Jamie Hascall 7/15/08

Hi all,

Our Fabrication department is looking at buying a larger amount of MDF- like material to lock in current pricing and we got talking about what might be the current favorite of the museum community as regards conservation appropriateness and cost. I'd love to hear the opinions about Medex, Medite II, and anything else that people are finding useful and cost effective.

Thanks, Jamie Hascall Chief Preparator Museums of NM Santa Fe

Shelly 7/16/08

Hi Jamie,

Our conservation dept tests found that an interior grade birch plywood called Appleply was considerably less corrosive than Medex or Medite despite the fact that they are advertised as having no added formaldehyde. So we use the Appleply when we can.

Appleply™ birch-faced plywood States Industries 800-626-1981 http://www.statesind.com

We try to cover any case-interior wood product we use with Dibond panels or aluminum sign blank or an aluminum vapor barrier film (like Marvelseal) or an approved coating like BurkEpoxy Paint (although I think the coating just slow the volitiles, not stop them like the aluminum barriers).

BurkEpoxy Paint Burke 2039 888-287-5387 http://www.burkeindustrialcoatings.com/

According to conservation notes, it was tested by Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and was found acceptable there. Folks at Asian Art care to comment? Pigments can be added to this epoxy to achieve the painted finish layer, but it needs adequate fume extraction during application.

We also tried Benjamin Moore M42 Epoxy, Platinum Gray and Sancure 878 and they tested okay, but they also only slowed the volitiles down a bit - plus our exhibits shop did not really like using them.

Hope this helps! Shelly

Bruce Metro 7/16/08

Hi Shelly, I don't seem to be able to identify/find a product # 2039 on the Burke site. Any other spec info for this product? Thanks, Bruce

Mr. Bruce Metro, Head of Preparation The J Paul Getty Museum 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1000 Los Angeles, California 90049 voice: 310-440-7036 fax: 310-440-7741 email: bmetro@getty.edu

Shelly 7/16/08

Hi Bruce, I'm going to check into this further - this was a material that was recommended before (by Asian Art in SF) and might be no longer in existence. I'm going to talk with Emily Kaplan later this afternoon and get some additional info/recommendations, then I'll send it to the larger group. Bye for now, Shelly

Shelly 7/19/08

Hi Bruce,

Talked further with Emily about this and she says:

"...This is BurkEpoxy Coating, 100% Solids http://edoco.com/products/epoxy_coatings.htm Donna Strahan, formerly of the Asian, now of the Met, recommended the product to Alyssa Becker. They used it successfully on Medex. Anyone using it should talk to a technical rep about application of the epoxy itself and about adding a paint layer – Alyssa’s notes from a conversation with a rep say  “paint over epoxy: use another epoxy paint; paint within less than 24 hours  …” I would also second your remarks about safety. I would really like to hear of people’s experience with this stuff if they end up using it."

Also, I spoke further with our Exhibits Shop supervisor and he says that they do use the Benjamin Moore products Benjamin Moore M42 Epoxy, in the Platinum Gray or the clear- http://www.benjaminoorepaint.net/wrapper_pg3.asp?L=prod&K=indcoat&groupid=32&productid=215#article

Bye for now, Shelly