Re-positioning acrylic pin-mounted letters

[Pewter0000]

Hey folks, I hope you're all well.

We've been tasked with removing some pin-mounted acrylic letters and re-positioning them to another building. We have made these previously, so we have the original vector files.

I can think of a few different ways to make a new template to mount them (reverse print the shapes, align the letters, put paper down, mark the pins, etc) but I feel like I'm over-complicating it. Aside from asking Gemini if they still have the template, how would you do this?

 

[MikePro]

plot the letter pattern and hand-mark the stud targets by placing letters with studs on paper.
if you can get the letter aligned and simple press on it, the studs will dent the paper enough for you to highlight/draw with a pen

 

[signheremd]

MikePro answered it. One tip, if you don't have a pen for your plotter get a Sharpie Twin Tip and use some masking tape to make the outside of it the right thickness for your plotter to hold it (centered), then send a cut to the plotter and it will trace the pattern.

 

[Pewter0000]

Ahh thanks folks!

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

• Pen plot/print the outline of your letters
• Cut down some studs to about 3/4” long and put these into the letters
• Place pattern and letters on top of some foamcore. Align letters to pattern
• Push down to dimple paper

presto. You have a very accurate template

 

[2B]

It depends on your capabilities and machines.

We found that it is easier for us to

• print the letter outlines onto a banner,
  
• cutting and filing a set of studs to points,
  
  • the longest part of the process is removing/installing the pointed studs for each letter

• place the banner onto a sacrificial surface,

• aligning the letters, and pressing through the banner

• take the banner to the job site for final installation

 

[Pewter0000]

What we ended up doing is reverse-printed the pattern on a piece of scrap vinyl, stuck it to our work table, and rolled out some mask sticky-side up on top of it to hold all the letters in place. Then we placed all the letters (no pins, just letters) and laid paper over it, and then poked into all of the pin holes to make the template. But I really like a lot of these techniques and I think depending on what the project is, any of them could be used.

Thanks everyone