The simplest of things

Nov 20, 2025 | Industry Advice

Pic 1 IMG 4937 The simplest of things

Wrapping magnets can be used to hold vinyl being applied to glass, aluminium and ACM boards

Every now and then a new product comes along that can genuinely aid the sign maker in simplifying and improve work flow. Very often these new ideas are the simplest of things. Paul Hughes, owner of Sign Making Tools, explains.

So, what is it that I think is so revolutionary? Well, it’s a big metal on a rubber pad. What is does is however is very clever, it allows you to use wrapping magnets on surfaces that until now you could not.

How does it work? The properties of the rubber backing mean that material can stick to most smooth services without using any adhesive backing, the rubber uses a capillary attraction to cling to the surface. Think of it as an industrial strength window stick material.

The adding of a thin steel disc to the top allows the sign maker to use wrapping magnets on top of the rubber.

Wrapping magnets

This product allows us to use wrapping magnets to hold vinyl being applied to glass, aluminium and ACM boards. Today more and more car and vehicle panels are made from plastic and painted to match the vehicle, because we have a smooth surface our new found friend will stick to it allowing us to use our infinitely useful wrap magnets.

We can now use our wrap magnets to perform a hinge method of applying vinyl.

In conjunction with a guard knife and a large squeegee we can efficiently apply large pieces of vinyl to ACM boards or glass panels. First apply the mag wrap to the panel, most panels will need at lease two. You can now position the vinyl print/film to the panel with its backing liner still in place. Once in the correct position apply wrapping magnets to hold the film in place.

Now lift back half of the film revealing the backing paper, with your guard knife make a cut through the backing paper creating a hinge with backing paper. Then using our large squeegee, we can apply the film. See previous article on large squeegee for more in depth information of the large squeegee and how to use it.

Pic 2 IMG 4936 The simplest of things

They act like an extra pair of hands

An extra pair of hands

On a vehicle wrap the mag wrap and magnet can become an extra pair of hands during the application process, a four-way version is available for curved surfaces.

Just like on the vehicle mag wrap acts like an extra pair of hands or a hinge when apply vinyl to glass

After use the mag wrap will start to lose its stick, this can be restored by simply washing the rubber with warm soapy water and then drying before reuse and the stick will be restored.