The Framers Forum

Hi,

(Please forgive me if I am posting in the wrong place with this - I am new to this forum.)

Can anyone suggest a good way to mount metal medals on a 18mm thick chipboard backing in a medal case? Some of the medals have ribbons but some don't. Also, there are almost 100 and I would prefer the layout to be totally flexible if possible.

I have Googled to death but don't seem to be able to find anything suitable for this. Any help or advice would be very gratefully received.

Best wishes, Patrick Skelton

Hi Patrick

How about mounting the medals without ribbons by using a spider melinex and those with ribbons using a tag gun, mounting all on mount board, then glueing this to the chipboard, this way makes it totally reversible.

One question? why 18mm chipboard, seems that this will be EXTRA heavy, why not use 12mm??

How flexible do you need to be??


Ian

Chipboard is not the ideal backing for mounting medals. A sheet of conservation quality matboard such as Alphamat, bonded to a sheet of Artcare foamboard will not only be a more stable and safe backing but it will be a darn sight easier to mount the medals.

As was suggested, melinex/mylar is a great way to mount medals. A disc the same size as the medal with four legs coming off the disc that go through slits in the backing then taped on the back of the foamboard will hold the medals in place. This method will not interfere in any way with the medals and is totally reversible.

One good rule to keep in mind when mounting anything that has a value to your customer is "If the method you use is not reversible, don't use it!"

Thank you both very much for your replies. Sorry for the delay in my reply. I have been away for a few days.

To answer a couple of points raised:

1. The medal cases were a (hurried) Christmas present. I had an opportunity to get some oak side-pieces for the medal cases machined at no cost, so I hat to take a guess at dimensions - which is how I ended up with the backing being 18mm thick. When I put the whole thing together, I realised 18mm was overkill and heavy; if I had had more time, I could have planed down the sides and gone for something thinner and lighter.

2. Sorry to be ignorant, but what is a 'spider melinex'?

3. Also, I am not entirely clear about the description of using a disc with four legs coming off it. Is this some kind of clear material that goes over the medal to hold it in place?

Thanks again for the help. It is very much appreciated.

Best wishes, Patrick

Patrick

The following link should explain it:

http://theframersforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... der#p30968

Ian

I get the idea now. Think I might be stuffed with my 18mm backing though.

Thanks again for the help.

-Patrick

Hi Patrick,

welcome to Framers Forum................

I also had a numerous amount of medals to frame. Some had ribbons and some without. The medals without ribbons were pretty heavy and I tried just about eveything to get them to stay in place. A very young teenager suggested, quite out of the blue, 'why don't you use velcro'. This was food for thought, so I finished up using 45mm Velcro coins available from Lion Picture Framing Supplies Part No 5865 white,
5866 black. The only problem is that you have many medals and there are only 6 paires to a pack for about £2.30. I did not look back after that.

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

I too have already considered velcro, and it may indeed turn out to be my solution. I wasn't keen on the idea of sticking anything to the medals, but I guess if I ever wanted to remove the medals and the velcro left a residue, I could clean it easily enough, perhaps with white spirit or similar.

I may try to find a roll of some kind and smiply cut squares off it to keep costs down.

Best wishes, Patrick

I am not sure that I would be too happy to have my (well earned) medals stuck down with Glue or any Glue based SA tapes.

Medals with ribbons, you can use a slot in the Mount and fishing line (virtually invisible) to sew the medal down to stop it moving.

Medals without ribbons, then cut circular apertures in the mount to get a snug fit or even use the Mylar Spider technique.

Remember some medals become or are family heirlooms and must be treated with respect, with the package being fully reversible.

Sometimes it is not wise to cut costs.

The Melinex "spider" mount is detailed in my book, Mounting Objects with Clear Film, which may be available from a supplier of books by Columba Publishing Company (also the publisher of the late Vivian Kistler's books). Lion, perhaps?

I have prepared an illustrated instruction in a .pdf file named "Drawing-Clear Film Mounts.Coin-Medal-object". This forum does not allow attachment of .pdf files, but if you care to email a request for that file to me at artframe@att.net, I will reply with the attachment .

These Melinex "spiders" may be easily trimmed with an X-Acto knife to fit any size/shape medal or coin. Simply trace the shape on a scrap of matboard, tape on a piece of the film, and trim on the lines. Mount the medal using the fall-out, and use the perimeter cut to locate the slots to pass the "spider legs" through the mat.

Lately I have been using my Valiani computerized mat cutter to produce the Melinex "spiders" and cut the slots through which the legs pass to the back of the board. Any size/shape medal may be scanned/photographed and imported to Corel Draw or another design program. Line-trace the shape, add "spider legs" and convert the image to a cut file. CMC cutting may not be worth the effort for a single odd-shaped medal, but for multiples it is a great time saver, especially since the layout of the mounting board may be done on the CMC, as well.

I have a template in .cdr format (also not allowed for attachment here) to mount circular medals, with the circle at 1/3 of total height, so the template may be easily scaled to any size. The slot pattern is included in the template file, so it may be scaled along with the "spider". The slot cuts are grouped and may be easily extracted for separate cutting after scaling. I recommend through-cutting narrow V-grooves on the back of the board for the "spider legs". Melinex is too flimsy to cut directly, but it works perfectly if you sandwich a piece of the film between two 4-ply matboards. If you request "Medal-Third ofTotal HT", I will send that file, as well.

Cheers, Jim

James Miller wrote:This forum does not allow attachment of .pdf

While it is not possible to upload such files to the forum, there is nothing to prevent links to the files, like this: - The above code will look like this in a post > Slope Sided Box Design Utility < Just click it to download the file.

Thank you very much for the information, but I have decided to go with velcro. It seems to be doing the trick so far.

Best wishes, Patrick