-
fitting cut lettering
hey all,
i just took delivery of a load of flat cut alupanel letters for a job this week, they came with the locators attached to the letters, and the other halves loose (as expected), it also came with a large paper template, the template is marked with crosses where the locators need to go,
am i best to simply tape this tight to the wall, and then using a hole punch, just mark the wall behind ? i’ll be glueing the locators on with a hot melt, don;t wanna be drilling 100+ holes in a 100yr old + wall (solid + plaster) as i can see it busting up if it’s owt like my first house !
any tips please ?
Hugh
-
13 Replies
-
Dunno if glue would really work – even hot glue / ‘serious stuff’ / epoxy.
Exterior?
Would either be carefully drilling the holes or (looks bad) mounting on two or three lengths of strapping / alloy to get a proper fix. You don’t want alloy letters dropping from the sky as the glue gets stressed with heat, cold & wind!!
Even internally, you’ll only need 1" holes – yellow plugs or even adhesive in the holes – but it needs some sort of anchor.ps. the females are usually nylon and not very glue friendly.
Any ‘whoopsies’ can be hidden behind the letters anyway 😉 -
best try a locator and glue it onto something similiar
Nylon is usually a nightmare to glue to anything 🙁
if it sticks i don’t see a problem -
quick reply… this demo may help.
-
didn’t look at the demo so sorry if this is covered in there.
Best best is to tape template to a piece of hardboard (or anything rigid) incase it rains or is windy when you are on site. As for fixing to the wall, drilling is the only option in my opinion (use a couple of holes at each end to fix the template up first). You should screw them up tight then turn back a bit to give a bit of slack. This alows for your drill wondering slightly or unevenness in the surface. If you glue them then they will all have to 100% accurate or you will have probs. 100+ holes isn’t great fun I’ll admit but it’s better than getting to the end and your locators not lining up.
Just my tuppence, I’ve never tried another method so I may be wrong.
G
-
sorry, i shoulda mentioned it’s an interior job, the worry i have with drilling is that the nylon locators have a hole in the bottom, to fix thru, but the holes aren’t what i would call uniform or certral (unless i picked out a couple of iffy ones !), if i drill, it’s permanent, i don’t think the customer wants them drilled if i can help it either,
i’ll try the hot melt idea first, if it sticks then great, the letters aren’t heavy either,
thanks for the tip about the hardboard, i might just do that,
i’ll check out the demo in a bit Rob, thanks.
be back in a bit, having to fight off my 7yr old lass to get at the lappy, her and bloody cbbc website !
ta
-
I’d be interested to know how it goes with glue, these things tend not to be adhesive friendly as mentioned.
The slightly off centre holes shouldn’t matter as you would leave them a bit slack when screwing on. This also allows for some expansion. If the glue isn’t happening is it an option to flood coat something like 10mm foam and put the whole lot up in a oner? Then it could all be done in the workshop and only need a few fixings on site making life loads easier!
G
-
hugh when you say old wall do you mean lath and plaster? i.e. wood straps then plastered like you get in old houses?
or are we talking sand stone?
what hieght and style/font are the letters?
how high up are the letters?
-
Hugh, the only problem with gluing them on is that you need to be 100% accurate otherwise you are going to have problems fitting the letters to the locators, when they are fitted using a screw as Gavin has said you can loosen them a little to allow the two peices to line up but if they are glued they will be solid and also maybe not sitting quite square which may cause problems. Have to be honest and say I have never actually tried gluing locators in place though.
-
I think using glue would be fine but I’m sure as its been said the hot glue wont stick to the locator’s cup due to the type of plastic its made from. I hot glue for bonding cut foam letters to foamboad and have never had any problems, we only do this for interior stuff
good luck Rich
-
Not sure the hot glue is going to be strong enough, and at best it’s only going to be as good as the surface its stuck to. i.e. if you glue to an emulsioned surface the fix is a strong as the paint bond to the plaster.
I’d consider using a 6mm thick MDF drilling template and small yellow wall plugs with size 6 wood screws.
🙂
Let us know how you get on with the hot glue if you do decide to do it that way.
-
hmm, plenty to think about now !
i can see the point of the loose screws, but the thought of drilling 100+ holes doesn’t sit nicely !
Rob, the wall is plastered brick, a dividing wall betwen the two businesses, it feels solid, ie not the old plaster lath you mention, but i’m told it’s all original, with about 15 layers of wall coverings (paint, paper, anaglypta etc !),
i might see if i can persuade him to part with a few bob more and mount it onto either dibond or foamboard,
the letters are a max of 200mm high, all std arial fonts, as per their logo, the smaller letters are only 100mm in height, so you can imagine, the whole lot only weights in around a lb (0.5kg).
hmmm !!
thanks for all the replies.
-
It’s not really the way I would go Hugh but thinking about gluing instead of screwing made me think of the small velcro pads…not sure at all whether they would work or not but it would give you a little bit of flexibility on the fixing
-
this is true !
i think in hindsight, mounting them on a board might be the way to go, the customer was worried about ‘being able to remove them’ in future, next april the lease is up, and they’ve not yet settled on a renewal, so they may be moving, so they don’t want to be too permanent, just in case, a panel would be much easier to remove.
Log in to reply.