French Cleat - Second Surface Acrylic

[Tessellate]

Looking for some recommendations. We would like to adhere some 3/4” Baltic birch French cleats to the backside of some second surface acrylic.

We first laser cut 9mm clear cast acrylic. We then reverse print on clear the graphic and back it with a blockout white vinyl. This all gets mounted second surface to the clear acrylic. Client is looking for a floating fastener-less product. Is there an adhesive you would recommend for the wood to vinyl? Or perhaps use z-clips for aluminum to vinyl?

Let me know how your shops have succeeded with this in the past!

 

[CanuckSigns]

My experience with reverse mounted vinyl on acrylic is that the vinyl will eventually pull away from the acrylic where the tape/cleat is and leave a horrible looking bubble. The best way around this is to direct print on the acrylic.

 

[Billct2]

How about mounting the panel with tape to another panel which has the cleats? You could even use acrylic for the backer and the cleats and bond cleats with resinbond.

 

[rossmosh]

Instead of the block out white vinyl, try mounting a piece of PVC/Sintra to act like the block out. Then you can attach the cleat to that or route/cut the hanger right into the PVC.

 

[Tessellate]

I hear yea about the pulling of the vinyl. That was my concern. Thoughts on backing a piece of ACP with mounting adhesive and attaching the cleats to that with construction adhesive?


Great Idea about mounting directly to the PVC. We can mount to 1/2” and route keyholes into the piece just shy of pass though. I’ll have to keep that one in mind!

A+ work mate.

 

[iam808]

I've done this twice...because the first time it failed. Fairly large panels.

The second time I mounted 1/8" PVC to the back of the acrylic and then cut my cleats out of 3/4" PVC and glued it together with PVC glue. Signs have been up for a few years now in a high traffic area with no issues. This design gets heavy so I also suggest a cleat or at least a block at the bottom of the sign to help support weight.

 

[litewave]

Might be a million combinations on this.

Flush head studs Into a thin aluminium plate could work.

Ms polymer glues are pretty good.

If you want to know which vinyls or other materials are best for 'adherence' ask for data on "surface energy" or get some of these expensive pens...

https://dynetesting.com/surface-energy-measurement/

 

[Tessellate]

What did you use to mount the PVC onto the vinyl backed acrylic?

I've done this twice...because the first time it failed. Fairly large panels.

The second time I mounted 1/8" PVC to the back of the acrylic and then cut my cleats out of 3/4" PVC and glued it together with PVC glue. Signs have been up for a few years now in a high traffic area with no issues. This design gets heavy so I also suggest a cleat or at least a block at the bottom of the sign to help support weight.

 

[iam808]

Like JBurton wrote, I used a full coverage, double sided tape adhesive. Similar to the 3M467MP but from a local supplier.

It's also worth mentioning that if the panels are large enough, they will bow. You may need to put a center block across the middle to keep it flat. I actually built a frame out of PVC which really made a difference. My panels where something like 32" x 72"