Re: Flat File Corner - Tips, Questions, Answers, Etc.
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:27 pm
Let me give you a quick backdrop first.
When I talked to Dan (the videos), he told me he shrink wrapped his posters. He used heavy corrugated board, using black tape on all sides such that when he mounted his posters on them, he ended up with this 1/8" border on all sides. He would do one poster on each board. Notice on the film where it shows the back side of one of these, you can see the brown cardboard material on the back, with the upside down V shaped plastic hanger on the back. I was very interested in having some of my stuff shrinkwrapped, but Dan was going to have to charge me $40 per poster, and shipping from Canada was going to be tenuous at best, and likely very expensive. So, with 100+ posters,this was going to be totally impractical.
So....I started checking around, having decided I was going to try to do this myself. Of course that meant buying my own portable shrink-wrap machine. Let me say that unless you have, or intend to have, quite a few pieces to shrink wrap , the economics may not work out. But, for me, as it turned out, for what i wanted to do, it was well worth it.
Now, for the changes I made. First of all, I wanted a bigger border. So I planned this to get a 1/2" black border - for
posters on BOTH sides. I also wanted lighter material than cardboard - so I got foamcore board. Then, of course I found a shrink-wrap machine and went to work. And, of course, all materials had to be archival/conservation quality safe, and acid-free.
Here's what you would need:
3/8" Foam Core boards - if you're not doing anything too large, go with 30x40 pieces and have them cut down to 25x37 for your 24x36 prints, if that is what you mostly collect. That extra inch on each dimension provides the 1/2" border area for both sides of the board.
Black 2" Masking tape - in 60 yard rolls. Using with the 3/8" thick foamcore, this will leave you with 13/16" black tape on both sides of the board. The easiest way to do this is to make a couple of pencil marks on each side (top, bottom, right, left) so you can stretch out the black tape over the marks (best to have one on far right, and one on far left of each side
for lining up). Then you just cut the tape, press it down, flip it to the other side, press down the tape on the other side for that border. It's a little tedious, but it really works out well.
Scotch® Preservation Double-Coated Tape 889, 3/4-inch x 36 Yards, Roll (get at Amazon). After you've got your board taped up for borders, use just a very small little piece of this double-sided tape in each corner to mount poster or print to the foam board. This stuff comes off easily when removing poster, should you decide to sell it. Just press poster against it hard enough to keep it in place for slipping poster into shrink-wrap sleeve. Remember, you will have placed posters on BOTH sides (although, obviously, you don't have to).
Portable Shrink-wrap machine. This is just a home or office use portable machine with a shrink-wrap film roll at the top, and a "sealing" wand to crimp the open ends of the film at the edges of your poster. I'll get the particulars on this one and post next week when I'm back at work - but, it is a complete kit with machine, 36" wide roll of acid free film, and heat gun for shrinking.
Once you have both posters attached to the foam board, you're ready to shrink wrap. This takes a little practice, but you get the hang of it pretty quick. The main thing is, after you've gotten the poster encased with seals on all sides of the film, to be very careful with the heating gun so as not to burn a hole in the shrink film. In case you're wondering, to
date, after having done this about 80 times, I've had no situations where the poster or print was in danger of a burn. Remember, it's heating the loose shrink wrap film on top, not the print itself.
Anyway, that's basically it. I can do the economics on this (basic price per poster cost, all materials considered) next week, and post that up. I'll also have the information on exactly where to go for each of these items, which I researched thoroughly, and feel I got the best prices and materials available. And, no, I don't have any connection with any of the
vendors!
For a few pics I took just the other day, check these that I've got on PhotoBucket. Forgive me for the sorry quality - indoor photography is a pain!
http://s133.photobucket.com/user/viper9 ... %20Posters
Like I said, what I like best about this is that I can display nearly everything I own in one place (other than the framed ones on the walls). And another thing - if you decide you want to sell a poster, or otherwise do something with it, just quickly tear off the shrink-wrap film, remove the poster (perhaps use tweezers to take double-sided tape off), then re-shrink the poster again. Very little time lost or add'l effort spent.
If you have any questions, fire away. Hope this is helpful...
When I talked to Dan (the videos), he told me he shrink wrapped his posters. He used heavy corrugated board, using black tape on all sides such that when he mounted his posters on them, he ended up with this 1/8" border on all sides. He would do one poster on each board. Notice on the film where it shows the back side of one of these, you can see the brown cardboard material on the back, with the upside down V shaped plastic hanger on the back. I was very interested in having some of my stuff shrinkwrapped, but Dan was going to have to charge me $40 per poster, and shipping from Canada was going to be tenuous at best, and likely very expensive. So, with 100+ posters,this was going to be totally impractical.
So....I started checking around, having decided I was going to try to do this myself. Of course that meant buying my own portable shrink-wrap machine. Let me say that unless you have, or intend to have, quite a few pieces to shrink wrap , the economics may not work out. But, for me, as it turned out, for what i wanted to do, it was well worth it.
Now, for the changes I made. First of all, I wanted a bigger border. So I planned this to get a 1/2" black border - for
posters on BOTH sides. I also wanted lighter material than cardboard - so I got foamcore board. Then, of course I found a shrink-wrap machine and went to work. And, of course, all materials had to be archival/conservation quality safe, and acid-free.
Here's what you would need:
3/8" Foam Core boards - if you're not doing anything too large, go with 30x40 pieces and have them cut down to 25x37 for your 24x36 prints, if that is what you mostly collect. That extra inch on each dimension provides the 1/2" border area for both sides of the board.
Black 2" Masking tape - in 60 yard rolls. Using with the 3/8" thick foamcore, this will leave you with 13/16" black tape on both sides of the board. The easiest way to do this is to make a couple of pencil marks on each side (top, bottom, right, left) so you can stretch out the black tape over the marks (best to have one on far right, and one on far left of each side
for lining up). Then you just cut the tape, press it down, flip it to the other side, press down the tape on the other side for that border. It's a little tedious, but it really works out well.
Scotch® Preservation Double-Coated Tape 889, 3/4-inch x 36 Yards, Roll (get at Amazon). After you've got your board taped up for borders, use just a very small little piece of this double-sided tape in each corner to mount poster or print to the foam board. This stuff comes off easily when removing poster, should you decide to sell it. Just press poster against it hard enough to keep it in place for slipping poster into shrink-wrap sleeve. Remember, you will have placed posters on BOTH sides (although, obviously, you don't have to).
Portable Shrink-wrap machine. This is just a home or office use portable machine with a shrink-wrap film roll at the top, and a "sealing" wand to crimp the open ends of the film at the edges of your poster. I'll get the particulars on this one and post next week when I'm back at work - but, it is a complete kit with machine, 36" wide roll of acid free film, and heat gun for shrinking.
Once you have both posters attached to the foam board, you're ready to shrink wrap. This takes a little practice, but you get the hang of it pretty quick. The main thing is, after you've gotten the poster encased with seals on all sides of the film, to be very careful with the heating gun so as not to burn a hole in the shrink film. In case you're wondering, to
date, after having done this about 80 times, I've had no situations where the poster or print was in danger of a burn. Remember, it's heating the loose shrink wrap film on top, not the print itself.
Anyway, that's basically it. I can do the economics on this (basic price per poster cost, all materials considered) next week, and post that up. I'll also have the information on exactly where to go for each of these items, which I researched thoroughly, and feel I got the best prices and materials available. And, no, I don't have any connection with any of the
vendors!
For a few pics I took just the other day, check these that I've got on PhotoBucket. Forgive me for the sorry quality - indoor photography is a pain!
http://s133.photobucket.com/user/viper9 ... %20Posters
Like I said, what I like best about this is that I can display nearly everything I own in one place (other than the framed ones on the walls). And another thing - if you decide you want to sell a poster, or otherwise do something with it, just quickly tear off the shrink-wrap film, remove the poster (perhaps use tweezers to take double-sided tape off), then re-shrink the poster again. Very little time lost or add'l effort spent.
If you have any questions, fire away. Hope this is helpful...