systematic about it does help to avoid confusion
and prevent annoying psuedo errors) and butt the top edge against
the stop.

[The front of the heat-seals is actually the side with the embossed
stops (it has the smaller aperture), so if you want to use them the
"correct" way, you flip the chip over and put it in the opposite
window (right chip->left window).  This will give you a sharper
mask than the other way, but isn't absolutely vital, so if you're
afraid you'll screw up, just go right->right without flipping the
chip over.

I butt to the top stop because I discovered that if I butted to the
bottom, I could see a bit of the perforations at the top, but not the
other way around.]

Use the stop as a leveling guide to avoid rotation.  Don't rely on
the side stops to square up the chip, because if your film cutter
doesn't cut perfectly square, that will introduce rotational errors.
If the top of the film edge is parallel to the stop, there won't be
any rotation.

Placement of the chip left-right is something of a judgement call.
If the chip fits within the guides, I just center it there.  If it
doesn't, I'll usually butt the edge with more image (less border)
against the stop, and let the other edge hang over the stop; but
always check the top to avoid rotation.

When I've got the chip positioned where I want, I hold it in place
with the index finger of my left hand by the upper-left corner of
the perforations while I grab a Wesstab from the dispenser with a pair
of tweezers.  Use the tweezers to lay the Wesstab over the top edge
of the film and onto the embossed stop; without puttin the tweezers
down use the thumb of your right hand to press it down.

Before taping the bottom, check rotational alignment one more time.
The stickum on the Wesstabs will allow you a little bit of play while
only one end is stuck down, so if you accidentally rotated the chip,
you can fix it now.

Repeat for the other chip.  Repeat for rest of roll.

I personally find it faster to do the cut-and-stick part all at once,
then seal all of the mounts in a batch.

Some of the 'purists' in the group may cringe upon reading the above
advice.  Cringe away.  This method produces reasonably good alignment,
if you use good judgement, and are consistent in applying a method.

Don't worry so much, and mount those chips!  Of course you should stirve
for quality, but even a poorly-mounted slide is better than no slide at
all!

	-Greg W.


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