I printed the front and back sheets/panels. Fronts were laser printed on the HP paper, and backs inkjet on the National Geographic paper. I trimmed all the panels. After some experiments with the glues, I decided to use the 3M with the laser printed front sheets and assembled the front of the sign. I taped the 4 panels together first so I’d only have to deal with aligning one (large) piece as I stuck it on the plastic backing. I used a wallpaper seam roller to try to get the best adhesion possible.
It’s just about 30″ wide. I haven’t glued the back panels on yet.
It looks great just sitting there (although I did blow the spacing between the r and the k), but I’m troubled about how to hang it and how to protect the panels from the weather. I did find an aluminum panel big enough to back (almost) the whole thing. If I had waterproof glue I was confident in, I could just glue the plate to the back, letting it extend above the sign itself, and drill holes for mounting in the plate without penetrating the sign. I could either abandon the back or put those panels on another sheet of the corrugated plastic and glue that to the other side of the aluminum panel. That seems like a lot of work for a side nobody sees.
I’m not confident the spray coating will provide enough protection, and I’m not very confident at all that it will adhere to the oversprayed adhesive on the parts of the sign plastic backing that’s not covered by the panels. And I’m still toying with covering it with clear vinyl or something. Ugh.
More as I decide what to do…