What locators to use on stainless letters?

[Shane Drew]

I get an engineering company to laser cut my stainless letters, but I also get them to weld a thread to the back of them.

Works really well, but they need to be savvy with welding stainless, as it will buckle if they are not careful.

[Peter Normington]

Joe,
I just bought some in recently, but I did notice that where the plastic locators were bonded the stainless had actually buckled slightly, maybe because of the epoxy shrinking. as it hardened. It was noticeable on the front of the letters when viewed from an angle, don’t know if this is normal?

Peter

[Steve Morgan]

Joe,
I’ve successfully used some fixings called ‘Bighead Fasteners’ which I bonded onto the back of some stainless letters using Eurobond’s Penlock Adhesive. Like Shanes method these provide a threaded metal stud rather than the plastic stud and cup. My letters were cut from 2mm sheet so no problem with distortion.
Both firms can be found on the web.
Steve

[David Rogers]

For the thin stainless I’d contemplate either soldering brass locators on, or using some of the now famous ‘evostik serious stuff’ on a well prepared surface. Araldite doesn’t really stick to stainless (or any metal) for too long if stressed (heat expansion/contraction).

Any of the stainless letters I’ve bought have all been soldered.

Dave

[Martin Pearson]

Joe, I would call someone like Eurobond and ask them or check their website, I have used Penloc for all sorts of things but never on stainless. Eurobond seem to have a suitable adhesive for most applications and I always found them very helpful. If penloc isn’t the most suitable adhesive they will tell you what is.

[Robert Lambie]

for stainless built-ups our locator’s are soldered. like dave said, we use brass locator’s. these locator’s are very Strong and will last as long as the letters. the trouble with plastic locator’s and metal letters is the letter out lives the locator’s. what you find is due to the weight the letter will fall off, still in tact and perfect in condition… however, the locator’s is knackered, gone brittle, broke… 😕

that said, i HAVE used plastic locator’s on small metal lets as there isn’t any real weight in them.

this is an old demo i done with aluminum letters and plastic locator’s, again, nowhere near as heave as a stainless Dave-up but does the job well.
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=17592

[Steve Morgan]

A friend of mine makes and fits lots of stainless lettering and as with Rob he solders studs onto the back, however I think that if you’ve not done much soldering before and or you haven’t got a good flame torch the adhesive route might prove easier. You can also use the adhesive elsewhere, it seems to work satisfactorily onto Foam PVC, Acrylic and Reynobond.

The bighead studs will always sit at right angles to the back of the letter – you can’t put them on wonky. You must of course as with the soldering option prepare the surfaces carefully.

Steve

[Joe McNamara]

Thanks for all the replies lads,

When you refer to soldering, do you mean using a plumbing style blowlamp/torch with the thick plumbing solder – do you have to preheat the stainless in the area you are about to solder the fixings?

The bighead fixings look like they’d be easy to solder onto the letters because of the gaps in the fixings.

Cheers
Joe

[David Rogers]

quote Joe McNamara:

Thanks for all the replies lads,

When you refer to soldering, do you mean using a plumbing style blowlamp/torch with the thick plumbing solder – do you have to preheat the stainless in the area you are about to solder the fixings?

The bighead fixings look like they’d be easy to solder onto the letters because of the gaps in the fixings.

Cheers
Joe

from memory, ordinary lead solder only needs about 180 degrees to flow and the heat just needs to be fairly concentrated. I’d personally go ‘old school’ and use a separate flux & solder rather than the cored variety. I suppose one of those 100/150watt soldering irons should work, but the last time I soldered sheet metal I was using copper soldering bolts…heat ’em up in a gas burner type…transfers a lot of heat to a very localised area. Gas torch should work…just watch out for it getting too hot & discolouring the steel.
Also make sure that the FACE is clean of fingerprints / grease as if it does get overheated they practically etch into the surface.

Dave

[Dave Harrison]

I haven’t soldered locators onto stainless steel before myself so please take this with a pinch of salt, but wouldn’t it be better to use Sliver solder its a 100 times stronger than conventional lead solder.

[David Rogers]

Think the only downside of silver solder is the higher melting point. It is stronger and will resist thermal stress better (dunno about 100 times stronger), comes in loads of different percentages – from minimal content for say electrical work (speaker connections) to almost pure silver for jewelers.($$$Chi-ching)

If it’s done right & the solder flows under & around the items, (why separate flux is better) & then building up a slight fillet it’s a pretty strong joint by all accounts.

ps. It’s damn-near impossible to get proper 60/40 tin/lead these days, it’s all lead substitute (whatever that is).

[Martin Pearson]

Joe I know you have some experience with fabrication but if you aren’t familiar with welding/soldering stainless then I would go down the road of using an epoxy type resin to attach the locator’s. As for the Bighead fasteners give them a ring and get a sample pack from them, they have quite a good range with different sorts of fasteners for different applications.