sandwiching print in acrylic

[biznet]

Have a designer who envisions floating an informational sign between 2 pieces of 1/2 inch acrylic. The bottom part would be a graphic and the upper 2/3 of the sign would be text, reverse printed on clear vinyl. This would then be mounted to a 1/2 inch acrylic sheet. Another sheet of acrylic would then be adhered to the back and lightly sandblasted. The idea is to have the printed image seemingly floating inside a inch solid sheet.
I can see some of the problems, such as trapped air bubbles but wondered if anyone has previously done something like this and how it turned out. Another concern is how long this would last in an outdoor environment as the printing would be done with a Roland Versacam and exposed to indirect sunlight
All info greatly appreciated

 

[Mosh]

Moisture will get in there and fog the whole thing up, been there done that (if it is outside). Use one sheet and print it second surface.

 

[Rooster]

I did some footpads for a video game recently that were front printed on backlit film and then applied an adhesive over the printed surface and laminated it to the back of some .375" clear lexan sheets. Worked like a charm. All you'd need to do is substitute the backlit film for another media and then figure out how you're going to get the back piece to go down without air bubbles. I can't see 1/2" acrylic wanting to mate with another piece of 1/2" acrylic without some air bubbles getting caught. It would be too stiff and too thick to run through my laminator.

The finished pieces looked awesome. Like they had a 3/8" thick gloss coating on them. If you can pull it off it should look great.

 

[biznet]

Have decided to pass on the job. I'm a little leary of attempting to glue the 2 sheets of 1/2 inch acrylic together and do the job to the customers expectations.
The overall idea is interesting though and I'm going to try some smaller scale pieces just to satisfy my own curiousity
thanks for the info.
peter

 

[Bigdawg]

Well... we print out a bunch of prints - on a clear PET film - that are set up exactly like you are talking about... we do them for recognitionart.com - take a look - they do it every day.

 

[mark galoob]

i did a job that we printed directly to the back of the plexi face up using a flat bed printer...looks like its floating...very proffessional look.

mark galoob