Roll up / slat door vinyl install tips

[Pat Whatley]

That would be my thinking, as well. It shouldn't be very difficult to line up at all.

30 slats per door. If you're off 1/64" by the time you get to the bottom slat you're screwed. If the doors have a little wear on them you're screwed. If the metal has expanded or contracted just a hair because of heat you're screwed. If you're plotter pinch rollers have a little uneven wear on them you're screwed.


Quick, cheap, easy suggestion. Take an x-acto knife apart. Take that little crosshaired chuck piece, run a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade into it to make the slots wider. Take a #11 blade and place a #16 blade on each side of it. Stick them in the knife, put the knife back together, go to war with your new triple bladed groove monster.

The #11 blade will ride in the groove between the slats, the shorter #16 blades will cut the vinyl on each side of the slat. If you need the spacing wider shim between the blades with little strips of card stock.

Patent pending.


Edit: Man, I'd forgotten about these things.

 

[Andy D]

Edit: Man, I'd forgotten about these things.

Yeah pat, I think that's the type I was talking about earlier, I was looking for that, thanks.

 

[J Hill Designs]

Quick, cheap, easy suggestion. Take an x-acto knife apart. Take that little crosshaired chuck piece, run a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade into it to make the slots wider. Take a #11 blade and place a #16 blade on each side of it. Stick them in the knife, put the knife back together, go to war with your new triple bladed groove monster.

The #11 blade will ride in the groove between the slats, the shorter #16 blades will cut the vinyl on each side of the slat. If you need the spacing wider shim between the blades with little strips of card stock.

Patent pending.
.

an extremely less crude example of what I was talking about

 

[player]

30 slats per door. If you're off 1/64" by the time you get to the bottom slat you're screwed. If the doors have a little wear on them you're screwed. If the metal has expanded or contracted just a hair because of heat you're screwed. If you're plotter pinch rollers have a little uneven wear on them you're screwed.


Quick, cheap, easy suggestion. Take an x-acto knife apart. Take that little crosshaired chuck piece, run a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade into it to make the slots wider. Take a #11 blade and place a #16 blade on each side of it. Stick them in the knife, put the knife back together, go to war with your new triple bladed groove monster.

The #11 blade will ride in the groove between the slats, the shorter #16 blades will cut the vinyl on each side of the slat. If you need the spacing wider shim between the blades with little strips of card stock.

Patent pending.

Instead of a blade in the middle, use a guitar pick. They come inn different sizes, shapes, thickness, materials and hardness. It might glide through the crack easier, and you remove 1 strip not 2.

 

[Billct2]

I really like the idea of a centerboard to keep it on track

 

[McDonald Signs]

We just did this fire truck with some striping on these roll up aluminum doors. Just Applied stripe decals normally in one piece then trimmed BOTH top and bottom of each slat with a sharp exacto knife
turned slightly down on top of the slat and slightly up on the bottom of each slat so decals wouldn't peel when rolled up. Went thru alot of exacto blades and it was time consuming on this job but it worked. Slitting in between slats
and tucking would make the decals peel later on.