Spray Adhesive

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MarkR32
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Spray Adhesive

Post by MarkR32 »

Hi All

More a personal 'how to' i suppose and where better to ask.

So my wife is a crafter and as such I often get asked to frame some bits and bobs. Katherine (the wife, as previously mentioned) having recently designed and cut some very impressive geometric designs from card stock has now asked me to frame them. the frames are no problem, i think I have that bit covered, well you hope so really.

Question is ... how the (insert chosen expletive) do I fix the card to the mount board she has chosen, when the thickest part of the design is 5mm at max...

I was thinking of some form of spray adhesive, but I now come forth to seek wisdom from the collective ...


Thanks all

Mark
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prospero
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Re: Spray Adhesive

Post by prospero »

Generally the word 'Spray Adhesive' does not have a place in a good framers vocabulary. :? It's unreliable and is made
for temporary mock-ups. However, it can have it's uses and this is one. If you spray the back of the piece lightly and leave
it to 'flash off' - that is until the solvent has evaporated you should be able to lay it on a board and bond it by burnishing (though
a sheet of release paper) with an agate burnisher. I've done this with decorative strips on mounts and they stay put. The reason
this stuff tends to fail on bigger things is that it's nigh-on impossible to get the pressure even over a big area and you get localised
bumps where it hasn't bonded. Unfortunately, when it does stick it sticks well so you can't remove a big print and have another go.

Having said all that, it's not something I would recommend. A better way might be to use DCO (direct contact overlay). A sheet of
acrylic placed on top and the piece held in place with a few tiny dots of glue. If you place it on a 'grippy' surface such as suede
mb you may not need the glue, as long as you can contrive a bit of pressure from behind by using a layer of felt fixed behind the mounting
board. You can still use glass on the front, but space it from the acrylic.
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MarkR32
Posts: 92
Joined: Wed 29 Nov, 2017 12:41 pm
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Re: Spray Adhesive

Post by MarkR32 »

prospero wrote:Generally the word 'Spray Adhesive' does not have a place in a good framers vocabulary. :? It's unreliable and is made
for temporary mock-ups. However, it can have it's uses and this is one. If you spray the back of the piece lightly and leave
it to 'flash off' - that is until the solvent has evaporated you should be able to lay it on a board and bond it by burnishing (though
a sheet of release paper) with an agate burnisher. I've done this with decorative strips on mounts and they stay put. The reason
this stuff tends to fail on bigger things is that it's nigh-on impossible to get the pressure even over a big area and you get localised
bumps where it hasn't bonded. Unfortunately, when it does stick it sticks well so you can't remove a big print and have another go.

Having said all that, it's not something I would recommend. A better way might be to use DCO (direct contact overlay). A sheet of
acrylic placed on top and the piece held in place with a few tiny dots of glue. If you place it on a 'grippy' surface such as suede
mb you may not need the glue, as long as you can contrive a bit of pressure from behind by using a layer of felt fixed behind the mounting
board. You can still use glass on the front, but space it from the acrylic.
Thank you, and fully agree spray adhesive is best left for other more non framing related jobs. i did think of using some careful placed clear strips, but i wouldn't be able to hide the cuts in the board anywhere.

So i could use it, but would have to apply consistently equal pressure to ensure it bonds to the board correctly, so would say something like a laminate roller work?

I did toy with the idea of an acrylic sheet, but was going down the self adhesive route and quickly dismissed the idea and one of my many bad ideas :D
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prospero
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Re: Spray Adhesive

Post by prospero »

:D It's a wee bit difficult to comment without seeing the works in question.

Sticking down anything all over and in a permanent manner is best avoided because it's a one-way process and irrevocably alters the piece.
Also, things can go wrong which can not be rectified. It may be the case that a few strategically placed dots of adhesive would be sufficient
to hold it in place. Then it could be removed with careful manipulation with a thin blade.
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Not your average framer
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Re: Spray Adhesive

Post by Not your average framer »

Even the 3M's stuff is not exactly nice, but much of the other stuff is even worse. You should not expect any of the products not to have lasting detrimental effects upon customers artworks, they are not reversible and once the damage is done, there is no way back.

Also it's a pretty good guess that they will out gas for years and leave a very hard to remove visible layer of contamination on the inner face of the glazing and no doubt on everything else in frame, including the face of the artwork. Sorry, not the best idea!
Mark Lacey

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Re: Spray Adhesive

Post by Justintime »

My wife is a papercut artist.
I have floated her works between 2 pieces of AR glass, no fixings just taped the sheets of glass together with 3m magic or artists tape.
Gives a nice shadow effect.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjw4EJUjWYd/
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Justin George GCF(APF)
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