• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Mounting Acrylic Printed Second Surface without Hardware or Studs?

DamonBoost

New Member
Printing Direct Second Surface and then mounting to drywall without studs or fasteners?

Quick question, looking for solutions or ideas for a solution. In the photos attached we back printed (second surface) this acrylic for direct mounting onto a Brushed ACM panel (pictured in photos). We also have projects like this where we would like to mount it to a wall without stud/hardware mounting.

In all of the instances below the adhesive and/or tape always ended up showing artifacts in the acrylic and visible. This is what we have tried and our experiences:

A) UV printing direct second surface to acrylic. Print then covered with 3M Blockout 3635. Acrylic piece then bonded to ACM panel (adhesive / tapes direct to blockout vinyl, NOT PRINT) with various different methods: VHB tape, Silicone, Blue Foamboard Adhesive. All failed and showed through.

Some of the tapes and adhesives showed through or their reaction showed through within hours, some within days. But they all caused some sort of reaction or movement that was visible from the face of the acrylic.

We finally got it to work using the blockout and then backing it with 3M 467MP mounting adhesive but the mounting adhesive would not work on drywall for example because the wall is not going to be perfectly flat. I am hoping to use something like VHB tape.

Any of you experts out there use a method where I can print on second surface and then mount that acrylic print to drywall without hardware or studs?

Thank you all in advance.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6392.JPG
    IMG_6392.JPG
    765.2 KB · Views: 434
  • IMG_6393.JPG
    IMG_6393.JPG
    716.7 KB · Views: 304

d fleming

New Member
In the application shown maybe you could use the acrylic as backer and push thru routed acm panel for graphic. Then you could affix a mounting system of choice, tape, studs, screws etc, to acrylic that would be hidden by backer.
 
We use an optically clear second perm/perm adhesive (the kind of second surface print mounting) to mount the printed sheet of acrylic to a sheet of blank acrylic before routing. This has worked really well for us so far using a wide variety of mounting methods - even pin mounting! The rolls of clear mounting adhesive are WAY less expensive than the 467mp or other 3M VHB tapes. I've used this for a ton of interior installations, and a few exterior ones (but not many) and haven't had any failures yet.
 

DamonBoost

New Member
We use an optically clear second perm/perm adhesive (the kind of second surface print mounting) to mount the printed sheet of acrylic to a sheet of blank acrylic before routing. This has worked really well for us so far using a wide variety of mounting methods - even pin mounting! The rolls of clear mounting adhesive are WAY less expensive than the 467mp or other 3M VHB tapes. I've used this for a ton of interior installations, and a few exterior ones (but not many) and haven't had any failures yet.

Jake, do you have a link or any other information on the "optically clear second perm/perm adhesive" you use? We are using the 467mp on this project but I would love to find a less expensive option that works just as good! Thank you in advance!
 
Jake, do you have a link or any other information on the "optically clear second perm/perm adhesive" you use? We are using the 467mp on this project but I would love to find a less expensive option that works just as good! Thank you in advance!

I buy the old AGFA adhesive through GrimCo...it's not on the website any longer, but they still have stock. Will need to find a new glue at some point, but it's still around for now.
Sentinel OptiClear w/PermRL 51x150FT Adhesive (1055016). A roll is $400-500, so it's not like it's CHEAP, but it's definitely less expensive the the 467mp.

We use the 467mp for small things that are going through the laser, but we use the optically clear glue on anything that's a bit large that's going to be routed.
 
Top