Need Magnetic Sign advice for V-carved signs

[ckurak]

Greetings,

I have a project where I will be V-carving 400 name plates in solid surface material. I know how to carve and finish the plates. I will be using Typesetter for the engraving. The samples came out great. Where I need help is mounting them.

The client wants to use magnetic strips on the back of each plate to mount them to a wall display. There are two wall displays, each is 5' x 5'. Each of the individual plates are 8.5" wide by varying heights (1", 1.5", 2", 3", etc.).

Two questions:

1) What type of metal sheet should be attached to the wall displays(made of wood) and how should they be attached? I am thinking along the lines of sheet metal attached with contact cement. Where would one typically find a 5'x5' piece of sheet metal? (Well, I guess it could be several smaller pieces as long as they mount flush, since they will be covered by the name plates.) Any other, or better, thoughts?

2) What type and how to attach magnets to the back of each plate. My thought is to use the "peel and stick magnets" that can be attached to the back of a business card. I can get thin ones (0.030") from one of the local office supply super stores for about $0.25 each. I think that they would cut easily, one magnet could be cut in half length-wise, and the two parts used on each end of the 8.5" long plate. Any other, or better, ideas on this?

Thanks in advance,

Charles

[billp]

Charles,
You might want to look at some of those smaller ' button' type magnets which are sold by Lee Valley tools, etc. they are VERY powerful, and all you'd have to do is cut a small hole in the back of your material as a socket for them.

[ckurak]

Thanks, Bill. On your suggestion, I just checked Lee Valley's website.

Lee Valley has 1/4" x 1/10" rare earth magnets that sell for $0.19 in quantities. A 1/4" Forstner bit in a drill press with the depth set to 1/10+" should make easy work of this. I am guessing 2 buttons per each 8.5" long plate would hold it very well. The plates would sit flush as opposed to my idea of the peel and stick magnet. A little bit of epoxy should hold them in place? Or, is there another adhesive that would be easier and work with solid surface material? Cyanoacrylate?

[billp]

Charles,
Epoxy will certainly work, but you can probably also use a dab of silicone as well. The hole should be rough enough from the drill bit to have some ' tooth' to it, so I think it comes down to the easiest adhesive to handle. Epoxy might mean mixing up a batch and doing a bunch at one sitting, while you could ' glop as you go' with silicone...

[simon]

Charles
Signwriters supply companies that sell vinyl by the metre usually stock magnetic vinyl for making vehicle magnetic signs. It is available 2 feet wide by any length, about 0.8mm thick. This stuff is easily cut with a knife, is flexible and rubbery, can be incorporated onto your material before they are cut on the bot, having been glued with a decent spray adhesive.
Simon

[robert_cheal]

This is not exactly related to Charles project but might prove interesting for some of you, this company: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/ -does not have peel & stick magnets but they do have some cool magnetic items. For a recent tradeshow display I used mounting magnets with a threaded shaft and a bolt for a hook to display scrapbook packets. The display walls were curved metal
(22 ga.) panels with a curved wood frame. The hooks worked great, giving the client every kind of display freedom with rare earth mounting magnets that held firmly in place. It was fun cutting the curved components & mortising for the cam locks with the ShopBot. This forumn is great, I always enjoy hearing everyones ideas.

[davidallen]

If you do need to use a couple of pieces of metal for the display, you may want to apply it in a number of strips instead of one or two odd sized patches.
Maybe strips a couple of inches wide so the joints look like lines on a page?

da

[ckurak]

Hi, David.

The metal would be completely covered by the engraved plates. However, I do think that applying it in a number of strips may be easier anyway. Smaller strips should be easier to obtain and install than larger pieces. I'm also thinking contact cement here. Thanks for the idea!

Another idea that I ran across was "magnetic paint." Now, the paint is not really magnetic. The paint does have iron in it. Thus, magnets will work on the painted surface. Has anyone used this? Would the combination of magnets and this paint be strong enough to securely hold the name plates?

Charles