Tips for wrapping routered corners??

[Reaction GFX]

Let me preface this by saying I don't do wraps.

I have a customer that has 5 of these small drop boxes that he wants partially wrapped. Wrapping the four flat sides is a no-brainer. The challenge is wrapping the front panel, which is basically a hinged door with rounded edges. The boxes are made from MDF with a melamine laminate. Those familiar with using a router know that when rounding edges and you get to a 90 degree corner, you're going to end up with that hard edge going down the center of the corner, if that makes sense. Perhaps my photos will adequately show what I mean. The corner on the left I attempted to wrap smoothly by applying a little heat with a heat gun. It started to go down okay, but the further down I got, the more excess vinyl I had to deal with. Ended up heating too much, stretching too much, color got messed up, have a few small wrinkles, and I still have a small wad of vinyl there that just wouldn't shrink up enough to go away. The other corner I did a relief cut, poorly, so now you can see some of the white underneath. This is really just a test to see if I can actually do this. Is it even possible to smoothly wrap a corner like this or am I relegated to making a relief cut in each corner? Either way, any tips anyone might be able to share with me as to the best way to approach this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Vinyl is IJ180CV3, with an Arlon cast overlaminate.

 

[petepaz]

haven't done that before but i think you have two options, a seam with an over lap or just heat and stretch the right amount right over. you may have some trial and error to go through but once you get the right combo of stretch and heat you should be ok. just don't be real aggressive with it. be gentle

 

[Snydo]

A technique similar to the one in this video may help you.

[video=youtube;LFEvctCEYq8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFEvctCEYq8[/video]

 

[toucan_graphics]

heat and stretch is the method I would use..... I would not try to use calendared vinyl for this application or you will get what I think I am seeing in the photos.... splitting or wrinkles on the ridge-lines.

I have actually done a few items similar to this and it isn't all that different from wrapping a side mirror on a car. I was wrapping fairly small items and doing it without a 2nd person, so I actually made a stretching jig from an old silk screening frame. I stuck the vinyl in the corner of the frame and stretched the vinyl with one hand and heated with the other until the vinyl was fully stretched and the frame held everything in place until it cooled. I then began wrapping the items and only heating when absolutely needed. Once I was done and everything looked good, I post-heated the finished item and I was done.

Here is a video that shows the process on a vehicle mirror but the process is practically identical whether it is a vehicle mirror, a dresser face or any odd shaped item. Hope this helps.

https://youtu.be/AtcM-m2NUuA

 

[DirtyD]

If you have enough excess material around all four corners you should be fine to just heat and stretch just a little.. It sounds and looks like not enough bleed (excess material around the perimeter)

 

[Reaction GFX]

I tried the barrel method, but for whatever reason, I couldn't get the vinyl to droop. I had my heat gun on high and was applying heat for a good 3 minutes, but then I went to push my piece through the vinyl I could instantly tell the vinyl wasn't soft enough. I don't know if my heat gun isn't getting hot enough or if it's my vinyl...this particular test was using unprinted IJ180 with 8519 lam. The guy in that video was using 380 with a different lam. I got frustrated and gave up after three tries. (This is why I don't do wraps...I have ZERO patience when it comes to stuff like this!)

As far as just heating and stretching and pulling the vinyl over the corner, this piece is going to have a printed image on it (I'm guessing something photographic) so how can I stretch the vinyl without distorting the image? To top it all off, there are hinges and a metal strip on the back of this piece, so it doesn't sit flat and it's only about 6"x12", so it's relatively small. It's impossible to hold the piece and heat/stretch the vinyl at the same time...and since it doesn't sit flat, I can't really clamp it to a table. I'm going to have to think about this some more and maybe give it a few more tries...but I'm just about done trying unless someone has some magical advice for me...

 

[Zac]

I tried the barrel method, but for whatever reason, I couldn't get the vinyl to droop. I had my heat gun on high and was applying heat for a good 3 minutes, but then I went to push my piece through the vinyl I could instantly tell the vinyl wasn't soft enough. I don't know if my heat gun isn't getting hot enough or if it's my vinyl...this particular test was using unprinted IJ180 with 8519 lam. The guy in that video was using 380 with a different lam. I got frustrated and gave up after three tries. (This is why I don't do wraps...I have ZERO patience when it comes to stuff like this!)

As far as just heating and stretching and pulling the vinyl over the corner, this piece is going to have a printed image on it (I'm guessing something photographic) so how can I stretch the vinyl without distorting the image? To top it all off, there are hinges and a metal strip on the back of this piece, so it doesn't sit flat and it's only about 6"x12", so it's relatively small. It's impossible to hold the piece and heat/stretch the vinyl at the same time...and since it doesn't sit flat, I can't really clamp it to a table. I'm going to have to think about this some more and maybe give it a few more tries...but I'm just about done trying unless someone has some magical advice for me...

Get a handheld torch and practice with scrap material. Trust me IJ180 will get plenty soft to wrap anything. You can even heat it until it's smoking (not burning) and that's pretty much it's breaking point. Of course you don't have to get it that hot but if your heat gun won't even get it smoking you're probably just being a bit timid.

For wrapping corners, make sure you have a good amount of excess so that you have a "handle" to grab ahold of to stretch around it. All of your distortion should be limited to the outside of the corner/the grabbing area, with very minimal stretching on the actual corner part. One trick is to heat the excess, not necessarily the corner part that's going to lay on the substrate, if that makes sense, and that will allow your vinyl to travel around with relative ease. The vinyl is going to travel/shrink toward the heat, so you may be heating it too close to the substrate if you're even heating it enough at all. Hope that makes sense!