Mounting stand off flat cut letters – any tips and tricks?

[Fred McLean]

Russell

once you have your template in place use a bradawl to mark a few strategic corners and points to locate on once the template is removed
But do the points slightly on the inside of the letters so once there in place they hide the small puncture marks on the plastered wall. 😀

Fred

[David Rogers]

Any paper template that’s supplier with the letters will have the hole positions marked – either with a pen circle – or a punched hole.

What I do, (as there’s no guarantee they are level to the edge of the paper), is find either two round, or two flat letters – one at each end at make a ‘common line’ or a base line to work with – just draw a line. From that you can work out heights & keep the lettering level.

If internal, tape it to the wall with application tape (shouldn’t remove paint) – external – any method possible!!.

Another tip is to spot mark ALL of the holes before going round and drilling / installing fixings. That way if for some reason the paper moved during the install – you’ve lost nothing.

For the VHB ones – Fred’s bradawl mark method works great.
if you’re really bothered about the final image – keep the tape a couple of mm away from the letter edges, that way it won’t show / allow fluff to adhere!

Leaving the 1mm for rounded only works on small stuff, but doing the flats first will allow you to do a bit of ‘eyeballing’ on the rounds.

Dave

[Russell Pavey]

Thanks Fred and Dave –

I feel a little more confident going into it now. Appreciate your time.

Many thanks

Russell

[Fred McLean]

Any-time just shout

F

[Alistair Richards]

I’ve never done flat cut letters stuck directly to the substrate before, but would this be a good idea.

To cut out your text of your flat cut letters in vinyl but with a 1 or 2mm outline, and reverse weed, stick down in correct position on substrate, and then this gives you a guide for sticking on your flats cuts by neatly positioning each letter inside the vinyl cutout, then remove vinyl job done.

How’s that sound?

Ali 🙄 :lol1:

[John Harding]

If using stand offs punch or drill through the pre marked paper template as already said, if using VHB cut the letters out of the paper template and place on the wall then align the letters through the cut out spaces/holes

John

[Gert du Preez]

Good advice given by David. I dont wat to remember all the signs I stuffed up by ignoring the difference in height between a S and E !
The best method, I.M.H.O. , is to judge it by eye! If it looks good to YOU, then it’s going to look right to the client, who is hopefully not as fussy about it as you. If you can keep a German client happy, then the FORCE is with you!

[Russell Pavey]

Again thanks – some real useful tips.

Just another query – on your average internal wall would you have to use rawl plugs with each locator/fixing or would you just go straight into the wall?

Russ

[George Elsmore]

you say average internal wall???? is it brick, plaster, eggshell??

[Russell Pavey]

I think it’s plastered brick George 😕

[George Elsmore]

then plugs it is it seems daunting but when you rip into it you will find it easy use a nice new masonry drill ……..and be carefull the plaster doesnt start exploding on you….tip take a 1mm or 1.5mm hss drill to test the plaster depth and carefully drill the first hole to see how much plaster/render is on the wall coz if you just attack it with a 5.5 masonry it may disintegrate in front of your eyes 😮

[Russell Pavey]

This could be fun 😥

Thanks

Russ

[George Elsmore]

it’ll be fine honestly its easier than it looks ……… :yes1:

[Gert du Preez]

On some plastered walls it helps to spray a bit of water while drilling. A bit of "chipping" on the plaster is no problem if hidden by the sign/letter. Also take some crack-repair product and PVA paint with – I use old film cannisters filled with every colour paint I can lay my hands on – this can hide some embarrising mistakes! Takes up no space, also..

[Richard Urquhart]

how about running a pipe and cable tester over the surface first there only about £20 😀 😀

[George Elsmore]

oh and when you have screwed cups onto wall just back off the screw a tad to give some play when pushing on the letters

G