I've been told that it isn't advisable to put a sign foam sign between posts - that a rigid board should be used as a backer to add rigidity and strength. For a custom shaped sign, what is the "best" material to use as a backer piece?
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Posted by Steve Purcell (Member # 1140) on :
Hi Richard
I use foam alone all the time. It depends on the size, thickness, & density of the sign.
Use MDO for your backing panel, cut it to size/shape, then poly glue or epoxy the signfoam to it, leaving a little overhang.
Use a flush trim router bit to trim the foam to the MDO.
Carve & finish as usual.
Tip: cover the edge joint with a strip of enamel receptive vinyl before the final finish coat & you'll never see that lamination.
------------------ SCP spurcell99@mediaone.net Cape Cod, MA
Posted by Ron Carper (Member # 999) on :
I use alumalite for anything over 3-4'. No rotting problems, plenty strong. I had broken signs with sign foam that wasn't stengthened.
------------------ Carper's Signs 594 Union School Rd. Mount Joy, PA 17552 carpersign@desupernet.net
Posted by Cam Bortz (Member # 55) on :
Hi Richard. Your question depends partly on size. I have installed two-inch-thick signfoam between posts with spans up to five feet, by four feet high, but I wouldn't go larger than that. I do take other steps though. On the side edges of the sign I epoxy a layer of fiberglass cloth. This gives those edges a hard "shell" for the lags to bite into. I also set up my posts with a cross peice below the sign (imagine a figure H, with the sign above the crossbar. This spaces the posts properly and keeps them parallel, reducing the stress on the sign. Don't count on signfoam as any sort of structural member. It will hold its own weight, but not much more. If you want I can e-mail you with some of my other concerns and solutions.
------------------ "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson)
Cam Finest Kind Signs 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988"
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
To help improve rigidity, I use my router to cut a slot along the center of the edge of the board and then insert a "T" shaped piece of extruded aluminum. It is held in place with epoxy.
The 'T' extrusions mentioned by Glenn were recommended to me by one of the Coastal Enterprises guys.
Another method: I you have a little welder, make a perimeter frame of square steel tubing. Insteading of trying to miter the corners, just let the top and bottom pieces extend beyond the sign on both sides. Then butt-weld the vertical sides pieces between the top and bottom. I use long stainless steel screws through the steel frame into the edge of the HDU all around. The extended ends of the top and bottom can be set in brick columns for a nice look. Of course, this only works on rectangular signs.
I usually use inch-and-a-half or two inch tube, depending on the foam thickness, but one inch works fine, too, and is available in aluminum at the local yard.
Brad...in Arkansas?
Or has my house been somehow transported to Minnesota? I didn't think we were supposed to have white-outs here. Most people here don't even know what one is. They think it's a brand of correction fluid.
You'll never believe what I just saw. Moments ago I heard some hollering out by the highway at the end of my drive. I stopped typing to go to the front door, and through the heavy snowfall I could barely make out two females trying to get into either side of an idling pick-up. They were both screaming. As I stood in my open front doorway I caught the words, "We're gonna die!" Was this a domestic dispute? Was someone sitting in the cab with them locked out? Before I could even open the door and ask them if they needed a phone, they both jumped over the sides into the bed and started kicking at the back window. Then one spied what looked like a tire iron, and in three solid blows, bashed in the sliding back window. The skinny one slipped through and unlocked the door for the other one, who got behind the wheel, and they drove off. This whole scene couldn't have consumed more than four or five minutes. And apparently it was not a dispute, just an honest-to-God Panic Situation. I'm glad they were bundled up 'cause they had a cold ride home.
------------------ Brad Ferguson 4782 West Highway 22 Paris AR 72855 501-963-2642 signbrad@cswnet.com
