Backing for photographs

MW recommended any archival PVA. It appears that my latest glue stick, Elmer’s Craft Bond Acid Free is in this class. (This to That is a fascinating glue site i stumbled across when looking for advice for a glue to adhere semiprecious stones to metal.)

k recommended spray adhesives and recommended 3M, Elmers or Krylon brands.

Pros: Extremely strong – no worries about seperation. Quick Drying.
Con: Enviro-unfriendly. Extremely strong bonding (don’t glue your
fingers together!) Toxic chemicals present.

CK’ s description of the Xyron got me terribly curious. The corporate site has a chart of all their products: http://www.xyron.com/products_chart.php I did some poking about on eBay. There have been several sales of the 500 model (list $35) for under $10. A patient bidder could probably get the machine for half list.

It’s pretty clear that like razors and inkjet printers, the profit is in the refills. All i really wanted, before i knew this very cool gadget existed, was to be able to run a sheet of labels through my printer and then put them on the back of my photos. HP white letter-sized labels run $11 at Office Max. It’s well over twice the area of the adhesive rolls the Xyron uses at half the list price. The photo quality Aveery labels for a full letter sheet size are just under twice the area of the Xyron cartridge.

Admittedly the Xyron has far more flexibility than inkjet labels and seems like it’d be fabulous in a great number of projects. Not in the least is how it would be a wonderful way to adhere cardstock to the back of photos, exactly what i was looking for.

XYRON 500 (XRN500) List: $34.99 eBay $10-15
Width: 5″ / 12.7 cm
Acid-Free Permanent Adhesive 18′ Cartridge (1080 square inches)
Part Number: AT1505-18 $14.99

XYRON 505 (XRN505) List: $49.99 Width: 5″ / 12.7 cm

XYRON 510 (XRN510ATP) List: $49.99 eBay $25-30
Width: 5″ / 12.7 cm
Acid-Free Permanent 18′ Cartridge for Xyron 510 (1080 square inches)
Part Number: AT1605-18 $17.99

HP Inkjet White Full Sheet Labels 8-1/2″ x 11″ 25/BX (2337 square inches)
Item # 20394510 , Style # Q2550A $11 at OfficeMax

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