Vinyl Ground on Dibond

[mbs]

I'm making some 42" x 56" dibond signs with text over different colored backgrounds. I am planning on using vinyl for the ground rather than painting it. I've mostly done smaller cut jobs, and don't have any experience laying down uncut vinyl at that size. Any advice?

I'm planning on using Oracal 8500 or 651 matte black (chosen for their finishes). My guess is to do it wet, with a big squeegee, going a bit larger than the blank and trimming it down. Any other tips / tricks? Is this something one can do solo, or is it a two person job to keep everything in order?

Thanks!

 

[Bigdawg]

Wet with the big squeegee is probably your best bet if you don't have a laminator. As far as 2 people or not... if you can reach over to squeegee the whole thing you would be fine on your own. It might be easier for you to lean the substrate up against the table instead of on it and wet apply from the top down. (yes you will have a wet mess underneath when done... plan accordingly.)

 

[Gino]

You can get dibond already black and it doesn't have a high gloss appearance, but somewhat of a satin look to it.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Blackburn composite panel comes matte black on one side and gloss black on the other.

 

[rossmosh]

You can get dibond already black and it doesn't have a high gloss appearance, but somewhat of a satin look to it.

This. Gloss black is easier to find, but if you're like most shops, you have 2-3 main suppliers. I'd bet one of them carries matte black. Alumet for example does matte black and Dibond does as well. Not sure about any other brands.

 

[mbs]

Wet with the big squeegee is probably your best bet if you don't have a laminator. As far as 2 people or not... if you can reach over to squeegee the whole thing you would be fine on your own. It might be easier for you to lean the substrate up against the table instead of on it and wet apply from the top down. (yes you will have a wet mess underneath when done... plan accordingly.)

Thanks! This is super helpful.

 

[mbs]

This. Gloss black is easier to find, but if you're like most shops, you have 2-3 main suppliers. I'd bet one of them carries matte black. Alumet for example does matte black and Dibond does as well. Not sure about any other brands.

Thanks! I'll look into this. I'm going to be working with background colors other than black, so even if I can track down matte black, I'll have to tackle the process for the other colors.