help please on fabrication of a 3 piece sign?

[Bill Dewison]

If you can use one continuos piece of dibond (or equivalent) you could buy the thicker sheets, then router a groove on the reverse of the sheet where it meets the corners of the bay. The front face of the sheet would remain intact, but the groove at the back (like a V groove) would allow it to bend round without it being obvious that this is how you had done it. You could then use raised letters or just vinyl on top without much of a problem.

Even if you have to make it in 2 or 3 pieces, you can butt the pieces up on the straight and use the groove method going round the corners, as it is much easier an neater to butt up two/three pieces on the straight and make it look good.

Just an idea 😀

Cheers, Dewi

[Andy Gorman]

A mate of mine did exactly this recently. He fabricated some corner pieces and had the joins on each end of the face. The corner pieces were bent with a lip on the back to tuck in behind the face pieces and it all looked very tidy.

[Gary Davis]

thanks dewi and big G, my only concern and probably simply resolved is how i can get the angle right?
Is it a case of making the sign and grooving it then bending it on-site?

I have no experience of fabricating dibond, from what ive read on here you need a 50 quid router bit (v-shaped), this would knock alot off my margin and the customer is the dusty wallet type!

[Andy Gorman]

You can get cheap and cheerful router bits from B&Q etc which would probably be fine for occasional use.

Getting the angle…..take 2 strips of offcut and a G clamp. Hold the strips on the building, fix together with clamp. That’s if you haven’t got an adjustable square.

[Paul Rollason]

aren’t squares just square big g 🙂

Paul R(Mackerelbus Design)

[Bill Dewison]

Getting the angle right shouldn’t be an issue. If you router it at the correct point, as Big G has said, you simply clamp one side down, screw it in place, then bend the other side round the corner by hand, clamp and screw.

Again, as Big G has said, you can pick up cheaper variety router bits, and considering you’ll only be doing 2 grooves at the most, they don’t have to be superb quality. If you give me the bit size that fits in your router, I’ll have a look at the router bits I have (have various sizes for different routers) and I can always post you one on loan for this job if money is an issue.

What you could do is grab a quick piccy of the shop fascia front as it is, and post it up on the boards. That way we can see what you’re attaching to and can possibly come up with other alternatives that may suit better if you’re not fond of the bendy roundy corner trick 😀

Cheers, Dewi

[Mike Grant]

Just route the groove in the back, then take to site and bend to suit. couldn’t be simpler. I have just fitted out an indian take away with wall panelling in Dibond. See my thread and pics to follow soon.

When you route the groove you have to route through to the face aluminium layer, so it will bend very easily, one man can bend a 10ft long piece. But be carefull not to bend it too many times as it will eventually break.

[Gary Davis]

thanks for all the advice!

and thankyou dewi for the offer of the bits, i was under theimpression it had to cut a V shaped groove is this correct of would a flat bottomed bit do the job? Would the radius of the fold be afffected?

Edit: Forgot to add what would be the best way to fix this? Im reluctant to screw through face as i think it ruins the appearance! As it will be flat panel im unable to fix like a tray sign.

[Bill Dewison]

I think the V groove is the recommended way of doing it as you’re only removing as much material as is needed.

As far as attaching it, other than a frame around the borders, I can’t think of another way of attaching it. Possibly someone else has a solution to this. If you do go for screws directly into the ally board, you can always cover them with small vinyl circles which makes them virtually invisible as long as you get a good colour match.

A side issue, but be careful if you’re buying router bits. I learnt to my expense that there are different sizes to fit different routers, I keep 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch bits, although I no longer have a 1/2 inch router 😕 Some routers will accept both of these bits, but I’ve found they’re usually the more expensive routers and I break tools for fun (well, not for fun, but you know what I mean).

Cheers, Dewi

[Mike Grant]

Always try a piece of scrap before you route and do a test to make sure you have the depth correct. I even make a test piece if making 2 joines to make sure you have the correct clearance once bent as it is so easy to be 2 mill off and find you cant bend around the object you are fixing to. 😮