Cutting Dibond Panels ?????

[signdevil]

We use our CNC router but if you don’t have one of those I would most likely recommend a hand held circular saw with a good quality fine toothed blade in it. Either that or a powerful hand router which is also going to be needed if you want to start folding the stuff into ‘tray’ signs.

[Robert Lambie]

if you are just wanting to cut panels/shapes from the material then a metal cutting blade ina jigsaw should cut this stuff like butter. jigsawing is harder to get a true line of a long distance straight cut…
i have even heard of folk cutting it with a stanley knife! 😕 but would recommend it! (hmm)
if cutting it i would advise a quick file down along the rough side to prevent metal spliters catching your hand. 😉

[Bill Dewison]

It does cut with a stanley knife as I cut down a sign on Friday just using a knife and safety rule, but blimey it’s hard work! 😮 Slicing through the top aluminium layer is relatively easy, as is going through the foam, the problems arise when you reach the bottom layer of aluminium. Achy fingers and sore wrists 😥 😥

As Robert has said, a jigsaw would do it, but you’d struggle to get a perfect line. Next sheet I cut down, I’m going to try using a table saw with a diddy-toothed blade (<well, small toothed, you know what I mean :-?) as I should imagine it’s a quick way to whizz through the stuff and the line would be as straight as you can hold the sheet as it goes through.

Cheers, Dewi

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I can cut it and I’m a girl!
I use a circular saw with a fine-tooth blade,
and just like Rob sez, it cuts like butter.
The filing idea is a good one too.
And be sure to wear safety glasses.
I’ve cut it with a Stanley but I found that to be too difficult.
If you are putting edge-caps on the finished sign,
they can hide a multitude of sins.
Love…Jill

[Nicola McIntosh]

agree with jill it does cut like butter with a jigsaw!!

ed had to cut three eight foot panels takeing half an inch off each one (a cutting mistake by supplier) anyway he stuck an aluminium straight edge down as a guide and oh he used a circular saw 😳 just remembered!! 🙄 and it cut perfectly, just watch out for scoring don’t take the backing off!! it marks like hell 👿

Nik

[Dave Bruce]

Just cut 3 sheets 2550mm in length with a stanley knife, and yes it is hard work. Dewi I found that after cutting the top layer then the foam, I could just bend the bottom layer till it snapped, worked a treat.

Cheers

Dave

[Adrian Hewson]

Get your self a panel saw mate !! OK maybe over the top but we have one.

It doesnt matter what material you want to cut whether its foamex, acrylic, polycarbonate, reybond, dibond, sterling board mdf, or ply. (we all need to cut these from time to time and it is not always possible to get them cut to size and even if you do if you do not ask for the offcuts you are paying more for your materials (it is great when someone comes in for a few small signs and you can use offcuts and so have no material cost.

We bought a penel saw in from the US cost about £3K even after import tax and shipping with all the accesories and in a year has paid for itself twice over, it cuts everything straight edge every time exact 90 deg at each corner and you can any board approx 8 by 4 into 10pcs in 2 minutes.

I can give you mau info if you want (I even have an introductory offer of $250 for introducing someone which I would give you)

Best buy we ever made and we have just brought a cnc router to do the really technical stuff

[Ian Higgins]

I have used a stanley knife in the past but at the moment am using my 2mtr Keencut.. still hard work so am buying a wall mounted one as people say they do it quite easy. Have found a source for the keencut 3000 wall mount at pennies under a £1000 which seems a good price.
Cheers
Ian

[Darryl Seager]

I use a 14v Dewalt cordless trim saw with a fine tooth blade, not a problem, cover the foot with a piece of felt or baize(stops scratches!!!) and beware of the blade off set, or you could end up 26mm wider or narrower than you need!!!!
Darryl
p.s set it shallow and you can cut just the top and the core.

[John Singh]

Not a problem to cut with a circular saw or jig saw.

If you want a crisp straight line use a straight edge at cramp at both ends and run the circular saw against. You will need to know the distance between the the teeth and the sole plate end, but once known its a doddle from then on.

Cutting curves and shapes is blissful with a simple jig saw

John

[Paul Goodwin]

I used a stanley with a new blade on reynabond the other day, it did take quite a few cuts but tbh it wasn’t a problem and it produced a realy clean cut. But i don’t know if reynabond is softer than dibond (?) and after i used a cool deburing tool that i got nearly 18 years ago during my apprentiship to debur it (i’ll post pics later of it as it realy is a cool easy tool to use to debur with) the edges were splinter free.

[Robert Berwick]

Has anyone ever tried guillotining or die cutting DiBond? Just wondering as we have both options available to us and both might be useful at some point if its possible.

[Steve Lamb]

Depends on your guillotine? It will kill it if its a paper one I would of thought

and di cut might be a problem as its only thin metal on wood!

[Robert Berwick]

Well we’ve got a metalworking side to the company and so have a fairly hefty guillotine, but I didn’t know how the DiBond would react to being cut on it and was wondering whether anyone had any experience of this?

[Ian Higgins]

It cuts fine in a proper sheet metal guillotine,
we use a local fabrication company to cut sheets down for us and it works100% fine

[Robert Lambie]

we have a 3 metre wide industrial metal guillotine in our place..
we cut alloy, dibond, alucolour, rynabond, leboard, etc daily…
cuts perfectly every time. 😉

[Robert Berwick]

Thats good news. Thanks very much. Now all I need to know is the best place to buy it…… any ideas?