A Digital Printing Network

Another odd job

We were approached by a local organization to come up with a way to cover areas of an old US Mail box. Yes the big box that everyone sees on the street. An old one was donated so unused or out of date drugs could be placed in the box for proper disposal. Instead of dumping them in landfills and getting all sorts of drugs in our waterways they would be incinerated. This box will be placed in the local police station entrance. By law, any reference to US Mail had to be covered in some fashion. We scratched our heads some wondering if any material would work. The front and sides as well as the main door for placing mail was stamped steel. It could not be ground down flat since doing so would have left holes in the steel. The biggest problem was me apparently. I designed a decal that was heavy in color and of course they liked this. I tried Durasol hoping it would work well. After placing the smallest one, or attempting to, we found the raised areas a problem. If we tried to push the material down around the letters it would crease. On our second attempt we pressed the edges down around the raised places and just patted the material to the raise letters. This seemed to work but of course it did not look perfect. But how could it look perfect, it was not a flat surface. Now I'm going to try Seramark on one of the sides and attempt to press it down around the lettering. When I'm done I'll post some pictures and let you know what worked the best.

Tags: Durasol, Seramark

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Permalink Reply by CYW on April 21, 2011 at 12:02am

Ken, I'm not sure I understand your problem
Are you saying you can't use a nice thin cast (conforming) vinyl because the impression of the US MAIL text will show underneath?
If so, I'd guess you'd need to fill the impression with some sort of steel putty to level it out
The trouble is now you'd need to design something that takes into account both surfaces
The flat surface as well as the raised (flat but higher) surface you just created

Diane

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Permalink Reply by Roland R. Irish III on April 21, 2011 at 7:39am

I would consider cutting aluminum blanks to make a 'panel' that can be applied over the raised lettering, and use magnetic material around the lettering as a 'spacer' if it is the right thickness so the aluminum goes down flat....or maybe use something 1/2" or thicker and cut it in the shape of a pill bottle?

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Permalink Reply by CYW on April 21, 2011 at 9:02am

That's a good idea, Roland. I like the idea of using a panel to cover the raised letters.

I'm picturing a 3D effect. The base vinyl covering the surface of the mailbox and then some sort of blank piece, either rectangular or cut to a shape that covers the letters.

Nice.

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Permalink Reply by Roland R. Irish III on April 21, 2011 at 9:07am

Go with a shape of a pill bottle, maybe at an 'angle' to highlight it and put the info about 'drop your drugs here' or whatever ON the pill bottle...if you color it that translucent orange like real pill bottles it will be quite an eye catcher. If you had some signfoam board and could carve it for raised curved look with the cap and everything it would be good advertising for your sign shop capability!

Good public service and publicity to boot!

Anyways, my mind is racing with ideas...I should get to work myself.

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Permalink Reply by Ken Wagner on April 21, 2011 at 5:21pm

Yes we thought about a panel of some sort. Unfortunately this was dropped in our laps at the eleventh hour and was needed quickly. They painted the box a beige color before we got it. The issue with the raised lettering is it was stamped in the steel so it is not impressed but pushed out from the backside outwards. I used the Seramark today on one side and it worked much better. Still at an angle shows the bumps from the letters but will work. Gotta go for now.