Best way to cut dibond AFTER installing vinyl?

[splizaat]

Hey guys, wondering if here normally anyone does this... planning to install die-cut vinyl to both faces of a 4'x8' sheet of di-bond. THEN, cut the di-bond into 18"x24" Pieces...

The idea is to install ONE piece of vinyl on each side of a big sheet, and end up with 10 signs after it's cut. BUT, the question is, how can this be done without completely chewing the edges of the dibond and vinyl up if the dibond is fully covered to the edge?

 

[Gino]

If the vinyl is down real good, I'd cut it on our Fletcher cutter. It cuts that stuff like butter.

 

[wildside]

using a foot shear will not tear up the edges

if your using a jigsaw or circular saw, just file the edges afterwards

 

[MikePro]

i do this with our aluminum sheer or tablesaw all the time.

 

[rjssigns]

Jigsaw(Bosch) with laminate(Formica) blade and straightedge. We've done 16 footers with this method.
Imperative to have a top tier jigsaw or you'll make a mess. Ask me how I know.

 

[d fleming]

For extra safety you can cover with transfer tape to preventive accidental damage while cutting.

 

[Cale Frederick]

For extra safety you can cover with transfer tape to preventive accidental damage while cutting.

Plus 1
We do this and use a very fine tooth blade in our circular saw. We just got a sawtrax panel saw and plan to do the same with it.

 

[SignManiac]

Do your cutting first, then lay your vinyl. No risk of screwing up the freshly laid vinyl.

 

[Baz]

If you are carefull and meticulous then you can do it many ways (table saw, skill saw with straight edge, pre cutting and laying down one by one etc....).

If you want to bang out the job and go onto the next without thinking much, then Gino's method is best.

Just my opinion.

 

[splizaat]

Do your cutting first, then lay your vinyl. No risk of screwing up the freshly laid vinyl.

We decided to go this route like we were before...

I was just trying to save time since there's 30x 6"x24" that are fully covered in orange on this order. I figured if we lay it ONCE on each side of a 4'x8' sheet, then cut it into 30 pieces, we'd be fine - and that's easy money. But I'm not willing to risk chewed up edges.

We found an awesome supplier to use for already pre-cut (sheered) di-bond blanks the proper sizes and they were actually less expensive than buying sheets locally and having them cut down - then taking the time to file all edges on 40 pieces (total) both sides. They had my pieces cut and in transit with a tracking number within 2 hours of my order. Saved $50 and a couple hours filing Although I might lose a couple hours hand razoring vinyl off all four edges on every sign. Overall quality will be much better.

 

[splizaat]

...a sawtrax sure would be nice. But we're operating out of a tiny shop with low overhead...not a whole lot of budget or ROOM for another piece of equipment.

 

[East Penn Graphics]

We decided to go this route like we were before...

I was just trying to save time since there's 30x 6"x24" that are fully covered in orange on this order. I figured if we lay it ONCE on each side of a 4'x8' sheet, then cut it into 30 pieces, we'd be fine - and that's easy money. But I'm not willing to risk chewed up edges.

We found an awesome supplier to use for already pre-cut (sheered) di-bond blanks the proper sizes and they were actually less expensive than buying sheets locally and having them cut down - then taking the time to file all edges on 40 pieces (total) both sides. They had my pieces cut and in transit with a tracking number within 2 hours of my order. Saved $50 and a couple hours filing Although I might lose a couple hours hand razoring vinyl off all four edges on every sign. Overall quality will be much better.

can you share supplier?

 

[2B]

can you share supplier?

+1

 

[SqueeGeeMonkee]

you can use a razor just score first

 

[splizaat]

you can use a razor just score first

Youtube video me that....I'd love to see it lol

 

[Shadowglen]

If the vinyl is down real good, I'd cut it on our Fletcher cutter. It cuts that stuff like butter.

What fletcher cutter do you use for this and what blade. I have a wall mount fletcher 3000 that we use in our frame shop for cutting glass it has 3 blade options Glass, acrylic, and a knife for mat and cardboard. I doubt it but would be interested to know If I could use this to cut with.

 

[Gino]

Here's the cutter. It can be wall mounted, but we like it better on it's own stand. We use it alot.

​

Here's a closeup of the blade. For aluminum composite and sheets, it uses a two wheel cutting mechanism. They have a name for this style, but I only know it works and could care less about the technical name. For what it's worth, we call it the dibond blade.

​

​

 

[johnnysigns]

I'd agree, the Fletcher goes right through that stuff w/ a nice edge afterward.

I'd CNC the sheet, but that's just us.

 

[CP Signs]

After so many years of using a table saw and cleaning the awful mess my good friend showed me a fast clean way. A straight edge and a good olfa knife. No need to apply too much pressure. Make your cut, and it snaps straight and clean. I love it.