As has been stated several times in the past by us, the main problem we've seen in the application of Monokote is a sealing iron that's too cool. We've been doing quite a bit of testing in the past few days. Our sealing iron is set to about 335-340 degrees F. The Monokote tacks right down and easily shrinks as we carefully work the iron across the surface. A very light touch over open areas, and it shrinks taut.

Run the iron as hot as you can without dulling the finish. When Monokote first came out, the instructions actually had you set the iron to just below the melting point of the material. If the finish is dulled by the heat, you're starting to melt the material.

When we cover an area, we tack four corners, making sure to pull out as many wrinkles as possible. We tack between them, and then between those places. Eventually, we have a bunch of dots about 1-2 inches apart, and we then seal them into a continuous area. We just use heat and the touch of the iron...no pressure...many times, we don't even have the weight of the iron on the material, just letting it "kiss" the surface.

If the iron's too cool, you'll get bad adhesion, poor shrink, bagging, and so on. You have to work with the material where it's at its best.