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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Home printing and mounting to substrate (Gatorboard etc) | |
Ogrinz wrote:
Does anyone at home print their own stuff and then mount it to various substrates such as Gatorboard, foam core etc?
I had been thinking about ordering a huge print of a panorama that I took in St. Thomas on Vacation, specifically from Bumblejax. Unfortunately for the size I want the cost is prohibitive to say the least. I began looking at other places to have the print done and thought maybe a multi panel would be cheaper. It is somewhat cheaper, but from a reputable printer (Millers, WHCC, Bay) anything mounted is just as expensive.
I them located the current Canon Pixma Pro-100 offer which is $100 cost (after rebate) and comes with 50 sheets of 13x19. I was able to find a source that sells the various substrates, but of course they don't come in 13x19 which would require cutting down to size of the board. I was thinking of a 5 panel panorama (65X19) which after ordering the board and printer puts me well under the price of the print and net a printer at the same time.
Unless I'm missing something it seems printing at home and then self mounting would be dramatically cheaper then anything online. It looks like all that is done is they print the image and then glue it to the board which seems rediculous to take $10 worth of material and charges $50 for it. It seems printing at home is pretty rare and im not finding a lot of information on this stuff. I did locate some other places that multi panels, but they are so much cheaper it begs the question of quality at that point.
Thoughts or recommendations?...Show more →
I can't recommend anything outside of Japan cuz I just don't know but I can second your conclusion: When things get too expensive then it's time to start looking into home made (DIY) solutions.
Printing multiple images and tilling them together is fun but can be a little challenging if there are a lot of tiles. I did a corner of a building that way (s an exhibit) with like 20 across and 8 or 10 high and it was work.
Single/double/triple tiles is easier but still ya have to be a little careful printing/cutting perfectly straight. The seams do show. Glossy is the worst and the more matt and texture a paper has the less it shows.
I haven't tried "dry pressing" with heat as mentioned above - that sounds interesting. Spray-glue works - I think 44 is the number on the 3M can. There's 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 101, 111, and probably more. The bigger the number the harder the glue I think is how it goes. I bought one of each once to see and that was basically it. I think the cans say that 44 and 55 are good for paper. All of them melt styrofoam so careful with that if you're mounting to hardware store blanks (spray from 4 feet away and just mist it). I wonder what clear plexiglass would look like if it were LED backlit (into the edges)?
Anyway, home printing is cheap enough that there's lots of room for experimentation and creativity - the hardware store and art supply shops probably have a bunch of stuff to play with affordably…
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