posted
If I routed out some very shallow areas, for letters, about 1mm deep, in some Dibond, PolyMetal or MaxMetal, what glue could be used to "inlay" some dimensional letters made of the same material? In other words, glue the plastic to the plastic.
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7403 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
The cores are polyethylene not much sticks to it. You could try G flex from west systems. It's about the only glue I've seen that works on that stuff. You would probably be better off surface mounting the letters with no inlay.
-------------------- Eric PA Posts: 149 | From: Intercourse, PA | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
You might check West's specs. I think their 105/205 combination sticks to poly even better, although it doesn't have the flexibility of G Flex. I use both adhesives quite often for various things.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I'd go with the WS and forget all the work of pocketing the background. Cut some paint mask with your copy, reverse weed and you have the perfect spacing all set. The paint mask will protect your background from epoxy squeeze out and you can tape each letter down to hold in in place while the epoxy sets up. Put the epoxy in a needle tipped bottle and just run a thin bead on the back of the letter.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
Wayne, I've used the expanding moisture-cure polyurethane glue, to glue dibond to dibond, alupanel to alupanel, and it sticks like crazy.
That's no good for small letters like you mention though.
The paint mask idea above is good, but I've found it far better to just take the cut file for the letters, add a 2mm inline, and then cut that out of standard vinyl - I often use HP cast stuff - and put that down, then glue the letters OVER the vinyl, using sikkaflex, or locktite 604.
Cast vinyl is more expensive than paintmask, but from a labout point of view, you don't have to peel it off afterwards, and you don't risk bumping the letters if the glue is still a bit soft as you remove the mask.
For repetitive work of the same letters, I've taken the letters, and added a 2mm outline, then taken alupanel and routed that as a stencil, and held it in place with double sided tape, or masking tape, then glued through the 'holes'.
I've also done the same, with just the bottoms of the letters - make the full prespaced stencil in your software, then draw a box over most of the top three quarters of the height, and use a weld-subtract option, and you're left with a kind-of underline with divets for each letter. Tape it in place and glue the letters in above with a visual 2mm margin from the stencil spacer.
This is a good way of using up all those long skinny alupanel offcuts you keep for a good occasion!
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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