Jig for mounting nameplates on perpetual plaque?

[Kit Dumph]

I have 204 of the engravable name plates that I have to align and set on a custom perpetual plaque for a customer. I have a couple jig ideas using the laser to create them, but wanted to see if anyone else had already worked through this problem.

[Neal Schlee]

If the plaque will fit in your laser, what I do a lot is vector an outline slightly smaller than the plate then attach plates covering the lasered line.
Another option is cutting a guide template from chipboard, here you'll want the plate area's slightly larger than the plates. If layed out correctly you can do a large area of plates with this type of template by moving it around and registering off of applied plates.


Neal

[Kit Dumph]

Neal, you last option is what I have been thinking. The plaque will be too big to fit for all of the plates, it's 72" tall. I'm just engraving the top 18" of it that will fit in the laser.

[Ross Moshinsky]

We recently had an Eagle scout who was making a very large multi-plate plaque for the VFW on his own. I was going to advise him with the following to ease his assembly.
He never came in so this allows me to tell you what I wanted to tell him.
We mark the plaque based on the holes of the individual plates with the laser or drill the holes with our rotary machine. In this case due to the size we would fabricate a template out of old plastic with the holes positioned by the laser or rotary. Mount the template accurately, measuring multiple locations to make sure it is correct/square. Drill into the plaque in a few locations and secure the template. Drill the rest of the holes . Your template should be as large as possible, but you can move it if it is not large enough using drilled holes to secure it in place.

[Mike Null]

Ross' solution is one I have used as well.

[Mark Sipes]

Ditto Don't need a full template. just 2-3 lines with the hole placements. Then manually drill following the template.


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