How not to build a sign

[ernie_balch]

We are being asked to replace a sign we were under bin on last year. The sign looks nice it just did not last long. It is 3/4" HDU and a sheet of aluminum backer joined at the edges with about 1" of air in between. The first time we got a windy day the sign broke.


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[joe]

Nice looking sign, Except!

You know Ernie, I'm not surpised there isn't more failure like this with HDU. It has some great qualities, but stregnth isn't one of them an lamination with dis-simular materials is questionable.

I bet the space between the two surfaces was to add the illusion of depth. They'd probably got away with it if few HDU spacers had been inserted.

What do you plan on doing?

[joewino]

Why didn't they take it back to the person that built it originally?

We are delivering a sign today that was a replacement for one we built several years ago. It had been destroyed also...but not by wind, but by a drunk in a Dodge Ram pickup. Not many pieces left.

[joe]

Give up the bottle Raymond.

[jamesgilliam]

Ray, Having to go and replace one myself a while back I know the feeling. It was five kids in one of their mom's car that knocked over the stone wall onto mine.

[wberminio]

Please show us your finished job,Ernie

BTW-The sign you gave me last year is still in one piece,right by my Bot!


Erminio

[thecustomsignshop]

Hey Ernie.

We normally weldup a 1 inch sqr tube frame that has a number of mounting points to support HDU. We have yet to have a failure such as this, but it still could happen. Mother nature at her best...

This is a shame, it is a good looking sign. Any idea how fast the winds were that cuased the failure?


Good luck. Checked out your web site, nice work.

[jamesgilliam]

Jim, You have some beautiful work on your site also. I am hoping to do the artistic styles one day, but most of my customers like plain for some reason. Like you I use an aluminum frame to support the sign, but have my welder do a frame around the sign of 1 1/2" aluminum angle to hold it in place. First I epoxy piece of Dibond into the 1 1/2" frame, then drop in the HDU sign and use stainless screws from the sides and bcak to hold everything together. The Sunbelt Steel signs on my site are all 4' x 8', most are over 8' to the bottom edge, and all survived the worst that Hurricane Ike could throw at them. In fact one is just set in sand so it can be moved later and didn't move from the winds. Makes me wonder if I will be able to actually move it later.

[ernie_balch]

This is Diane, Ernie's wife. The 1" hdu was carved and I screwed and epoxied (West Systems) it to 3/4" MDO. I sealed the edges with epoxy that had micro light fairing powder mixed in, (peanut butter consistency). I just sanded the edges smooth, and will prime it with 2 coats sign primer followed by 2 coats of top coat (oil based enamel. I plan to screw metal 2" angel to the back and lag it to the posts.

Who ever made the original one must have used AVERY brand vinyl for the grey border, because it shrank 3/16" in and 1/4" the other direction, left the adhesive. I will paint the border.

I had quoted $230 more that the who ever made it.

Diane Balch

[ernie_balch]

The wind- 30mph with a few gusts to 50mph.

Diane Balch

[ernie_balch]

The guy could have glued in some scrap wood in the air space and the sign would have been much stiffer. Joe's idea of HDU spacers would have made a big difference as well.

As Diane explained we have always used a full sheet of MDO epoxied to the HDU. It makes a really solid long lasting construction.

We have always used the best most expensive construction and lately have been consistently underbid by shops using low cost approaches. The guy using air as an inner layer certainly has the cost advantage.

Does anyone have a low cost, long lasting construction approach? I have been experimenting with styrofoam and cement.


ernie

[sailfl]

Joe,

I think that if you are still with us after you do the Layout and Design series, we will need a build series also.

[dakers]

We mostly used two one sided pieces of hdu. routed matching slots in rear of each piece then inserted steel tube in slots and glued it up. then ran steel threaded rod through the steel tube. we have used thin wall emt because the steel threaded rod gave it strength. this worked great between posts because you could drill hole throuugh the post and just slide the threaded rod through posts and sign. we countersunk the holes in the posts and you can plug if you want.
we have done this with hanging signs too and have never had one break. I know there are hundreds of ways to do things and probably most of them work. We just liked this way as a Standard Operating Procedure. I am interested in hearing what others have done.