Sign fabrication projects

Figured I’d start a thread sharing some pics of builds I’m doing.  I’ll try to get pics showing all the steps but can’t promise em all. If any one else has pics to add feel free. 

The current pics I’m gonna show are a set of canopy style signs that mount to the wall with 3- 2″ square tubing which are pre mounted to wall.  This set of canopies has to fit those specs or it won’t be mountable. Here is the first one @10’×42″.

And here’s the second one measuring 13’9″×42″. Stick around for updates and future projects.  Thanks. 

Subscribed for awesomeness!

E-gad!!!!! That’s pretty friggin sweet!

Awesome dude I’m gonna be needing some pointers 

I’ll try my best to answer any questions lol.  Here’s the next days work. Didn’t get pictures at end of day but the 13′ and 10′ had the mounting supports added, which is where the 2″tube slides in. Main structure was first set of pics posted. The 13′ had the rails tackled in which simply support the sheet metal body(you’ll see this later). The 10′ didn’t at this point. But I’ll post the finished frame with tacks removed next, so without further a do….

Realized that the only rails are in the center of the 13′. I’ll get those other pics showing the rails next. Thanks for looking. 

The first steps of this project weren’t photographed. But it included bending 1″angle along the faces which also had to be welded together since aluminum sheets used for face (the panel you see front and back) were 8′ sheets I cut on cnc. The grind marks you see on face are where that face was joined. Next time i build one I’ll try to include those pics. 

Nice. What welder and spool gun are you using?

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I am using the millermatic 210 with the 3035 spool gun.  

Nice machine.

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Here’s a monument build i did back in August which was installed in tucson,az. Nice little interruption for the weekend. The guy you see in some pics is someone I’m teaching.  He’d be equivalent to a third or fourth year apprentice. 

Last two. 10’height×20 ft length by 42″ width. 60 feet up on a pole when it was installed.

Dude that’s so cool

Nice, I was hoping to see a little of behind the scenes on your builds when you said you built signs, thanks for sharing

Excellent work. I take it the signage is vacuum formed? Is that yours as well, or did the company provide that?

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The face is a high strength vinyl polyester material that is digitally printed.  We stretch the face on with clips that fit in the extrudions. That face was shipped in. We also get faces that are plastic and vacuumed formed but those aren’t pictured. Here’s a pic of those faces. We do digital prints but not the kind need for large build. 

And no we don’t have the vacuum forming machine.  Those are all sent in. 

Cool stuff, its always fun knowing tons of people will see your work. Here is a sign we made a few months ago. We also made another set of letters that replaced Special with Football.  Here it is in a video.  (I’m not sure why the pic at the start of the video has the CBS logo, then in the video it uses ours with the NBC logo)

[Photo from the original forum is not in the backup]

Making things is always better when thousands see your work! Especially when you get to say,  “Ya i built that”. 

Theultimatehic wrote:

9 minutes ago, Theultimatehic said:

Making things is always better when thousands see your work! Especially when you get to say,  “Ya i built that”. 

isn’t that the truth brother…

I know the feeling being a retired fabrication engineer, I have or been part of building quite a few things however most of the things were hugely industrial so not many people see it on a regular basis

Alright guys, back to the current build we go.  These pics show the frame all complete and being prepped by an apprentice. This is the last stepin the frame of the build. Now the sheet metal will get laid out and holes cut for lighting. As well as some letters that mount above. 

Here you can see them skinned and ready for paint. I’ll also show the letters being made. The step that wasn’t pictured which i had mentioned will get clarified here.  It’s done a lil different but basically the same. Also included a work order pic so you can see what I’m doing.  Enjoy. 

Were the letters cut on a water jet or CNC?

These were cnc although we do use both methods. 

And here’s the last pics for this build. I’ll start another build for you guys  to view here soon. Gotta get these crated and wired up, hope you enjoyed. 

Dude it’s awesome to see all the work that goes into these projects, thanks for keeping us posted with pics bro

Theultimatehic wrote:

On 1/1/2017 at 11:25 AM, Theultimatehic said:

Making things is always better when thousands see your work! Especially when you get to say,  “Ya i built that”. 

I usually get a response of you tree killer, or something along those lines. My company services oil an natural gas wells. Lots of people love to complain about it but end of the day you can thank guys like me for keeping the gas flowing. 

Not all of us hate the gas guys lol!

@Theultimatehic That’s sweet man! I work for a commercial sign company as well! Been working here for over 17 years, gosh it’s been too long. Nice to have another sign guy in the forum. 

I’m guessing you do graphics and prints etc lol.  Glad to see another of my kind on here. 

We do mostly Architectural Signage. Building ID’s, Monuments, Rooms Numbers, etc. Pretty much exclusive to Hosptials, Hotels and Business’ here in Hawaii.

Sweet. I pass a sign shop occasionally and it’s awesome to see what goes on in there.

Really, really cool man. Keep the posts coming!

Here’s a monument sign going to different locations in new Mexico. These go with the canopies. 10’×20′ led lit.

mmm tacos!!

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It’s nice you can taco about what you do!


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That was a quality pun. [emoji23]?[emoji23]


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Mels diner anyone? I’ll post pics tomorrow with faces on.

So many regional places I’ve never heard of, they popular around your area?

This shipped to cali. We handle mostly west coast from Canada down.. Here is the signs with faces as well.

Looking good!

What’s that drill? Ryobi?

That’s the old ryobi i had.  I sold it to the green guy in the picture. He needed a drill and i had a old one for 10 bucks.  10 years old and still going. Currently have two one+ drills. Don’t have many battery tools as of yet. Will probably get into a better brand if i ever need more them an impact. 

Here’s the cnc cutting some pieces for my next project. Couldn’t get the video to upload.  Wrong format or something.   This is a local job we have been doing since they opened. Prepare for the next project, making 3 sets of reverse pan letters illuminated. Just bought a machine to do all the bending but can’t use it on this job since i haven’t figured it all out. Job is due in 2 weeks so this is the last set i will EVER bend. I hope lol.  At the same time its sad that this art is dieing. I’ll teach my boy how to do it but it will be an unnecessary skill. Bending letters has made me thousands of dollars.  This machine will hopefully make me 10s of thousands. Pictured both the cnc and my new toy. 

Got a little busy and forgot to take pics so took this one before the welding started. Bent up three sets of these. It will say “Freddy’s” and underneath it will say “steakburgers”. Here’s pic of what will be the face and the bent up returns. Im not doing the welding, training someone else on tacking these together. More pics to come. (Gonna upload pic in morning realised the pic was super blurry. Edit to come lol) 

Ok here’s some pics of the faces and the bent up returns.  Enjoy

Oh wow that’s impressive, I can see why you got that machine tho!!

I did 3 sets in a week.  Most guys would take 2 weeks just bending. Me 1.5 weeks. Most people 2-2.5 weeks. Machine bends in one day plus 2-3 days assembling. The machine is faster no matter who challenges it lol.