Aluminum faced foam board

[toych]

Hi folks, I have customer that wants a logo and some lettering cut from aluminum faced foam.

I was wondering how any of you with experience cutting this product go about it.

I have cut 3" PVC faced foam, Alupanel/Dibond and some .04" brushed aluminum with good results.

I am concerned about the aluminum seperating from the foam, I just installed an existing sign and lettering for a company that moved here and the aluminum was coming off of the foam in places. I was thinking of cutting it face down if my Al bit is long enough.

I have Belin bits for foam and Al. But have no idea what brand of product is going to be dropped off here.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Darren

[wcsg]

I would laminate alum to PVC then cut, I've never been a big fan of the styrene alum look.

[Brady Watson]

Darren,
I've cut a lot of Gator/AL letters. You need a good quality contact adhesive to laminate the two - or you can use ultra-tacky mounting tape. A laminating machine will give the best results if you have access to one.

Heat is what makes contact adhesive fail, so you want to keep that in mind when cutting. I like to use a 65-624 double spiral-O for cutting this material layup. I do 2 passes - One to cut the AL and slightly into the foam, ensuring good AL chip collection, and the second all the way down to finish it out.

If you get AL chips down in the kerf, it WILL gouge out the sides of the Gator. If you want an even better finish on the Gator, switch up to a 3-flute spiral-O or a 4-flute end mill.

When cutting AL, you MUST ramp into your cuts. NO straight plunges!

-B

[toych]

Thanks Brady, I've got into the habit of ramping cuts in almost everything but HDU and PVC.

I have a dedicated foam bit from Belin I use to profile HDU, I will follow up with it after the Al bit.

[joe]

Darren,

The adhesive I've been using is good old Epoxy. I roll a thin coat on both surfaces before sicking them together. I put gallon cans of paint over the surface to help with adhesion. Any epoxy that is light enough to roll will do the trick..

[Big-Tex]

Contact glue does not work well where temperature is in question.

I have done those below it's foam alu faced already bought that way.



If it is for exterior use Joes suggestion.

I have seen sing foam with alu face and pvc faced as well as acrylic faced.
There are many options. I have heard someone tell me gluing alu with GE silicone I don't know how well it works.

[Brady Watson]

Contact glue does not work well where temperature is in question.

This is true - if you buy the regular old contact cement sold at the big box stores. If you buy industrial grade that is meant for this type of work (comes in canister like grill propane and gun) - it resists heat and works really well. I've cut Gator/AL as small as 3/8" square with no AL popping off.

Epoxy can be used if you don't want to invest in the adhesive rig - although it isn't as convenient.

-B

[tgm]

We have cut a lot of Ultraboard which is aluminum faced, foam core with a thin rigid PVC backing and it's a pain. We rough cut through the aluminum face and core with a low helix, 3 flute upcut to get the bulk of the foam and the metal chips out of the cut area,
Then we do a final clean pass cutting through the PVC backing. For most applications we just leave a 3D tab at variuos spots along the profile and then just trim the PVC tab with a knife to seperate.
After the last job we just switched to laminating metal to 1/2" PVC and most of the problems go away. It's still a metal face letter on a black backgound only much more durable. Mounting becomes much easier as you have the PVC for anchorage if required.

Good Luck,

Tom in PA