The Framers Forum

Hello Forum

I have been given three Limited Ed prints to frame. They have all been rolled up tubes. I know they should definitely not be dry mounted but if I am to hinge mount them, is the only way to get them flat by putting them under/between several sheets of board for as long as possible? Any other options?

Get a large enough poster tube and loosely roll the prints "the other way round" and secure with some picture cord. Leave them for a day to let the paper fibres relax a little, and they will lie fairly flat. If the print isn't embossed in any way, you could use a heat press to flatten them. Alternatively, pop the print between some boards, and weight it down by placing glass over the top.

Be very careful if you do decide to roll the prints the other way round as they will resist and want to return to the way they have been rolled which can cause creasing.

There used to be a device in the Lion catalogue for flattening prints but can't find it in the latest one.

I am often surprised how much a print will flatten if laid between two sheets of mount board for a few days but it always annoys me that we cannot get on with the job and get the rest of the payment.

We need to educate people to use a larger diameter tube.

John.

Jonny2morsos wrote:Be very careful if you do decide to roll the prints the other way round as they will resist and want to return to the way they have been rolled which can cause creasing.

Should have included this caveat in my post, John!

Your good, my bad!

Basically, like Moglet and Jonny say

My usual approach is to get the thing flat in a folder for a few days - a week for preference - then if it hasn't relaxed out completely I'll reverse-roll it. Its crucial to reverse-roll around a tube or similar - if you don't its really easy to kink the paper as you start to roll it. Its handy to have a few tubes of different diameters and go from wider to narrower until its flat, otherwise you can end up going too far the other way. Can you guess how i know this?

Not surprised that device has dissappeared from the Lion catalogue - did anyone buy one? I'd be interested to hear if anyone found it better than the poster tube method

I would try weighting it down under a (clean) board before I went to reverse-rolling. It's all to easy to to put half-moon dents in a print by digging your fingertips in. Some papers seem to have more 'spring' in them than others. Generally, the better quality papers will relax natuarally after a couple of days held flat. Some can be left under weight for weeks on end and they will be just as curly.

We all dislike this problem and all have to deal with it on a regular basis. Apart from steaming the prints in a vacuum press, most methods don't guarrantee that the curl in the paper won't cause problems later. Assuming that you don't use a vacuum press then try to maximise the amount of the print which will be held flat by contact with the rear surface of the mount as this can help resist the print doing it's own thing after being framed.

The de-roller is still in the Lion catalogue, well it's on their website.

http://www.lionpic.co.uk/Catalog/Produc ... e%20roller

larger diameter tubes cost more, thats the problem. As most of these are bought online companies are not going to use a £1.50 tube when a 50p one will do. But a worse problem is prints being rolled the wrong side out .... we generally put them in big plastic folders and bury them in the glass rack or the artbak rack to flatten till we are ready to frame them.

framejunkie wrote:I'd be interested to hear if anyone found it better than the poster tube method

Have I missed something? I assumed that the method was the same.

For £215 I'd hope not! I've not used one but I do remember reading more info in the catalogue once, than their is in that link - probably to do with removal of risk of damage that can happen if you just roll it the other way around a tube - that's just asking for it IMHO.

More info on the D Roller

http://www.d-roller.com/flashintro.htm

May be talking a load of groin-burger, but what about sandwiching the picture between a few sheets of mount board, say 3 on top 3 below and then give it some in a hot press.
Would that ruin the picture and loose the customer???

Groin-burger?????

Roboframer wrote:The de-roller is still in the Lion catalogue, well it's on their website.

http://www.lionpic.co.uk/Catalog/Produc ... e%20roller

I decided to make something like that. Took a large tube and taped a sheet of Melinex to it. Rolled a print in it, left it for a short while, unrolled it and it was fine.

Using the sheet of Melinex reduces the risk of creasing and, somehow, it seems to speed up the process. I've found that leaving prints rolled in for around half an hour is generally sufficient.

After using it a couple of times I made a deluxe version. This is a modification of the original but has am eight-inch length of removable tape that I use to keep the thing rolled up.

Nice idea Mike!

That's a really neat way of doing it!

I definitely wouldn't back roll limited edition prints - place them between suitable sheets of matt-boards and place weights on top and leave a day or two

For ordinary prints, we use a reasonable size tube to which we have taped a 2 metre length of brown paper the same width as the tube - print is easily reversed wrapped in this

Ross

If it's 'easy' to flatten 'ordinary prints' then why would you not use the same method on a limited edition print, or even an original?

Risk?

Well, why risk even an 'ordinary print' - if you can successfully flatten a limited edition under weight in a day or two, why would you need to flatten a cheap print faster?

Reverse roll an ordinary print/poster, then immediately economount it to Fome-cor - job finished and not waiting one or two days! The print/poster I am aluding to is generally a tightly rolled item - usually in a 20/25mm tube or plastic wrap

I do treat limited edition prints differently to ordinary prints and that is what this post started out on - how to uncurl limited edition prints

Ross

WelshFramer wrote: I decided to make something like that. Took a large tube and taped a sheet of Melinex to it. Rolled a print in it, left it for a short while, unrolled it and it was fine.

Using the sheet of Melinex reduces the risk of creasing and, somehow, it seems to speed up the process. I've found that leaving prints rolled in for around half an hour is generally sufficient.

After using it a couple of times I made a deluxe version. This is a modification of the original but has am eight-inch length of removable tape that I use to keep the thing rolled up.

Reminds me of an old magic trick.

Take a cigarette and some clingfilm. Wrap the clingfilm very tightly round the ciggie. Slowly bend the ciggie until you can tie it in a loose knot. Untie and straighten, remove clingfilm, and light the ciggie and smoke. It works because the clingfilm acts as a support, preventing the ciggie from creasing and breaking. I'd guess that the same applies to a print wrapped in melinex.