Hi, I need some tips or tricks for mounting two plates together on a 7 x 9 plaque.
My plate on the bottom is 5.75 by 7.75. it is silver. My top plate is 5.50 X7.50
it is the one I'm lasing on. I'm using a two sided tape at the moment and just
eye balling "sometimes not so perfect" where to lay them. is there a easier way I can be "perfect"on all sides.
Thanks for any tips you can give me.

We do that all the time. Don't put a lot of tape on the back of the plate. I use 2 pieces of tape and not all the way to the ends.

If I am going to use nails or screws, I only put 1 piece of diagonal tape again not all the way to the ends and alot of the time if I lay it down lightly I can move the plate until I am happy with the position then press hard.

Lynn:

I leave the tape cover on and position the pieces then use masking tape or a very light pencil mark on one side and the top or bottom.

A speedy marker will remove with a little alcohol also.

I've never assembled plaques and plates, but I make templates all the time on my laser to help align other things that I assemble. It seems that if you will be making a lot of these it would be worth making a template.

If you use the laser to cut a piece of acrylic the size and shape of the plaque, and then in the center of that you cut out a rectangle that is 5.75 x 7.75, you can lay that template on the plaque and then drop the larger plate through the hole in the center to align it to the plaque. You could glue a couple of scrap strips of acrylic to the sides of the template that rest against the 4 sides of the plaque so the template is held in place to the plaque and won't move while dropping the plate through it.

A second piece of acrylic can be cut that is 5.75 x 7.75 on the outside and has a 5.5 x 7.5 hole cut in it. That leaves an 1/8" wall on the 4 sides. After placing the larger plate through the first template, the second template can be placed into the hole of the first one, on top of the larger plate. Then the smaller plate can be dropped into the hole in the second template. That aligns the smaller plate to the larger one.

After pressing on the plates simply lift off the templates.

Hi Dave , That sounds like a good idea. I will try to do that in morning.
I also liked the tape idea and the marker,
Thank You everyone that gave me the tips.
And yes this forum really is awesome.
Lynn

I use Dave's idea for alignment. I usually create a template out of 1/8 MDF or birch. I have even made a template to use with my router (pattern following bit) on my laser. I needed to stack and glue the MDF though, because I needed 3/4 depth. I also used 1/4" acrylic because I ran out of MDF.

MDF is cheap enough, I use it for templates and for practicing (to see if I did alignments right)

Shaddy