My First HDU Sign

[The Hobbyist]

This is the very first sign I have made. It is for a friend who is opening a used car lot in town. 1" HDU faces bonded to 1/2" plywood on a steel tube welded frame with .040" aluminum caps all around. Hand painted with Ronan white sign enamel and 1-Shot black and blue lettering enamels. We mounted it onto the pole today.

 

[decalman]

It looks like some nice hardware there, it looks pretty darn good to me . but....I would have made the top name, " Brad Gregory in a thinner font, And I would have capitalized the bottom word MOTOR and leaving it thicker and capitalized, to give the sign nicer contrast and to even out the discord, caused by the lower case g
Thanks for sharing this

 

[Gino]

Are the letters and logo both hand carved or CNC routed ?? What kind of paint did you use ?? Did you install the pole or was that already there?? Looks like conduit running into the base of that pole. Are you planning on using spot lights ??

Good layout and use of space.

 

[skyhigh]

wouldn't mind seeing a better picture of the 3-D router work.

You have some serious money in materials (300-400 in the bare HDU alone).
From the pictures, I can't see much "relief"

Pretty nice layout for your first sign.
(now paint that pole!!!)

 

[visual800]

damn! you used HDU on a car lot sign? I hope you got some good jack for that. I would have just as soon put some maxmetal up there. looks good though

 

[rossmosh]

I have to admit, I'm also seeing a lack of dimension. The good thing is if you have some scrap left over, you could still do something about it. Take the "BMG" and apply some dimensional letters. It will give the sign some "pop" to it. If you don't happen to have scrap, HomeDepot sells inexpensive 1/2" white PVC. Should be able to do whatever you need to with 1 sheet of that.

 

[Billct2]

I was wondering the same thing, it's a routed sign?

 

[The Hobbyist]

It was routed, but it is not highly dimensional. I am NEW at this. This was my FIRST time working with HDU, and enamel paints. In fact, this is the first outdoor pole-mounted sign I have ever made.

The frame is 2" square tubing with a 3/16" wall, fully welded and the center pole rises through the sign to the top, where the top bar meets it at a 'T' Then the sides and bottoms were welded in. 1/8"x4" flat bar around that to give the faces containment, and .040" aluminum channel wrapping the whole thing.

 

[The Hobbyist]

Are the letters and logo both hand carved or CNC routed ?? What kind of paint did you use ?? Did you install the pole or was that already there?? Looks like conduit running into the base of that pole. Are you planning on using spot lights ??

Good layout and use of space.

It was routed. I used KILZ Adhesion primer, Ronan white sign enamel for the base, and 1-shot enamels for the black and blue and white text and fields.

The pole is from an old sign. this one will be illuminated externally using L.E.D. lights. This is a small town and they roll up the sidewalks at night, so night lighting isn't that important. The lot will probably close down before sunset.

The owner wants to use solar lights for night illumination. The electricity does not currently run to the pole, although previously wired access is visible. I am trying to convince them to wire the pole and use external spotlights.

 

[TammieH]

I agree, nice layout, but not sure the substrate used was the best choice...and bonding to plywood, no. The plywood WILL warp and rot eventually.

 

[The Hobbyist]

(now paint that pole!!!)

That is the owner's responsibility. His son will clean and paint it this weekend.


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[The Hobbyist]

I would have just as soon put some maxmetal up there. looks good though

What is MaxMetal?


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[skyhigh]

its 2 sheets of .020 aluminum (with a painted finish), with a plastic core sandwiched in between. Its like 1/8" thick. Very rigid (no oil-canning like .040 aluminum) and its fairly cheap. Its like 1/2 to 2/3 the price of .080 alum.

there are a number of manufacturers that make a similar product to the max metal. Nice stuff to work with

 

[rossmosh]

Sometimes with dimensional signs, they will look flat from a distance. If you ever look at how dimensional signs are photographed, they are almost always taken with very little background and close to the sign. Why? Because stand 50 feet back and you might not see all the detail and in fact it might not look that dimensional.

I did a project last summer for a customer and they decided we had to mount it 15 feet further back than I recommended (they wanted on a fence. I wanted it on a couple of posts). End result was the sign looked good still BUT it lost the dimensional look because of distance. So when you stood 50'+ back, it didn't look that dimensional. I learned from that sign to try to push the limit of creating depth as much as possible because otherwise the desired effect can be lost.

I think with this sign, with a few tweaks, you could have achieved a much more dimensional look for the same cost or potentially less. I can guarantee it would have been faster to make.

In my head, I would have had 1/8" white ACM (DiBond/MaxMetal) as my background. I would have cut the boarder out of strips of 1" PVC. Painted them black. Then glued/screwed them to the ACM. For the actual logos, I would have taken the same 1" PVC and done applied letters. That way instead of only getting about .25" of dimension, you're getting closer to 1". Way more contrast of depth.

 

[2B]

What is MaxMetal?


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it goes by many different names ACP Aluminum Composite Panel is what the substrate consist of.

MaxMetal is the Grimco brand.

DiBond is the premier version.
http://graphicdisplayusa.com/products/dibond/

While I applaud the effort for trying new things, and the layout.
An HDU sign will be lost in this case

 

[The Hobbyist]

I sure appreciate all of the feedback.

I thought about getting "fancy" with it, but it was a very short deadline, and as I said, this was my first attempt. I didn't want to get so deep into it that I could not meet the 8-day deadline from concept to mounting.

I am just a one-man show. No helpers to lift, paint, sand, prime, weld, etc. I will improve with time, and my machines can do 3D carving. As I begin to experiment with materials, I will become more bold and aggressive in making more dynamic signs.

To give you some perspective, the business across the street has vinyl on Coroplast signs screwed to the overhang with wood screws. No frame. no edging. Nothing. Just corrugated plastic screwed to the shingles The business next door has a plywood sign hanging from chains.

 

[The Hobbyist]

MaxMetal is the Grimco brand.

DiBond is the premier version.

Oh! I have a couple sheets of Dibond! I forgot all about them

 

[The Hobbyist]

What do you think about using prefab letters from a place like Hobby Lobby, and mounting them (screws through the back, or adhesive?) to a sheet of Dibond or Polycarbonate?

I played with a lot of ideas, given the low budget for this sign, and I didn't want to give the customer a flat vinyl sign. I wanted just a little pizazz!



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[Gino]

Why not cut your own letters out of any substrate and put them on a backboard ?? You have the eqjipment. If you wanna take it out of the ordinary, add a shape to the rectangle. Cut the circular oval larger and offset it. Anything works that breaks up the humdrum of 4 straight lines. It doesn't hafta be fancy or overly creative to be effective.

 

[The Hobbyist]

Just out of curiosity, and as a guide, what SHOULD I have charged for it? I welded the frame together, and made the faces and the caps. Go ahead. Tell me. I can take it!


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[The Hobbyist]

I like the sign, and appreciate the fact that it was a trial run for your first dimensional sign....but I'm not sure how a routed/painted/framed HDU sign fits into the category of a low budget sign?

Really none of my business, but I just hate to see someone put their heart and soul into a sign only to have it priced to fit into a low budget.

Exactly.

This was more of a favor for a friend, than a random, paying customer.

It was also an exercise in actually USING the tools in my shop. I did learn a lot, as I stumbled around looking for tools that are not where they are supposed to be, and hunted for that thing "I JUST BOUGHT THREE DAYS AGO!" only to go buy another one because it was faster than finding the one that eluded me.

I now know that I need to do a lot of organizing, rearranging of machines, and basically tidying up the shop, so it is a functional work shop rather than the chaotic mess it is right now.


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