Posted 5 years ago
ChaseCan
(35 items)
Seal Compress 101 Dry Mounting and Laminating Press
I haven't done much research on this Seal 101 Dry Mounting Press or the company but from what I'm reading this is a quality dry mount press. I do have a PDF copy of the manual.
The pictures show it after cleaning and removing some glue residue. And the last pic it working.
It has a 12x15 bed which is heated by a single element. The manual states it should come to a temperature of 225°F in approximately 7-7.5 minutes. In testing it, see last pic, I'm not sure exactly where in the 225° area on the dial is actually 225°F. Setting it to the middle of 225°, which my guess is higher than 225, it took about 10 minutes to reach temperature shutting off the amber light as it should. At 7 minutes it went out towards the bottom of the 225° area on the dial...
Amber light off indicates it's ready, I stuck a folded piece of acid free paper and pressed it and sure enough, the red timer light comes on. Which according to the manual, flashes on and off approximately once per second.
Of course, I'll go through and give it a thorough cleaning. The handle needs to straightened as it's bent. And I am considering custom painting it. Considering it... Lol. I think it would be really cool looking custom painted. I haven't decided yet, so don't hold me to it.
It may be vintage but it's still a very nice tool to have in the tool pouch given my hobbies and interests.
Cheers...
Seal dry mount presses were the best known and desired back when I was doing photography in the '70s through '90s. I once owned, and extensively used, a Seal Commercial 210m dry mounting press. Although not their largest press, it was big and very heavy. To calibrate the temperature dial, Seal sold temperature strips … 225°F for paper … a significantly lower temp for resin coated paper … etc. FWIW, dry mounting photography is (was) somewhat of an art. Done incorrectly, photographs often rippled, ended up with surface blemishes created by moisture rapidly boiling to steam, ended up with physical defects if the surfaces were not pristine-clean, etc. Seal also sold "silicone release paper" to ensure that photographic emulsions did not stick to the hot platen.
Hey rniederman,
Thanks for the additional information. You have me curious if I can still get those temperature strips to calibrate the dial.
I use to custom make exotic wood picture frames, did matting, etc. years ago. I then worked for mass production picture art company doing the same, with the exception of exotic woods, all stock framing materials.
They had a nice size dry mounting machine that could handle 24x36 prints easily. I think even larger, up to a full sheet of foam core. (48"?)
This one is small, and I still shoot film, MF to LF 4x5. So I figure this would be nice to have for some 8x10 prints.
I'm going to look into those calibration strips. Again thanks for the info.
Cheers...
So *that's* what this thing is for...? COOL. :-) :-) :-) [or, well, "hot" I guess...?]
One more tidbit of random knowledge gained from CW. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Indeed !!!!