Property sign for my block of flats

Projects
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Posting this so I can hold myself accountable to finish it :wink:

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 :joy: 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 :smiley: 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? (:heart: 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?
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In fact you know what, here’s an anonymised version of the sign.
sign-anonymised

(red for cut, black for engrave (will do fill engrave rather than path - going to have to learn how to do that in Ruby)

If you get the reference - congratz :banana:

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You know you can get two coloured acrylic ie black with white sandwiched and you just engrave the black off

I have had good results with milliput white,red,yellow or grey epoxy putty

Engrave on black acrylic rub the putty in the holes and rinse off with water. All of these signs were done this way

Here’s

IMG_2692
IMG_2692.jpeg4032×3024 1.88 MB

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Ooh does that sandwich laminated sheet stuff have a brand name ? Not sure how to google it :smiley:

I found the reverse engrave troglass stuff which also seems like a similar idea (except you engrave the black off from the back).

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Ah found it - TroLase is one. It’s quite expensive :sweat_smile: definitely looks nice but I think I’d have a to do a few more signs to make it worth it haha.

Epoxy putty sounds like it might do very well though :smiley:

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You could also laser cut 2-3mm acrylic and then back it with a different colour yourself

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  • 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?
    No. We do have a LOT of clear (9mm?)

  • if not I’ll probably grab some from Hamar, if they’re still doing offcuts for cheap)
    They do.

  • 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’d also like to know the answer!

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I popped to Hamar and got a good few bits that are perfect for this project! :slight_smile:

Might give a couple of techniques a go and see how they turn out.

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Managed to cut and engrave this this afternoon and got some milliput epoxy putty on the way to try that out first ! If I do a bad job I’ve got some more off cuts to try with.

@lewisss any tips for applying the putty ? Just gloves and a credit card do the job and wipe off any excess before it cures ?

Found some standoffs on Amazon - getting them locally was going to be stupid shipping (more than the standoffs themselves :frowning: )

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