New to routing - Metal Laminae Supplier

[Sign Star]

We are a digital sign company that is getting into doing our own custom routed lettering. I am trying to find vendors that sale the metal laminate finishes that go on top of the PVC. I searched the forums first but I may be using the wrong keywords. Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you!

-SS

 

[BigfishDM]

Try Fellers

 

[Typestries]

Check out commercial cabinet supply houses. Of course most formica and wilsonart you can also order through lowes.

 

[seattlesignguy]

metal laminate

Go to Ace hardware or your local hardware supplier and they will have metal laminates to choose from that most of the time have to get ordered in, but never took too long. I liked Wilsonart the best. A few things you should know:

1. If doing exterior work ORDER WITHOUT phenolic backer as this is a paper product used to make cheaper adhsives work better. This is a paper product and will swell and could cause issues downt the road.

2. Mount a good perminate 3M sheet adhesive (9786?) with a laminator and then use the laminator to mount the laminate, you get one chance since pulling off the metal will bend it and ruin the finish. CLEAN EVERYTHING FIRST

3. When using any laminate be careful about nesting your letters / logos in the job file, once installed a letter cut out of place to have better yield might look out of place on the wall becuase how it catches the light or the pattern not being consitant. Worst case: (I once had a bonehead that rotated a letter 90" when cutting brushed metal and didn't notice until I was 30' in the air installing)

4. Mask the face with a good med. tac application tape to potect during production.

5. Use a good router bit and I always liked to do two passes one thru the laminate + .125" of substrate and then secound pass to cut all the way thru.

 

[Dzrt1st]

I think what your looking for can be found at Chemetal or Wrisco.

http://www.chemetalco.com/

http://www.wrisco.com

Todd

 

[SignosaurusRex]

X2 for the Chemetal

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

i've always been fortunate enough to be able to find brushed or bright aluminum or gold at most supply houses. personally i prefer to laminate it to acrylic than pvc using a 3m sheet adhesive as mentioned below (there are a few options and I can not remember the product number off the top of my head but there is one that is used by manufacturing companies to mount 'badges' to cars, lawnmowers, etc..that is amazingly strong).

there are a few tricks to routing metal faced laminate letters so make sure you allow yourself some time for the trials and errors. myself i route them in reverse, metal side down and predrill my entry points by jogging through the job file cleaning off (removing the small bit of material) the router bit after each entry to avoid burrs and any scratching or other damage that they may cause.