Paneling Seams Together and not getting it crooked

[Texas_Signmaker]

When I do vertical panels, sometimes the panel gets off track and I end up having to "blend" in the text or artwork seams that don't match up perfectly. Like say the seam goes though the letter "T" and some of the top par of the T will be misaligned so I'll cut through the top layer where it overlaps to blend it in so it doesn't look like a hard misaligned line.

I never really know how it's going to go until it starts happening. I can spend 15 mins lining up the panel and it get off, and other times just half a min and it's straight. It hard to line up the bottoms because the graphic "grows" as you apply. Is there some trick to ensuring it stays on track?

 

[ironchef]

Seems like you got the just of it lol. That's the trick. I like to use 3m 180 over avery for that reason and the 480 stretches even less in the sun.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Seems like it's improbable to ever get it perfect. Say your working with a 100" panel, its hard to imagine that at the bottom it's going to "grow" the same the previous one did AND stay perfectly straight.

 

[DoubleDiamond]

Transfer tape eliminates this but it's often not practical. We try to keep the temp controlled and don't apply above 95 deg. If we need to align like you mention, I leave it unstuck about a foot above and align it. This pucker is only about 18" wide and a foot tall. I then use a little heat and work about half this pucker out and then what works for me is leaving it alone and every 5-10 minutes I work it in about 2" at a time while getting under it and pulling slightly. This usually works even with calendared. Another thing is if you do pull any vinyl back off while applying it... wait a minute so it shrinks back to original and then apply.

 

[2B]

try to be as consistent as possible, same strokes with the squeegee, same removal of the backing. that way when/if there is stretching it is at a similar rate

while it is ideal to work climate controlled, but when that is not possible be aware of the angle of the sun. you can work vinyl in hot temps when there is no sunlight shinning onto it.

 

[Jayefkay531]

Work with triangles when squeegeeing (is that really how it's spelled?) When you have the first 6-10 inches of the top of your panel set, line up the next point of registration (ideally more than a foot from your last squeegee line) and squeegee from the center down to your registration point. This will guarantee that your registration will be perfect. Then you will be left with a triangle to squeegee on the left/right side of your graphic (depending on what side you are aligning). Just work the vinyl down and if you have to use a bit of heat to shrink the last little bit, then so be it. This rarely fails and is extremely easy once you've done it once or twice.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I feel like correcting it after it is going just causes massive wrinkles... do you not get this in your method if your off?

 

[Jayefkay531]

I feel like correcting it after it is going just causes massive wrinkles... do you not get this in your method if your off?

As long as you start out close to your perfect point, there's never any wrinkles. We wrap all vehicles with 3M LX480 and on walls we use the IJ35C (it ruins the wall when it comes off, but most clients like the cheaper price and don't believe they will be rebranding within the next X years). With both vinyls, we rarely see wrinkles due to do shrinking/expanding properties of the vinyl with heat. If you have to move a point of registration by a full inch or so, you may end up with a wrinkle. However, I can take almost any seam from a half inch variance and end up with perfect registration and no wrinkles. The trick is to leave yourself plenty of space to line up the area. My ideal registration point is 12-18" lower than my last squeegeed position.

 

[Brink]

As everyone here seems to have pointed out in a round about way, the problem is due to the face that vinyl stretches. Getting it to stretch the same on both sides of the seam is kinda tricky. Things will will cause uneven stretching are: More heat on one side or the other. More ink on one side or the other. More pressure when squeegeeing on one side or the other. Experience is king. Nothing beats it.