Posting this so I can hold myself accountable to finish it
Earlier this year, my block of flats had an uninsured driver crash into the front wall. Apart from being an admin disaster (6 months later we’re still dealing with it), we had to completely rebuild the wall. One of the side effects of this is that now we no longer have the sign telling people what number we are, and so we keep missing deliveries!
I looked into getting one made - and then realised that I’m more than capable of making one myself with a much shorter lead time (one company quoted me 2 months!!). Also most of them are just cut vinyl stuck to an acrylic backing which I feel like won’t stand years of the elements (I don’t want to replace these any time soon).
I’ve got a design (approved by the other residents) sketched up in inkscape, ready to cut. Obviously can’t share it as it’s personal information I’m going to make two, and they’ll be about 300x200mm, probably 5mm gloss black or grey cast Perspex with the text engraved into it. By the sounds of it the lens in the laser might be a bit suboptimal so might hold off till we have a better one installed
Depending on how it comes out, I might also paint the engraved text with white enamel paint to give it better contrast.
Couple of questions for y’all:
- Anyone know a good place to get nice secure mounting standoffs/screws for signs?
- Do we have any gloss black acrylic in the materials shop? (
love that that is still a thing after helping to messily set it up years ago!) (I might pop in this evening to test my fob and check for myself… if not I’ll probably grab some from Hamar, if they’re still doing offcuts for cheap)
- Any tips on what paint would work well for this? I’ve got some Humbrol paint enamel paint but wondered if there’s another kind that would work better.
- I have a large sheet of clear perspex to test with that needs cutting down to fit into the laser - is anyone able to help me with that?