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Tile as a substrate

sagesign

New Member
Here is a sign I did a few years ago with slate tiles as a background. Made an aluminum frame and attached dibond to that. Mounted tiles to dibond. Gemini custom copper letters with an acrylic outline/background. Heavy as hell!
 

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SignManiac

New Member
I've only used it for facing a monument sign. Here's one I did using an imported Italian tile. The only problem I had working with it was drilling into it for my studs to mount the dimensional lettering. This crap was extremely hard to drill into.
 

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SignManiac

New Member
Adhesive can work but, over the years I've always used both mechanical and adhesive for extra insurance. It the glue should fail, then you have the studs as back up.
 

Tony Teveris

New Member
I have seen a number of tile jobs printed on the Gerber ion, single prints on a single tile or an entire image spread over a large number of tiles. Looks cool.
 

SignManiac

New Member
I'm pretty sure the Spanish and many others have been decorating tile for thousands of years. It's a pretty old technology.
 

tcorn1965

New Member
Anyone ever use tile as a substrate? i put up a new tile backsplash this weekend and the whole time I was doing it I was thinking what an interesting array of possibilities...
So what would you do - print directly on the tile? Can you do that via sublimation? Could you apply vinyl? Maybe apply vinyl to raw tile and then use an automotive clearcoat, and then install?

We print on them. They are ceramic so would work good for a back splash or wall, I would not use for floor because that should be porcelain only. If you look at that back of the tiles it has the grooves for the thinset, I would be careful with the grout though as not to touch the printed area, as well when doing the final buff to remove plaque_filmstrip.jpg hazing.

Terry
 
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