trimming down numberplates

[Robert Lambie]

a band saw will do it.. if by hand its down to how steady you can do it.. if you just bought the band saw see if it comes with a guide. that will keep it straight 😉

[Allan Weyman]

Hi,

I do it on my Elu flip over saw with a fine tooth tungsten blade, I then radius by hand with a hand held grinder. All are illegal now of course. I used to do them on my wall mounted cutter with an acrilic blade, score and break, but the new spec plates are a tougher material and you have to saw cut them.

Incidently I do a few plates and hand digitised legal fonts both the new ad the old ones, in Signlab best couple of hours work I did especially as we do quite alot of film and TV work and the new style plates look wrong on a period vehicle.

Allan

[Kevin Flowers]

HI
just bye the required plates from your supplier, my supplier as numerous sizes as probably does yours. Other than that try through table saw with a rip fence not to course a blade

Kevin

[Jonathan O'Lone]

I have tried scoring… (:) – broke again
routering… (:) – melted sides
fretsaw… (:) – particals on adhesive side
band saw… (:) – wavey 2/3 mm line v rough cut with guide used properly!
chop saw… (:) – very dangerous – possible shatter and messes up adhesive side

my supplier cannot supply custom sizes or bevel / round edged
and I want to produce custom stuff

http://www.gtgrafix.com/index%20pages/low_profile.html
how is this done???

puzzeled Jonny (bigcry)

[Kevin Flowers]

Jonathan
how many do you need, may beable to send some across to you let me know sizes etc and i’ll get some prices for you

Kevin

[Adrian Howard]

cut on a cnc router, or laser cut but looking at there website it looks like cnc, we could easily cut these on our machine, would take about 3 minutes
clear perspex then backed with adhesive faced honeycoomb or reflective
vinyl 😆

[Kevin Flowers]

Jonathan
looked at website after posting like Adrian said use dry faced acylic with wet faced reflective, cutting that shape would require probably graet skill on fret saw or as Adrian said CNC, laser etc

Kevin

[Jonathan O'Lone]

they maybe use a template for routing or probably a cnc
but what kind of rpm and router bit would do for this
and can i use an ordinary router for this? – as I blew the budget (christmas!) on the bandsaw! (hot)

[Robert Lambie]

a normal hand held router will work if you have it adapted to sit upside down. a bit like a table saw.. blade up! again you would need a guide but i would imagine it would do it.
your looking for a bit with a 1/4 radious i think to acheive what your looking for..
like adrian said.. a cnc router would cut in mins.. we have one but ive never tried to cut a plate on it.

i would imagine the perspex/plastic for these plates as pretty cheap? 🙄

[Allan Weyman]

Jonathan,

I think if you want to cut down plates you will have to use the dry plates i.e. no adhesive on the acrilic plate, otherwise what ever method you use you are going to mess up the adhesive. I have been doing these for ages lot of imported 4 x 4 down this way and the supplier does’nt do the size so no choice.

Allan

[Jonathan O'Lone]

£1.50 + vat for the wet car acrilic – good advice about the adhesive but makes the making up of the plate harder- no?

i was thinking if the blade on the router was slower – (mine is fixed at 27,000 rpm BOSCH
it wouldent melt so badly on the edges and would poss give a cleaner cut

also how would you polish the edges- ive tried a naked flame! AGRHHHH burnt fingers!

I had tried sanding but i would like a prof finish 🙄

[MARTY]

We have been cutting plates down for years and offer any size the customer wants right down to 50mm x 200mm for bikes (not legal of course). We use a table saw with tungsten blade for the width and chop saw with tungsten blade for the length. We always cut before putting the plates together and always glue side up !. Takes seconds then we radius the corners on a bench sander, the circular belt type and finish the chamfer with a normal hand sander. It takes seconds but we only do it as the customer requires but keep a few of the most popular cut sizes in stock.

[Terry Bull]

ive always made up the plate before cutting ..stick masking tape where you wanrt to cut ,draw your lines on that ,stick a fine tooth saw in your jigsaw
place on a piece of scrap mdf and cut
radius the corners to match the original ,also with the saw then sand a light bevel to match
its easy ..honest

[Jonathan O'Lone]

do you need to belt sand the cut edge of the plate or is it clean ?

what radius of the blade and teeth / thickness / speed (approx)?

got to go chips an gravey up! iwill speek tomorro

thanks all!!! 😆 feel better now !!!

best regards Jonny (pop)

[Allan Weyman]

Jonathan,

I have never bothered to polish the edges and never had any complaints they are only too happy to get them as a car accessory shop won’t do them. Also how much work do you want to do for £12-£15 profit. To be honest I can’t be bothered with them half the time and certainly could’nt be bothered polish the edges. maybe I’am just an old bodger (probably).

Allan

[Terry Bull]

i use just a regular bosch jigsaw with a stroller or is it scroller type thin fine blade but if possible get a wider blade ,be easier to get a straight cut

when done lay a piece of fine s/ paper on a flat surface.. rub the plate along that to clean it up

BEFORE CUTTING test cut on part of the plate your not going to want
good luck

[sammyr]

seems you’re doing alot for wot the charge will be,
no polishing just sand any burrs off layup & out

profit made !!

[sammyr]

anyway, why perspex

dibond offcut, foam offcut etc etc, overlay with reflective offcut & add numbers, just as good!

[Jonathan O'Lone]

quote Allan Weyman:

Jonathan,

Also how much work do you want to do for £12-£15 profit. To be honest I can’t be bothered with them half the time and certainly could’nt be bothered polish the edges.
Allan

allan – i work full tome in a local factory where there are literally hundreds of bikers! (tire manafacturer)

The oppertunity is too good to miss 😀

also the cut downs are more expensive and more profitable for me 😎
but they can be a fussy/choosey/critical lot – i dont want any comebacks on quality!

[Allan Weyman]

My supplier gets me 7″ x 5″, 8* x 2″ and 10″ x 2.5″ all for the superbike boys. They are nice and neat, raduised, bevelled and best of all ready to go. You have to be registeded with the DVLA for them to supply you, If you cannot get supplies on these I will get them for you for a modest markup for my time. As they are none standard plate size as far as I am concerned they are just small sign perspex sign blanks I will be selling you, what you do with them is up to you

PM me if you wat some.

Allan

[Allan Weyman]

PS Sammyr, I think you have lost the plot on this one mate, the idea is the number plate letters are sandwiched between the perspex and the reflective which has adhesive on the reflective side. This for (a) looks, (b) durabity and (c) to stop little fingers messing with them.

Allan

[Dazzel]

Seems strange to me that the supplier wants you to be registered with the DVLA to supply you with products that are illegal anyway for number plates 🙂

these are only “sign” shapes

[Allan Weyman]

Dazzel,

The whole law is strange, very strange. I sell plates off the net and asked DVLA can I take a faxed copy of a V5 document and licence, they could not give me a proper answer, that was 6 months ago ad I am still waiting.

You can try my supplier but I am pretty sure they wil require your registraion number from the DVLA. PM and I will give you their number if you want it.

Allan

[Dazzel]

Allan The law states that you MUST see the original documents- ie proof of ownership (V5) etc and proof of identity (photo driv lic preffered). Confuse you more, you can buy a plate for a friend – use his V5 and your I.D when purchasing.