I recently completed a bid for a sign job here in my small town and things have changed in the last week. I bid the job for plastic and aluminum letters, some of which would be installed on a Dibond background which would have some ornate borders, then the signs would be installed on a newly completed brick building.
My customer called an out of town competitor (150 miles away) and they provided a sketch similiar to my colors and style and they showed that the substrate would be 11' long and made from aluminum. It didn't say if it was one piece (which would look much more professional than a seam up the middle of the sign) and they spec'd the lettering as all vinyl. Now that seems to be the direction the customer would like to go, so I need to provide a new bid and I'm having trouble finding the right sign substrate. I can only find .063 aluminum and I would just as soon see it a bit heavier, more like .080 so there won't be any "crushing" or "puckering" where the fasteners are installed (remember, it's going onto brick). Any suggestions? I need to have this bid done by later this afternoon, and I have all of the vinyl pricing, but am still stuck on the right substrate for this job!
Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
Hiya Kurt, Use the 1" square tubing idea discussed in a previous post. Then you can go with an .040 alum face and blind mount with "L" brackets. No puckering or waviness. In the past, I've used contact cement to connect the face to the frame with no problems and no visible fasteners. Although it may not sound like much, that 1" thickness makes the sign look a lot better too. Depending on the size, I would quote around $3. per perimeter foot for the frame.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by Kurt Gaber (Member # 256) on :
Thanks for the idea. I've done signs like that in the past with success, only this one has a "cutout" shape at the top of the sign. I'll bid it for having a seperate cutout attached as it would work well that way and the material savings would be huge rather than wasting so much sheeting. I've used VHB tape to fasten the aluminum surface to the frame.
