Dust!!!

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girlfromkent
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Dust!!!

Post by girlfromkent »

Hello all

I'm having a lot of trouble this week with dust and flumbs, getting into box frames, sticking to glass.

I've read through some posts and tried a few things but still feeling like my mental health is suffering! Every damn time there's tiny bits of dust and crap and I'm taking the back off, using the micro fibre cloth / anti static cloth / brush / cotton bud... This week I even tried coating the inside of the frame with watered down wood glue, thinking it might be the cheap moulding I was using, but still, flumbs and dust everywhere.

Today I needed to cut some mylar to create a stamp pocket. Needless to say that went very badly.

Please, wiser framing folk, share your tips for a flumb-free life?!
Not your average framer
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Not your average framer »

Hi,

Have you heard of tack cloths? I don't use one myself, but from what I've heard some people like them. Lots of us have different ways of doing things and it does not mean that any of us are right , or wrong. Most of us are doing whatever works for us as individuals. I have a set of wide flat brushes in three different width and the medium width one is about 50mm wide.

I just turn the frame and glass up side down and brush the surface of the glass from underneath and let the dust fall out. It seems to work for me, but which ever method you use, some jobs are easier than others and some jobs are a real struggle to get them sorted. Life is like that!
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Richard Photofusion
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Richard Photofusion »

Part of the problem is dust in the environment - we do relatively little frame assembly, far more printing mounting and laminating.

Stage 1: hoover and mop. We're lucky - hard floor surfaces allow us to both. We also have the benches topped with 8x4 polypropylene sheets. These get wiped over first with tack cloths, then liberally sprayed with Isopropyl alcohol, which is mopped up with lint free cloths from Shiny Hardware Ltd.

Step 2: The operator gets de-dusted. I normally use sections of mounting film (reclaimed from leader boards from the laminator, or plucked from the dog-ends of rolls), and de-dust/lint my clothes (and sometimes remove, by accident, less than well adhered body hair).

Part 3: All components of frame get a generous (though suitably restricted, where need be) blast of compressed ait from the filtered, oil free Bambi. I've tried wiping the insides of frames with tack cloths - normally results in ugly tack coth fibres snagged in the wood.

Scene iv: Each element inspected with a good quality LED torch prior to and after bringing elements together.

5 goto 4

Couple of things: lovely Summer / Autumnal raking sunlight reveals the best in people, and the worst in dust and phlumbs. If the space isn't clean, then anything that moves air around is going to move dust around. I find it cleaner to present the glass and frame to the work, rather than the work face down to the frame.

Looking on the unbright side, atmospheric humidity will be on the up shortly, so dust will be less free floating.
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Steve N
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Steve N »

Sometimes you will have weeks like that, next week will be better :sweating:
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Trecelyn
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Trecelyn »

Hi

I've had similar problems! I bought a small photographer's blower brush as I don't have the room or turnover to justify a compressor. It does work most cases although on larger pieces of work it can be a tedious process.

Best

T
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prospero
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by prospero »

Using blowing devices (or sucking devices) may seem intuitive, but they will stir up air movements and
every little bit of detritus nearby will be on the move. I don't even make any sudden moves when assembling. :lol:

Don't hoover the workshop just before you start assembly. You will appear to have cleaned up but the air movement
will guarantee that there are a host of floating particles waiting to descend.

I use a selection of soft brushes (not used for anything else) to gently remove flumbs. Sometimes a strip of mountboard
with the end torn to fish out bits between mount and glass.
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Trinity
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Trinity »

I use a large pheasant feather which slides a long way. Mever be tempted to lick the end of it though with the thought that the dust might stick to it - it marks the glass
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Not your average framer »

This may surprises some of you and I'm certainly not suggesting that I am right in doing this, but I clean the glass with a new piece of Kitchen paper towel each time and discard it after use and clean each new piece of glass, with a new piece of kitchen paper towel as much as possible as it seems to make a difference.

My thinking, which may be right, or wrong is that what ever you clean the glass with may not only at times remove specks of dust, but may also be a means of allowing a speck which it had earlier removed from one piece of glass to be deposited onto another piece of glass instead. As I hope you will understand my desire is to dump any dust that has been removed by the kitchen paper towel, straight into my waste bin.

As to whether I am right, or wrong in thinking that this may make a difference, is very hard to be sure, but I figure that at least it cannot do any harm doing it. If you like the idea, try it by all means, but just because I do it, does not mean that it is necessarily right and I may well be wrong about this as well, so take the suggestion as something not proven and make up your own mind about whether it may, or may not be worth taking any notice of.
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cliff
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by cliff »

Although it's a bit of a faff sometimes it helps to seal the glass, mount and backing board together with some masking tape, although you have to be careful that when you wrap the masking tape round the "sandwich" it will be hidden under the frame rebate. It takes a bit of time but probably quicker in the long run than having to remove tape, points etc. Being in a rural location we get a lot of thunder bugs that seem to love crawling into a frame so this helps keep them out.
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Keith Hewitt
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Keith Hewitt »

Fascinating replies :D

I never expected to read " Don't lick the end of a pheasants feather" on a framing forum " :lol: :lol:
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Justintime »

I'm with Cliff, I sandwich every time its possible. I rarely have to disassemble these days. Box frames are different, but i have a tiny blower for that (its advertised as "the world's smallest leaf blower" runs off a usb!!)
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Rainbow
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Rainbow »

I've never used tack cloths (and in fact I'd never heard of them until I saw them mentioned in this thread :oops: ). So I thought I'd try them and they've just arrived. Can I ask - do they have to be kept in a sealed container to keep them moist/sticky, and are they for single use only, or if not, how long do they last?
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Not your average framer »

I think that you can use them for quite a long time and perhaps wash them when they get a bit grubby. To be honest, I don't know much about them and you really need to get the low down from someone who uses them.
Mark Lacey

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Richard Photofusion
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Re: Dust!!!

Post by Richard Photofusion »

I'd always take care about using tack cloths near glass - the glue residue has a habit of leaving streaks, which then needs IPA to remove. Useful for cleaning down surfaces, and almost essential when cold mounting / laminating. Also, the fibers from the cloth snag easily on the insides of wooden frames...

I tend to get mine from signgear, or if I'm out of stock, the local Halfords down the road - used for dust removal in between coat sanding on car body work.

Now, a tangent if I may. Just cut down a few sheets of 2mm float glass, and taken the sharpness off the edges with a Telum pad. Lots of glass dust - I'm thinking a damp cloth lightly over the glass to remove the dust. Or is there a more sensible way?
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