When I get a box of foam board & a pack of mountboard delivered, the first thing I do is spend a short while cutting them all down to my standard size, then pop them back into the box for storage. I have my mount cutter pre-marked with the standard sizes I use, this speeds things up and I even have two cutting blades (one for foamboard & one for mountboard) so I don't have to reset the blades.
A few seconds saved looking for the exact position.On the foamboard (which is used to provide the backing to the picture) I use the mountcutter and a pencil to draw a line at 2.5 inches in from the bottom and one 2.5 inches from the side. If you place a sheet of Super A3 against these lines it is completely centred..magic!
Its a good idea to prepare a clear clean work space in which to work as mountboard can take up a lot of space. A large table makes an ideal work surface but in addition I also need room to store prints that are drying, mounts that are in progress and a storage space for tools. Even if I only used the area the day before, I always take the time to dust all the work surfaces as working with white board means dust can mark the face of the boards all too easily.
A habit I adopt is to regularly change the blades on the cutter, as soon as they become slow or "snaggy" I replace them. Blades are a lot cheaper than mountboard.
Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion
2 comments:
HI Chris, Very informative series on framing. I have one question, what thickness of foamboard do you use as the backing board?
Graham
Hi graham,
Thanks for the comment. I use 5mm Foamboard - which is pretty sturdy in use.
HTH
Chris
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