Wes Phifer
New Member
Anybody ever try to use suction cups to handle acrylic up in the air out of a bucket truck? Like the glass places use. It looks like it would work, I am just not sure whether to trust it or not.
-
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 ...
Suction cups??
- Thread starter Wes Phifer
- Start date
Locals Find!
New Member
Why not try it on the ground before you take it up in the bucket attach a piece of acrylic and swing it around shake it up and down etc... see if it lets go. You can get those suction cups at lowes and then return them if it doesn't work.
Craig Sjoquist
New Member
Your local sign supplier should have Vise Grips with about 12" angle iron welded on plus rubber pads, get one or 2 of them, they grip solid, will not harm, easy to hook and lift with, and does not cost alot , besides they work.
petrosgraphics
New Member
craigs idea works real good, have made several of these for the service trucks..
as for the suction cups, they work if you need to move the face around within the sign
cabinet....
as for the suction cups, they work if you need to move the face around within the sign
cabinet....
showcase 66
New Member
Wont work. It has to much flexibility in the acrylic. Glass is more rigid and will hold up to the suction. Now if you are using a thick piece of acrylic (anything thicker than probably 1/2") then maybe.
Other things could also go wrong with a suction cup. If you put it over printed vinyl with laminate you could actually mess the area up. Did that on a job where we put a printed panel on 1" glass and we used the suction cups on the glass and ended up with 8" bubbles in the vinyl along with distortion.
Wes Phifer
New Member
That sounds good Craig but I have never seen them from a sign supply. I mostly order from N. Glantz. I'll ask my rep. If not I'll have to make some. Thanks for the idea. One man crews need a helping hand some times. LOL.
seesaw signs
New Member
We use Festool brand Geckos. Festool tools ROCK! Holds up composite sheet really well, you just have to make sure if its on cut vinyl that the pads are on one solid panel, no joins, as they lose the suction over a join. I wouldn't use them on anything too flexible but 4.5mm+ acrylic should be fine.
They make life so much easier when installing, especially when doing a load of panels up high, or lifting awkward sized sheets up ladders. We don't use them every day but they work a charm when we do.
CSDD, I've never had a problem with holding up laminated prints on composite sheet either, although maybe the adhesion between the composite sheet and the print was stronger than that between the print and glass, what do you reckon?
Cheers,
Neil.
They make life so much easier when installing, especially when doing a load of panels up high, or lifting awkward sized sheets up ladders. We don't use them every day but they work a charm when we do.
CSDD, I've never had a problem with holding up laminated prints on composite sheet either, although maybe the adhesion between the composite sheet and the print was stronger than that between the print and glass, what do you reckon?
Cheers,
Neil.
showcase 66
New Member
The piece of glass that we did the sign on was 5' x 12'. with 1" glass being approximately 13lbs/sf, so the piece weighed about 780lbs. This may have been the reason for our problem. This is the kind of suction cups we used as well. Have moved thousands of lbs of glass with them but only had a problem when we had the vinyl prints on it. (I owned a glass company for 3 years in the late 90's)
