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Laminating Acrylic, advice needed please?
I have a job to do where we need to laminate 3mm opal to 10mm clear to produce letters which push through a fascia sign and will be back illuminated
I’m looking for the process to glue the opal to the clear so that it will stand up outside and not show any glue marks
does anyone do this / know the best way
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2 Replies
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Tensol is your best bet – Indasol sell it, external one is Tesol 70, you need to mix it in small application bottle but when it drys it is totally clear and solid.
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I am guessing here, but correct me if I am wrong mate…
You have, let’s say a 10mm thick opal letter. you want to glue it to clear acrylic so the opal letter pushes through the face and the clear holds it from going all the way through?
So you squirt the clear adhesive on the opal and stick it to the clear. the trouble is it creates a shadow of the shape of the adhesive between the two plastics?You could router the letters but create a step/lug all the way around the letter when routering it, so when you push it through the step/lug catches and holds the letter in place.
I am sure others will have their ways of creating or mounting push through letters. its not something i have a need to make in-house as i would just buy it in, even though we have a cnc router.
another way is to apply adhesive to the letter and place it on the acrylic. once in place, carefully, but firmly press the letter onto the acrylic which will expel the adhesive out the sides and completely covering the entire rear of the letter.sitting it on an illuminated table helps this a lot as you can see if there are any shadows that need pressed over and worked out the sides before the adhesive starts to set.
always best to practice this with a few spare letters and acrylic offcuts.
personally, I don’t do this on acrylic signs, I have only ever done this “with glass and glass crystal bevels, but I have worked on hundreds of decorative windows bonding clear crystal glass to clear windows. I use UV light that sets in seconds once you have the shape in place.
I do not know how this would work with the likes of tensol but the principle is very similar.here is an old video that shows how glass bevels are bonded to glass to give optically clear results.
https://youtu.be/eXeL4C-OD3E?t=90
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