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can i have advice please on making first lightbox?
hi all,
just about to order my 3800 x 940mm lightbox, this is a supply only job as the guy is a dab hand at installing etc.
I’m getting it from Universal as they come recommended and there price is good vs some other quotes.
Am looking for help on how best to to do the acrylic panels, the sign is red background with yellow text, how do I ensure that these colours show through, do I need to use special vinyl ( I use use orocal 751 on everything usually), also does the vinly go on the front face of the acrylic panel or reverse side? Sorry for some basic questions but this is something very new!
I should add that the panel comes in white, can I get this in red or do i need to flood coat it?
many thanks
graeme -
22 Replies
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Don’t get a red panel. If you put yellow on top of red acrylic the yellow will not illuminate.
You need to flood coat an opal panel with red that has the yellow letters reversed out. Then apply yellow letters on top. An bit of bleed on the text is a good idea to allow for misregistration and any shrinkage that may occur. You will need a plotter that can cut 940 wide of course.
Use translucent vinyl. Regular stuff will probably illuminate, but nowhere near as good as translucent.
And the vinyl goes on the front of the panel.
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Years ago Universal offered a service where they would supply the panels fret cut with all your text set in place in different colour acrylics and ready to fit. Unfortunately they no longer do this.
They will supply them rebated at the join together with panel clips and a hanging strip applied.
SMP might do the whole job fret cut though.
You can’t use red acrylic without having cut outs for other colours (as above).
You will need opal white and translucent vinyl (semi see through).
Vinyls would go on the outside, although you could flood coat clear acrylic from the back (with any text parts cut out in reverse), then apply text in reverse again from the back. The text would need to be slightly oversize to overlap the red background slightly so as no white gaps show around the edges. -
feck good point re cutter at 940mm!!! My cutter goes to 800mm but my cadet does 1.4m just hardly use it for cutting, ah well always a first!!! many thanks for the adviced tho mate.
cheers
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I could talk him into using a white background with red text? this would do 2 things surely? 1) make the job slightly easier 🙂 2) make the sign more illuminated? or am I wrong?
graeme
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you would still need to use opal acrylic rather than dense white so that the background & the text all illuminate
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sorry I meant to say it comes supplied with opal acrylic.
graeme
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I was just wondering how you quoted your customer if you don’t know how the sign is to be made up?
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Simple, I got the trade price for the lightbox and doubled it. The vinyl cut/install doesn’t seem to differ too much from what a standard sign fascia would be in terms of cost/time?
graeme
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I would charge more than double the cost of the box, but that’s me.
When you buy some translucent vinyl you’ll find out it is a lot dearer than normal stuff.
Always a good idea to know exactly how much a job is going to cost you before you quote.Just my opinion of course. As long as you are happy with your pricing, that’s all that matters. I’d want about 1600 quids for that, just as a guide.
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Graeme,
Does that mean you would charge the same for a box with a single colour name on opal as a multi-colour face?
Peter
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no peter but it looks fairly straightforward, this is part of an overall package of signs I’m doing for him worth totalling over £3k so said I would source this at the "trade price" and add the graphics. Has been a very good customer so not wanting to rob him blind, I do appreciate your comments and hope I didn’t sound flippant. Bit of a learning curve with the light box really.
graeme
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andy, thanks for the response also.
Europoint said that 751 vinyl is fine for the lightboxes. I always use this for other signs. Will this be ok to use?
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Would another option not to be to digitally print the full message onto clear vinyl and mount onto the acrylic? Or does this not look as good as vinyl?
cheers
graeme -
I’m not familiar with Oracal (I assume that’s what it is). I always use translucent on lightboxes. Not only does it illuminate better than normal stuff, but it is more stable. Remember that the panels in the box will heat up and cool down probably 364 times a year. Most other vinyls will shrink under those conditions.
That said, I’ve seen plenty of boxes without translucent on.
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I’m with Andy on this one…….Translucents are made for lightboxes so why chance anything else?
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Oracal 751 is an opaque vinyl and although it will allow some light through the sign will lack the vibrancy of a normal back lit sign. Suprised they did’nt advise you to take their translucent range – I think it is the 8500 range.
I would suggest you use a translucent designed for the job – Polymeric will give you 5 -7 years, cast over 10 years.
If you want to try printing yes it can be done by printing onto transparent but you will need to make sure that your printer profile allows you to lay down more ink as backlighting will generally wash out a solid colour – some printers have an ability to lay down more ink, some can double pass – proof it up initially on a small piece and backlight to see the difference when illuminated. However you may get other issues such as any minor print faults will be exaggerated when backlit.
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quote :Europoint said that 751 vinyl is fine for the lightboxes
It may be fine but it is not properly translucent otherwise Oracal would not make the 8500 series.
This is easily seen if you hold up the charts to the light.
Proper translucents will look far brighter and vivid particularly at night.
Peter
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quote :If you want to try printing yes it can be done by printing onto transparent
It would be better to print onto a translucent vinyl made for this purpose.
I use Grafityp S27P very succesfully.
You should be able to set the RIP to do overprints (Versaworks does) rather than the profile.
Peter
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thanks guys, just spoke with the sales guy (who usually knows his stuff!!) and he assures me that the 751 is perfect for lightboxes as the material is very thin, had I known about 8500 Im sure I would have ordered it but will run with the 751 and try it out.
cheersgraeme
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peter, thanks Ill run some samples (at slow speed, best quality) on my cadet and see how it looks.
graeme
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I wouldn’t use 751 on a lightbox either, yes you can get away with using it but it’s not designed to do the job and translucent vinyls are.
As has been said above you will get a far more vibrant lightbox using the correct vinyl and I am surprised that someone at Europoint suggested 751 would be fine.
If it is a good customer and he is spending quite a bit of money doesn’t he deserve to have the job done to the best of your ability Graeme? -
indeed martin, I have prices for the 8500 and will order in the morning, its only 4m after all OR I would really like to use my cadet for this job to test its capabilities ie: print the full image and mount onto the acrylic, I cant see why this wouldnt work, just keen to ensure the material is right.
graeme
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