What kind of foam to use?

[mikeacg]

Loctite PL-300. It's called Foamboard Construction Adhesive. Comes in a 10 oz. tube for a caulking gun. Works great!

Mike

[kenkelsey]

Hi Joe. I am intrigued with your construction of foam signs. We buy several of the style sign from Creative Foam in Georgia, but never considered building it from scratch. Do I understand you correctly that you use 3 inch construction foam for the core and then bond on the front and back faces with MDO or Exteria and then apply exterior stucco? What about the top curved surfaces? Do these signs hold up well. Looking at your pics I would guess the Peachtree price to be about $2,000. I'm sure you have a lot of labor in this, but the material looks to be about $300. I really want to give this a try, but I don't want to supply something that is going to give me problems in the future.

[dan_nelson]

Thanks to all that have replied to my question. Im also looking forward to the reply on kenkelsey's post thanks Dan and Bridget Nelson

[David Iannone]

Here is Joe's original post on that sign, I totally forgot about his post on this from 2010 until he posted the pic and it jogged my memory.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/sho...monument+signs


Thanks Joe, super job and detailed info.

On my ever growing "to do list" is now to try this method by making maybe a 2'x3' sample for my sales area, and could also have a handle on top to take to a customer sales call if needed.

Dave

[joe]

When I was first acquainted with the foam sign business it was something that had to be tried. Over the years we've made several of these. Our latest fabrication, as I mentioned earlier, was to use the foam for the interior structure only. By using Extira or MDO for the exterior surfaces I gained several advantages. The first was a superior hard surface. The second advantage was to apply my letters and logo's with excellent detail and sharpness which the big foam manufacturers loose. For my kind of work detail is essential. Another concern was having to rely on adhesive to hold the hole thing together. I did have one major failure when a monument sign decide to come apart. From that time I used .75 MDO on the front and back that allowed me to use screws through the sign, front and back to hold it all together. Once again, I'm not a fan of EPS.

I've given up on this kind of sign manufacturing and gone to PVC. I've posted the techniques earlier and don't want to boar you with them again. For years I used HDU and before that I was a Redwood guy. Here in Oklahoma it will outlast HDU several times over, due to hail, and is lots of fun to work with. Looks better too.

With PVC you can build as much depth into them as needed by using scraps on the sides, top, and bottom. They're tough as a boot.

Joe

[kenkelsey]

Joe: Beautiful signs. You say you have given up on this type manufacture. What do you mean? You no longer use MdO or Extera for the sides and top or you no longer use foam? I think you are saying that you are using PVC for all of the faces and have given up on MDO or Extera, corrrect? Also, how to you handle the curved surfaces on the top side of the sign? Last question what is EPS (Epoxy)?

[steve_g]

EPS… Expanded Polystyrene. Often incorrectly specified for extruded styrene. Another name for EPS is “bead board”, it’s the white stuff that falls apart easily. Its manufactured by steaming solvent laden styrene beads in a mold.
The pink and blue (and sometimes yellow) insulation board is extruded styrene.
SG

[joe]

For the last year or two I use PVC, Redwood and Cedar. The use of any foam products are no longer used.

Joe Crumey
www.normansignco.com