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anone have tips for covering perspex in vinyl?
Hi guys I need some advice please. Ive got a job to replace the vinyl on a piece of white perspex 3m x 60cm. Its the insert on a lightbox. Should I cut out spaces around the letters for the light to shine through or just cover the whole thing ? I have never done this before, I farm out all lightbox work and digital printing. I said I would do as its for a friend. Any advice is greatly appreciated please. Thanks to everyone for any info.
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7 Replies
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Tony not sure what you mean about cutting around the letters. You will need to use translucent vinyl, not "ordinary" vinyl, which transmits the light but keeps its colour when lit up.
Peter -
Thanks a lot Peter. I get it, so I don’t need to leave gaps to show the light through if I use translucent vinyl. Cheers mate, much appreciated. I’ll order some in tommorrow.
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Not sure if I understand this 100% but…
You have a white panel of translucent Perspex for a light box…
Let’s say…. you wanted to turn the panel RED with YELLOW letters.
You would need translucent red and translucent yellow.
You would cut the read rectangle the size of your Perspex with the letters weeded out of the panel.
You would then inlay the yellow letters.However… a nice finish is too do one of two things…
1, when cutting the letters out of the red panel… add an inwards bleed of about 2mm. this means when you inlay the yellow letters you don’t get any white showing if you don’t line the text up 100%. It also helps prevent white showing if the vinyl shrinks a little.
2 purposely create a space around the letters leaving a small halo/outline of white. This appears neat and can look good depending on the look you are after.
Note: some regular vinyl’s are pretty translucent when back lit. e.g. bright reds and yellows
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Brilliant, thanks Robert. Amazingly Iam using a Red background and Yellow letters ! So Iam going to use regular vinyl for this one, halfs the price of material. Which I will pass on to the client (friend). Iam taking your advice on the letters and I’m going to leave a white gap around the letters to show the white light through. You guys are a great resource, thanks ever so much. Where can I post a picture of the finished product ? I’ll be finishing tommorrow. Cheers.
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Tony, before you go cutting the job with either colour, can I strongly suggest that you test both colours to be sure they are translucent enough for this application.
Just stick a piece over a light fitting and check it first.
That’s close on 8-10 yards of vinyl you’re toyin’ with there.Just be sure it’s gonna do the job you both want.
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I sure have Lance, thanks for your advice. Very much appreciated my friend.
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Oracal 551 or 3M series 50 are both fairly translucent mate. Try not to use a cast material, because it is blotchy with light shining thru. Mainly due to the manufacturing process.
Most cal vinyls should work tho
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