• 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 ...

Laminating .040 Brushed Aluminum to Acrylic

Vamp Graphics

New Member
What is the best way to laminate these 2 materials. Im using Cast Acrylic 1/4" and trying to laminate some .040 Aluminum to it.
Also what is the best CNC bit to use for this process. What Feed Rate and RPMs to go with the bit and material combo.
I have been making a tone of carved signs but for some reason I cant seem to get the lamination to stay bonded to the acrylic while its cutting. It keeps popping off.

Any advice with this will help greatly.
Thank you in advance

Adam
 

rjssigns

Active Member
Why go through all that trouble trying to stick two incompatible materials together? Acrylic and aluminum have very different expansion/contraction rates. Just buy DiBond or AluPanel with the brushed aluminum face. No worries.
 

letterman7

New Member
Probably because he's looking for a specific look. Not enough info, though - what are you using as a bonding agent? How small a letter are you trying to cut? Everything has it's limits. If it's really small stuff you may not have any luck trying to rout it as a laminate.
 
I have done this with Sintra and 040 brushed alum to put on a router. Get some 6" Banner Tape and apply it to your acrylic cut to desired size. Get your brushed alum and cut it to size. peel the banner tape backing. Then get some 1" pvc and lay them vertically across your sheet of acrylic. depending on the size of material determines how many you will need. You want to keep the 040 from touching the acrylic/banner tape. Keep your ends in about 8". Line up Alum then staring on one side, start tacking the alum to acrylic, then pull out each pvc one at a time push the material down from the center out. Once you get to the end run it through you laminator.
 

MikePro

New Member
contact cement
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2013-04-30 at 8.51.54 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2013-04-30 at 8.51.54 AM.png
    49.6 KB · Views: 191
Top