Photo slabbing/authentication

[thecatspajamas]

Scott, you'll also want to be very careful when loading anything "smooth" (as in, the surface of most photos) into mylar sleeves, as the (I guess static?) friction does not lend itself to easily sliding such things in and out of the sleeves. If you can pucker the sleeve enough to slide it in with only the back touching, you may be okay. If it's a tighter fit though, you might want to use something like a comic backing board to help with loading and then slide it back out once the photo is in place.

I've never tried the mylar in a toploader, so I can't speak to the long-term situation there, but I have done photo in a polypropylene comic bag in a toplader which seemed to work well as far as ease of loading (and unloading, as I just left the flap dangling out the top like a pull-tab, though I guess you could also tuck it inside or trim it off). Probably not the most attractive long-term solution though, as the polypro bags tend to wrinkle over time.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Scott, you'll also want to be very careful when loading anything "smooth" (as in, the surface of most photos) into mylar sleeves, as the (I guess static?) friction does not lend itself to easily sliding such things in and out of the sleeves. If you can pucker the sleeve enough to slide it in with only the back touching, you may be okay. If it's a tighter fit though, you might want to use something like a comic backing board to help with loading and then slide it back out once the photo is in place.

I've never tried the mylar in a toploader, so I can't speak to the long-term situation there, but I have done photo in a polypropylene comic bag in a toplader which seemed to work well as far as ease of loading (and unloading, as I just left the flap dangling out the top like a pull-tab, though I guess you could also tuck it inside or trim it off). Probably not the most attractive long-term solution though, as the polypro bags tend to wrinkle over time.

Thanks, Lance. I bought my sleeves yesterday, but haven't started transferring them. Thinking that, since I'm about to put most of my photos up for sale, I'll probably just leave them as-is in top-loaders, then move my 'keepers' to mylar.

It was good to get the warning about the sleeves sticking to the top-loaders - that would be a bummer.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Thanks, Lance. I bought my sleeves yesterday, but haven't started transferring them. Thinking that, since I'm about to put most of my photos up for sale, I'll probably just leave them as-is in top-loaders, then move my 'keepers' to mylar.

It was good to get the warning about the sleeves sticking to the top-loaders - that would be a bummer.

Just to be clear, the sticking isn't the normal sort of sticking you get with most stuff.

In machining there are gage blocks that come in sets - usually a wide range of thicknesses. They're polished very smooth, and very flat. To use them in stacks you wring them together. More of a sliding than anything else. Since they're so smooth and flat, once together there's no air between them. So the 15 psi ambient air pressure keeps them quite well "stuck" together. You have to slide them apart. Since they're only about a half inch by an inch, it's maybe 7 lbs pushing them together, and they slide apart pretty well. They're also steel, so no concerns about creasing them. (Dropping one from an NIST traceable set though.....Not good at all.)
The card holders are a bit under 12 square inches, and even if it's just the middle it's probably around four. So anywhere from 60- 180 lbs holding the three items together. That can be broken by inserting tweezers between the layers, or by cutting the edges off and sliding the layers a bit.

It does hold the card very securely. It's just a nuisance to remove.

Steve B