Looking for LED Light Box and Light Box Hardware Suppliers

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Had some folks inquiring about printing backlit signage and have had good look on that front. Now is the pain in the butt that is finding vendors for boxes and kits. Of course, someone is asking for full size 8'x4' right out of the gate. Any suggestions on suppliers? I am based in OKC, so local would be ideal, but not sure I will be that lucky.

As much as I like DIY, I prefer something listed and easy to install. We're not doing the installations, so leaving that, permitting and all that stuff to the end user. I am just doing the backlit material and want to be able to point folks the right way, or order something simple and charge a bit of mark-up on my end.

 

[JBurton]

SignFab is going to be your best bet, they figure delivery into their quotes, and their quotes are under my price to build. As far as quality, I can't say, but all of the channel letters I've gotten from them have been top shelf, and they just bought UFB.

 

[BDS417]

+1 for SignFab on most cases - they're local to us, so we pick up our orders and have come to appreciate the company, its people, quality and support. Channel letters and illuminated logos mostly from them. That said, it sounds like you're looking for a standard extrusion cabinet. We stick build some of ours, and do others with Excellart extrusions ordered through our local Grimco warehouse. Where abouts are you located?

 

[BDS417]

....I'm totally stupid and didn't see where you said you were at. Ordering Excellart kits is kind of cumbersome, but depending on your skillset and equipment, can be assembled by adhesive and pop rivets if you don't weld aluminum. Won't take much in the way of wiring and lighting equipment to one properly - could probably make a couple recommendations on what's been working for us if that's in your wheelhouse.

 

[JBurton]

Unless Smoke is aiming to wade into fabrication, outsourcing something like this is very profitable. Most quotes I get back from signfab beat my house price, but the time frame is longer than customers often like.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

We just print the backlit part, since putting big vinyl stickers on them is a huge pain in the butt.

 

[JBurton]

We just print the backlit part, since putting big vinyl stickers on them is a huge pain in the butt.

Oh, you mean direct print?
Plenty of us are totally printing on translucent clear/white, then applying to plastic, it's really not that big of a pain...
If you are considering going with signfab, you may want to ask that they not include the face, or they leave the film on the face. They will obviously print a face for you, but if you want to use your printer, you probably don't want to print onto a face that has traveled 100+ miles down the road.

 

[Evan Gillette]

Signcabinetsinc.com have always been good to work with and reasonable. They make some of the cleanest cabinets I have seen. Extrusion kits would be nice but I usually just order cabinets as I dont have UL either. Like JBurton said applying printed vinyl isnt too bad. In my experience, using a good laminate and covering the whole face make the faces last twice as long. 3551 clear laminated with 290 has been very good to us. Obviously lots of shops just pump out the cheapest possible solution and it shows, lots of "burned up" signs that are only a year old.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

I guess being a pain is a relative thing. I have 3 flatbed printers and just 1 44" wide roll printer. So flatbed prints are way easier for that kind of stuff for me.

 

[JBurton]

I guess being a pain is a relative thing. I have 3 flatbed printers and just 1 44" wide roll printer. So flatbed prints are way easier for that kind of stuff for me.

No doubt, it just made me question your whole post on the initial reading of that post.
How well do your flatbeds deal with dirty/contaminated poly?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

No doubt, it just made me question your whole post on the initial reading of that post.
How well do your flatbeds deal with dirty/contaminated poly?

Had good luck with LUS-120, obviously, cleaner is better though. LUS-150 seems to be more prone to cracking though.

 

[JBurton]

Had good luck with LUS-120, obviously, cleaner is better though. LUS-150 seems to be more prone to cracking though.

Have ya ever pulled a face from an existing cabinet to print on? (Driving 100 miles with the cabinet banging against the trim in the wind will give a great simulation of 6 months to a year of wear on the parts of the face contacting the trim, plus all the road grime. Signfab does take great care in packaging to ship, but I'm wholly uncertain of flatbed printing requirements.)

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

We use tissue paper to wrap prints like that, and it does a good job.

 

[JBurton]

We use tissue paper to wrap prints like that, and it does a good job.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

As long as you have a prescription for them.

 

[JBurton]

As long as you have a prescription for them.

I mean what's tissue paper used for in reference to my last post? Transport or banged up trim perimeter?
In my younger years, the stuff you didn't have a prescription for was usually the more entertaining stuff.

My only thought on ordering a cabinet from a wholesaler, they likely won't cut a discount to ship it with no face, and if you can't print on a face that is dirty without extra effort, then you may more seriously consider something like a kit glued together.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

When transporting prints, we wrap the hell out of them in tissue paper. Keeps the banging around damage to a minimum. We get huge rolls from another printer who does sublimation, so tons of free packing material, lets us go hog wild.