Cutting Acrylic the same size as the backing

[Delirium]

Hello,

I have a Fletcher FSC and i want to cut dibond or sintra for the backing of my acrylic.
I tried it many times and i must say it is really hard to cut the dibond or sintra the same size as the acrylic.

I went to Photokina 2012 and i received a sample (company: White Wall) of an acrylic with a dibond backing. And it was 100% aligned, clean. I think the big companies cut it with a cnc router or contour router.
But does somebody know how to do it for less money. I hope you can help me. It would be nice if i can fix the problem with my fletcher.

Second problem with the fletcher is that the sides of the acrylic are beveled and little scratched after breaking the acrylic. The acrylic thickness is 3mm so i cut it 3 times so i don't know how it comes. Do i have to change the blade?

The Fletcher is a really nice cutter but i'm disappointed for the acrylics.



Thx for you time and info!

[Delirium]

Nobody ?

[Graysalchemy]

CNC router or a wall mounted panel saw is what you need. Acrylic needs to be cut not snapped and quite often they will polish the edges as well.

[stcstc]

i have mine cut on a router, and this doesnt give a clean enough finish, so all edges are diamond polished

any sign company doing plastic fabrication should have the kit to do it for you

a desktop diamond polisher costs about 12k so not something you gonna wanna buy unless you doing huge volumes

[Martin Harrold]

While we were exhibiting at Photokina recently, we spent a little time looking at some of the 'framed' work on display around the enormous show. Much was simply mounted onto di-bond and hung from a sub-frame bonded to the back.

The classy stuff, as on White Wall, Saal and similar, had the image sandwiched between the acrylic and the di-bond. As discussed here, it is very difficult to get the edges of the two materials percfectly smooth. The only way is to rout them.

I know that Saal use a very expensive CMC router. As 365 says, these all tend to give a mat finish edge which is acceptable to most. Diamond polishing gives a gloss, but at a cost.

The market for this type of graphic presentation is strong and growing, so obviously we are looking around for suitable tools and equipment. We had the Zapcut portable panel saw here at our recent Famer's Workshop day, but that did not have a router fitted.

Claus was also here from Dan-List. We discovered that he makes a quality wall mounted panel saw and he is already experimenting with a router fitment. There are all sorts of issues which need to be tested and ironed out, but he will have something suitable early in 2013. Cost will be around £5k.

I looked at the Machine Mart catalogue, but they only had a small machine. One problem is how to reference the material to ensure that you keep the finished item square and trim off what is needed and no more.

I'll be watching here for ideas!

[stcstc]

i actually much prefer 3mm black arylic as the back anyway rather than the diabond or acm

now i have heard of people mounting the print and bonding the bother the panels together and then diamond polish the sandwich

but to do this the person operating the diamond polisher needs to be very good

i have experimented a little with very fine sanding on a desktop beltsander and then linishing, it can get ok results but not as sharp , the edges are rounded slightly by the linishing

[The Crofter]

You could always build your own. I made this to cut ACP and get round the edge distortion created when cutting with the Keen Cut. The base is two sheets of sealed 25mm mdf and incorporates a vacuum bed powered by my dust extractor. Vacuum system very simple and uses neoprene strips to create small areas that are triggered by the panel pushing down a spring loaded ball bearing. Steel slide system built from CNC components on ebay. Total cost around £200 (I think) + router. More details/pics available if anyone interested.

_PC29377.jpg (90.35 KiB) Viewed 8001 times

[stcstc]

i would be interested in your setup

what size can you cut, can you cut 1220 piece wide?

would be interested in how the thing is built etc,

[Martin Harrold]

The Crofter clearly does more than croft! There is some very clever thinking and fine engineering there.

[Not your average framer]

Wow, That's impressive. What a nice piece of kit!

[prospero]

Amazing what you can do with a few pieces of wood a bit of you-know-what in the head department.

[The Crofter]

Thanks all.

Things have taken an interesting twist since I posted the picture, watch this space...!

[Graysalchemy]

I have just looked at your website Crofter

I spent three of my formative years on the west coast and have always hankered to go back, give up picture framing and suburbia, but then what would i do picture framing?

Well done

[The Crofter]

It is a great part of the world but being remote does have a price, especially for a picture framer. I have done very little for the last few years mainy due to lack of suitable commercial space in Kinlochbervie. I took the unit on last March and being able to exhibit my own pics is now leading to many requests for framing. I will probably start up again after xmas (no time/funds at present) but this time keeping an eye on better stock control. Oh for the luxury of a passing van to deliver a stick of moulding !. The combination of minimum quantity orders for moulding/mountboard and delivery charges can make things expensive. This has to be offset against what people up here can/will pay which is generally less than in Inverness. I think that keeping half a dozen combinations in stock will cover a lot of requests. Anything else can be on chop which of course increases the price. Glass is a nightmare, last quote a few years ago was £12/sheet for std float.

[Graysalchemy]

I was about to say how to you get glass

When I lived in Kishorn 20 yrs ago you could get a guy Merve the Swerve to pick stuff up from Inverness for you but I don't think glass would have survived in the back of his van.

If I was doing what you are doing i would keep a core range of mount board and mouldings and perhaps do some simple hand finishes on plain woods.

[IFGL]

merve the swerve I hope that's not what he had on his business card, sounds like a sexual deviant

[Graysalchemy]

No it was they way he drove his van .

On the west coast most of the roads are single track with passing points. His aim was to never have to stop at a passing point.

[The Crofter]

We often meet drivers like that but it helps to have a Land Rover with a few dents in it....

A few years ago I made the round trip down to Cambridge to collect 100 sheets of glass plus mountboard etc from a framer packing up. I made a bespoke carrier for the back of the car and managed to get the whole lot up here without breaking a sheet. Two years ago I tried the same trick wth another framer 15 miles away, the glass was free I just had to move it. This time I used a van and did not do such a good job with the carrier. About a mile out there was a loud crunch from the back, could not open the side door but could see the chaos from the back. Turned round and went to the skip. Took about an hour to remove the glass, half broken but had to smash the other half to get it out. 100 sheets, lots of swearing. Turns out one of the restraining ratchet straps had broken. The reason not to use the Landy carrier - full sized sheets that won't fit. In hindsight a few hours with a glass cutter would have been a good investment....

As you say plain moulding & different finishes is probably the way to go. Ash used to be a favourite but unpredictable grain meant a lot of waste, Obeche seems to be the next best bet.

[Graysalchemy]

Ash can be hit and miss however I quite like the dark bits running through as long as you can get some sort of consistency at the joints. however I have found a lot of inconsistency with actual quality of the milling of the wood, sometimes it is full of tears and chips in the wood which are not apparent until you have jointed and waxed or painted, which means more wastage and wasted time.

Obeche can be a better option though.

[Roboframer]

Life's obeche and then you dye