I’m thinking of using standoffs to attach acrylic to a wood backing, but not necessarily to attach the whole thing to the wall. Any tips on attaching stand-offs to the wood without attaching to the wall? I looked at the double-ended version, but they were all longer than I was looking for.
I used the Glowforge to engrave a well for my standoffs and also a hole through the wood for the stand off. I like the hole better than the engrave.
Also, these standoffs come in shorter lengths.
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How is the standoff attached to the base?
A carriage bolt through the plexi and then “standoffs” made of “donuts” of 1/2" wood or even something like a star shape would get you what you wanted. Also you can thread your own parts.
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Hmmm. That’s an interesting idea.
I was just thinking I could probably use a very small nut & bolt in from the back and screwed together inside the standoff. I ordered some standoffs and they are due to arrive tomorrow, so I’ll have to play around with it.
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Since these sit on a table rather than being hung on a wall, they are just pressed into the base and gravity does most of the work. The black base is thick acrylic with felt on the bottom. I used a small amount of glue to secure the standoffs in that one, and they are very secure. I experimented until I got the hole small enough that had to use a bit of pressure to get the standoff seated, and a couple of times I split the wood because it was just a tiny bit too small. I also experimented with veneer on the bottom and glued the standoff to the veneer. These are aluminum standoffs so quite light. There are also double panel standoffs that would probably work for your purpose. The bottom section would secure to the wood backing and the top would attach to the glass or acrylic panel.
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I got ones from Amazon that came with wood screws that were run in from the top of the lower barrel piece before mounting the panel & top cap.
I guess it doesn’t have to hold a lot of weight, so glue might just do the trick. The double standoffs were all too long (and I’m on a bit of a time crunch - I will keep looking for the future).
The ones I ordered have screws that are meant to screw into the wall. They aren’t here yet, but I assume they are too long to just screw through a piece of 1/4" ply. I guess I can probably find some tiny screws to do the trick. Or I’ll just tell her she needs to screw the sign into the wall. 
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Last set I got I replaced the screws with smaller ones (that I had to sand off just the smallest bit of the point so they didn’t break through the wood backing. I just wanted the screw hole in the bottom barrel so I could do that 
I also had to chase down a couple because I like them tighter to the backer (shallower barrels) than seems traditional.
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All excellent advice. Thanks!
I never much paid attention to the mechanics of them and just didn’t realize that they were meant to be screwed into the wall as opposed to just joining two materials together. The revelation got me overthinking things!
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