P3D Re: PHOTO-3D digest 2838 P3D Re: Stereocard Mounting

[WKarb77953@xxxxxxx]

I mount a lot of photographs, mostly larger than sterocards.  

I consider my dry-mount press (for heat-tissue mounting) the most valuable,
useful peice of equipment my darkroom!  Prior to obtaining it, I used an iron,
but the results were not satisfactory due to the print size being larger that
the iron.    

Since you are mounting much smaller prints, a good iron (used with a separator
sheet and a heat resistant compliant backing under the board) should work.

Here's the biggest tip.  THE MOUNT (AND THE PHOTO IF FIBER BASED PAPER) HAVE
TO BE DRIED OF MOISTURE PRIOR TO MOUNTING!  If not dried first, you WILL
suffer from blistering and incomplete adhesion.  20-30 seconds under the iron
prior to mounting, tacking tissue and trimming should do the trick.  You are
removing moisture that these paper products pick up from the environment.

Also, a typical mechanical dry-mount press only generates about 2 to 3 psi
(pounds per square inch) pressure on the "sandwitch", which you should be able
to generate with your body weight on the smaller "footprint" of the iron.
Higher pressures are available using vacuum dry mount presses (14.7 psi at sea
level!), but these are normally the size of the top of a chest freezer (or
larger) and if you have to ask how much they cost, then........



Regards,

Wayne Karberg


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