Flat glass, wood frames, reducing contamination at bottom

I had some really horrible ones recently. But I figured out if I lay the film, squeegee it into place, cut the side(s), then BEFORE I cut the bottom I lift it and dry the bottom edge.

This way when I cut there's less water to wick up into the film. Get rid of that half gallon of water sitting at the bottom I just used to apply and lube my squeegee.

Yeah, that works good if you can't precut. I always liked to precut as many as I could and then lay them , like 3 or 4 at a time.

Having a dry frame surface really helps when you don't precut.

are you using a film handler? if so are you lining up an edge or 2 edges? i always line up 2 edges one always being the bottom and then usually the right or left.... never had a prob with contamination

the project im on one of the buildings has old single pane windows with that concrete caulk and when you look at it it breaks of and falls in the tint. Whats working for me is lineing the top and one side and then tack in the middle and cut the bottom first and then seal it before I cut the other side. I seal it and then come right behind it with a paper towel to soak up the water after its pushed down. Then when pushing all the water out I put paper towels in both bottom corners to soak up the water when it gets to the bottom of the seal. Also when I am pushing the water out I follow behind each stroke with a paper towel to keep any fingers from coming up. Has been working pretty good.

I line up the top and and one side.

Then I trim a side.

Then before I trim the bottom I dry the bottom of the frame.

Trim it. BAM! No fingers. No dirt.

that's a good technique. you could also try to just tack down the top edge and cut the bottom before you squeege alot of water down in to that area. seems to work for me on security film.

Or we could combine the two methods!

Tack the top, lift and dry the somewhat moist bottom frame, cut the bottom, squeegee!

PERFECTLY TINTED WINDOW!

i used your method this morning on some casements in a stairwell. the position of the landing made for eye level viewing of the bottom edges. i wiped that edge just to be doubly safe and they came out spotless.

try this : it goes against all youv'e ever learned but... i did a casement/putty job recently ,(thousands of frenchers) 1. use big olfa to cut excess crap,2. dry scrape 3. use a good paint brush to "dust the edges 4.paper towel after the brush, so you are basically dusting the window, sounds hokey but like i said i did thousands like this . after the basic cleaning you start at the bottom and go up ( this was all security film so the ps sealed the top edge.
you start from the bottom cause evrything up is clean . and there wasn't any contamination problem, came out great.you would have to test the glass to see if it can handle the scraping but as you know some glass will scratch wet so try it you will definitley be surprised at the outcome

i start at the bottom for the same reason...

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