Scott Shepherd
08-15-2007, 2:17 PM
I was recently given a one off job of recreating an existing sign. It was pieced together from various materials. I did the best I could with it, it turned out well, but not as smooth as I'd like it to.
Well, go figure, they want a bunch of them.
Here's the situation, it's a multi-layer acrylic sign, mostly black.
It's about a 10" wide by 12" tall sign. In that, there's about a 7" square that's clear. Behind that is a piece of paper with vinyl letters for the name of the space. The theory being, you can remove the paper and replace it easily. No problems with that.
My problem came in trying to duplicate the piece with the 7" square clear area. I cut out a piece of vinyl and placed it over it and then painted it, and then peeled the vinyl away, leaving a black background and a clear square. The square wasn't perfectly straight and it was a pain.
All the work I'm mentioning is done on the backside of the sign, so it's clear acrylic, sprayed black on the back, with a see through window.
Making one was a pain, but making possibly 50 of them ain't gonna work for me. Any ideas on how to mask off the square that needs to be clear? One thing is that you can't really let the paint dry on that, or it'll bond with the vinyl and you'll have jagged edges when peeling the masking off. I also don't want to have to run a razor knife down the edge of the vinyl to break that paint bead before peeling.
Anyone got any tips or ideas to do this? I also thought about applying black vinyl to the back of the acrylic with the hole cut out, but when I did that, it looks crappy. Any alternative methods of construction would be welcome too.
Thanks in advance.
Well, go figure, they want a bunch of them.
Here's the situation, it's a multi-layer acrylic sign, mostly black.
It's about a 10" wide by 12" tall sign. In that, there's about a 7" square that's clear. Behind that is a piece of paper with vinyl letters for the name of the space. The theory being, you can remove the paper and replace it easily. No problems with that.
My problem came in trying to duplicate the piece with the 7" square clear area. I cut out a piece of vinyl and placed it over it and then painted it, and then peeled the vinyl away, leaving a black background and a clear square. The square wasn't perfectly straight and it was a pain.
All the work I'm mentioning is done on the backside of the sign, so it's clear acrylic, sprayed black on the back, with a see through window.
Making one was a pain, but making possibly 50 of them ain't gonna work for me. Any ideas on how to mask off the square that needs to be clear? One thing is that you can't really let the paint dry on that, or it'll bond with the vinyl and you'll have jagged edges when peeling the masking off. I also don't want to have to run a razor knife down the edge of the vinyl to break that paint bead before peeling.
Anyone got any tips or ideas to do this? I also thought about applying black vinyl to the back of the acrylic with the hole cut out, but when I did that, it looks crappy. Any alternative methods of construction would be welcome too.
Thanks in advance.