Question on material used for construction

[pghkidd1968]

Does anyone have an idea what material is used to make the radius borders on these type of marquee letters?

 

[GB2]

Those look like they were constructed for temporary, interior use as a party prop or stage decoration. If that is so, they were probably made with the cheapest material that would conform to those bends, a wood or paper product or possibly PVC. If you wanted to do that for commercial purposes, you would need to use a more appropriate material such as aluminum or acrylic.

 

[pghkidd1968]

Thanks Gary. I've been looking into the aluminum...probably the way to go.

 

[JBurton]

Good luck if you're trying to compete with shadier shops building these and claiming UL. Usually they throw the cheapest rope lights off amazon, which are terribly assembled vamp connectors. So you go out and find the proper fixtures, at $2.50 a piece, and compare them to the 30 you get off amazon for $10, and now your $200 sign is pushing $500, and the customer hates you.

As far as what material, I'd wager PVC, glued to plywood.

 

[pghkidd1968]

Thanks for the info. Any idea on a good place to source the electrical components. I'd like to use color changing LED bulbs.

 

[DL Signs]

Have one that style back in the store room collecting dust that was never installed due to last minute customer design changes. It's all aluminum. Sort of the same construction as channel letters, but with thicker material.

The face and back are just panels cut the same shape, the outer is bent from a single piece with a bent lip on the bottom, notched in the corners to shape it that the back panel sits on, attached with rivets, and the seam where the ends meet is riveted. The face is screwed to small L-brackets riveted to the sides on the inside so you can remove it. They're pretty solid once they're assembled. The lights on this are just standard edison sockets that retro looking LED's were screwed into, whatever light socket you want to use, just cut the right size holes to accept them spaced evenly. Plenty of room inside for wiring, and lighting controller if you're using one. If you're using several individual letters/ pieces and want to control all with a single controller, you can mount them to a raceway for wiring, or design them to be attached together (use bracing on the back side to keep them solid) and put holes/ grommets to run wiring through from one to the next. You can attach the back panel with L-brackets like the face if you don't have the know-how or equipment to form the outside panels with a lip on it. If going interior you can use just about anything for the face & back panels, but aluminum is still best for the sides, because it'll hold it's shape better.

Now that you reminded me it's there, I think I'll clean it up, hang it up somewhere in the building & light it up.
Cheers

 

[pghkidd1968]

Thanks a lot for the info. I'd definitely hang that up...too cool not to. Thanks again!