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help please with lightbox facia?

Posted by Stephen Ingham on 12 February 2006 at 14:26

Hi all, need some guidance with light box facia manufacturing:

bought lightbox case with electrics (complete) made facia panel (4mtr split into two panels) covered with printed vinyl, easy so far.

however, when i fix light box up onto frame provided and slide in the facia panels a gap usually appears, either top or bottom of joint.

any tips for securing the joint without creating a shadow or dark patch when the light is switched on???

cheers
stephen

Kevin Flowers replied 19 years, 8 months ago 6 Members · 10 Replies
10 Replies

Peter Normington

Member
12 February 2006 at 15:24

Is your hanging strip straight Stephen?

You could use panel locks from Smp to hold the panels together, but it looks like you have an aligment problem somewhere..

Peter
Stephen Ingham

Member
12 February 2006 at 15:27

hi peter, hanging strips??

of course; a strip of acrylic onwhich the panel hangs within the lightbox frame.

the problem i have found with this method is i have never found an adhesive to secure it

any advice??

cheers
stephen
Peter Normington

Member
12 February 2006 at 15:55

Adhesive is called fusion, from cherwell or graphytyp.

But the frame and panels must be dead straight. otherwise you will always get a gap.

Did you put a rebate on the edge of the panels where they meet?

Peter
Stephen Ingham

Member
12 February 2006 at 15:59

peter, i have tried fusion, and it only works if the panel is kept perfectly straight.

i once used it to fix some locators on the back of some cut out letters and some broke free after about 2 weeks and fell off, customer was not very inpressed!!

cheers
stephen
Paul Hughes

Member
12 February 2006 at 17:30

hi Stephen

we use tensol to fix our hanging strips (& locator’s), it a two part glue from ICI, we get ours from amari. the strip and board will break before this stuff gives up! i have also used 3M VHB tape on smaller panels with no problems. as for lining those panels up i take some small strips of 1mm PVC and pack the other end of the board up to close the gap.
we have also put frame springs (kind of a half moon shaped springy metal thing 😮 that are fitted in the end of the frame) that stops the panels from moving apart by keeping some pressure on the joint, but still giving the board room to expand.

hope this helps

Paul
John Harding

Member
12 February 2006 at 17:56

Stephen sorry to hijack this thread I cant add anything to the above coz thats how i would remedy things, just wanted to ask paul where he buys his panel tensioner springy things

cheers John
Peter Normington

Member
12 February 2006 at 18:07

Cherwell do them john
Mike Grant

Member
12 February 2006 at 21:11

The gapping is probably because you have not cut the panels 100% square and it sounds like you havn’t rebated the two panels as this will help hide any small gaps.
Stephen Ingham

Member
13 February 2006 at 08:52

hi all, how big/ wide should the rebate be (5mm?? 10mm??)

cheers
stephen
Kevin Flowers

Member
13 February 2006 at 09:28

10mm rebate & remember to add 10mm to the length

Kev