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External clear acrylic signs- advice please?
Hi everyone,
We’ve been asked to do an external sign which will be approx 150x80cm. This will be our first one (!) so want it to look impressive. Now I’ve had a look through here and am interested in doing clear acrylic with the reverse backed in red vinyl, black vinyl writing on the front. From reading was thinking maybe 8-10mm acrylic.
Is this suitable for outside application, or is there a better option? Also, there are so many suppliers on the toolbar, and being new to it I’m a bit puzzled by what I’m looking for! Any advice on a good supplier and materials/fixings most appreciated!
Oh also info on polishing and rounding the edges. I remember doing this at school lol On a smaller scale though!
Cheers me dears 😀
Emma
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6 Replies
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If you want it to look impressive the first thing I would do is NOT use black lettering on a red ground!
Not a fan of flood coating clear acrylic, to get it blemish free is almost impossible. -
What Mike said don’t know if you can get red acrylic but it is nearly always difficult to flood coat, and I really don’t like black and red together 🙄 sorry Emma
Lynn
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Hi Lynn and Mike,
I don’t like black and red together either, think it can look a bit tacky, but that’s the clients logo and colours so we’re a bit stuck there! Having said that, sometimes it looks nice, but is it generally a sign no no? I’m playing about with other colours that may compliment the black and red but not there yet! Thanks for your advice you two 🙂
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You need to consider the possibility of the acrylic expanding and contracting due to heating in an external location Emma. Acrylic panels with flame polished edges fitted using stand off locators are fine for indoors but may not be suitable for outdoors. In particular if South facing the sign will get a lot of sunlight which will cause the acrylic to expand and contract. If no allowance is made for expansion and contraction the panel will warp 😕
If you’re dead set on using acrylic – use a 5mm thickness and mount the sign using a panatrim type of extrusion. This allows the panel to expand and contract in all weathers without warping. You will need to be very careful when sliding the panels into the frame if using flood coated clear because the sign trim will likely scratch the vinyl flood coat.
If it was me, I would use a self coloured acrylic or a (cheaper) gloss PVC such as Foamalux Ultra
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Why not apply the black vinyl then backspray it with an acrylic paint (car paint) quite lightly – then wait ’til it dries & apply roughly the same colour of vinyl to it and trim up. You MUST apply the flood coat DRY. Even if you make a real dog’s dinner of it (lumps / creases / bubbles) the paint disguises nearly all imperfections 🙂
What you end up with is a PERFECT background with zero ‘air gap’.
I’ve lots of signs this way in both acrylic & polycarbonate and they still look good even after more than 10 years outside.
Dave
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Great tip there Dave, we will certainly be using that in the future! The sign is to go on a workshop so looking at it now with Lewis my original thought was a bit too fancy! We’ve cracked the layout etc now (red, black and white 😉 ) and now it’s just the material…
Cheaper sounds great Phil, client wants cheap and cheerful- any suggestions on best suppliers of foamalux ultra, fittings etc?
Thanks everyone!
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