Floating Sign

[jim_vv]

Greetings, Gentlemen

I have been asked to provide a quote to cut letters for a sign. I am not sure which type of material (and thickness) I should recommend to my client. They want 20" high letters to be only supported on the bottom. The letters will be attached to a base and then the whole thing will rest on top of a beam across their customer's store front. Any recommendations as to the material and thickness?


6229

Kind Regards, JIM

[dakers]

Jim, is storefront exterior or inside a mall. are they going to illuminate the letters somehow.
what is beam material and how thick is the beam where the letters sit?

Our experience if in a mall or strip; center is that the lease agreement the leasee signs has exact specs on the signs to be placed on storefront. Where i am it almost alway specifies channel letters on a raceway.

Do they want you to recommend how to suspend the dot in the letter i ?

Do they have a budget or zoning issues?

[jim_vv]

Dick,

Good questions, thank you. The sign is going to be exterior. The building is actually an old restored home in Long Beach, CA. I don't know about lighting, budget, or zoning. I was just asked to cut the letters. I was thinking about either HDU or PVC, but don't know how thick they would need to be if they were 20 inches tall.

[dakers]

Jim,
There are alot of ways and materials to choose.
looking at the 2x2 base i see that the lower case g drops down and in front of the 2x2 base. This seems to imply that the letters need to all sit in front of the base a tiny bit but still look like they are sitting on top of the base. not sure i am correct but if that is the case for us 1/4'' aluminum would be the best choice with welded brackets on bottom of letters to attache to top of base. This would make it more expensive so i would discuss other options that would be easier.
the thin strokes on the lettering look rather fragile which could be a problem for hdu or pvc unless that was thought out a bit.

Most people today want value engineering so they can have a perceived level of quality without spending alot.

http://www.signletters.com/Plastic/formed-styles.html
we use these alot and they have the Garamond but not sure if they have lower case. One thing i like about them is they have a life time guarantee. i have used them on installs like you are doing. But that takes the shopbot out of it.
I like the fact that they can get replacements easier if i am not around. Not suggesting you do any of the above things just mentioning what we have done or would do. There are many people on this forum who have other ideas just as good or better.
I would like to know more about the base and how the letters mount, etc. I could be totally not connecting to possible solutions.
Will the background behind the letters give enough contrast for legibility.
we have done some crazy looking jobs that you cant read and the customers wanted it that way because they wanted to be artsy and wanted identification more than advertising. They were going to use other marketing ideas to bring in customers.

[dakers]

The cheapest way and easiest to install would be to make a router file with a 2x2 bar as part of the file. it would be cut out to look like your sketch. this could be something approx 1/2'' thick
then cut antother set of just the letters approx. 3/4'' to 3'' thick and glue them to the piece you just cut. then attache the 2x2 bar to the 2x2 base on the building. this would allow the g to drop down and the install would be very fast as you could put it all up in two pieces. just paint the bar a different color. have the dots attached to the top of the i's

depending on how thick of material you want to use you could place the first piece you cut either in front of the 2x2 base or behind it.
you could use pvc or hdu. I probably am not explaining this propelrly or i am totally off track on what is needed for the 2x2 base on the building. it is good to make things as easy to install as possible for us or if they are installing it.

[jim_vv]

Dick,

Great input! I will talk to them and let you know how things proceed.

Thank you.

JIM

[jim_vv]

Update........

My cliennt ended up bringing me a bunch of 12" wide 1 1/2" thick redwood boards. I ordered a couple of 1/4" x 1 1/2" flute cutters from CTS and cut the letters one at a time using tabs and screwing the boards to a fixture. All went well. I haven't seen the finished product, but apparently my client's customer is very happy.


6230

JIM

[john_l]

Cool deal. How did they float those dots for the I's in "living.

[jim_vv]

They didn't use the dots. I will post an image of the finished sign soon.

[kartracer63]

I see a Red Door and I want to paint it black.

[jim_vv]

Had to Google that one.

[khaos]

"I see a Red Door and I want to paint it black."

hee hee ;p

[jim_vv]

Here are a couple images of the finished sign.


6231



6232