Search results

Flat cutout acrylic letters are less expensive than formed letters. Stud mounted, with spacers, effects a "projecting look." It's just that there aren't any returns. I have, over the past 40 years, installed hundreds and hundreds of acrylic letters in 3/16" and 1/4" thicknesses, mostly hand cut...

ACM is not the best material for flat cutout graphics. It tends to delaminate, though not always. Most vendors do not offer long warranties because of this. Nudo Products, for example, gives only a "5 Year (Limited)" warranty. They want you to put a trim cap on the material. I would do ACM...

Typically, the plastic face is held in the cabinet by retainers on all four sides (the 1-inch frame you reference). Often an end retainer can be removed, allowing you to slide the face out sideways.

Our shop has been making ADA-compliant signs for many, many years. Sandblasted Corian has never been rejected even though the Braille dots are not always perfectly domed. Even so, doming is easy. Simply remove the mask from the dots with a red Scotchbrite pad. The pad removes the small dots of...

I like it, generally, but once in a great while it crashes and I lose all my categories. We are using the free version. Brad in Kansas City

Now it all makes sense. http://kivancnalca.blogspot.com/2012/03/moby-dick-romanindaki-kaptan-ahabin.html But no one at our shop reads books. Only a few can spell words. But I shouldn't complain. I started Moby Dick once and didn't get very far. Maybe I'll try again. Or maybe I'll look for the...

I've always thought the Starbucks logo to be somewhat peculiar. I'm sure it's filled with symbolism. But I would never have come up with a seafaring siren to represent a coffee company. Was the idea that it was seductive or addictive, like the coffee itself? The original logo was bare-breasted...

Good for you, Stacey! I appreciate the way you asked him if he paid for it—yet. No implication that he pirated it. You were tactful. I say something similar. I say, "Have you already paid for this design?" A couple more points: Logos are typically not protected by copyright in the US. A logo is...

It's not necessary that a logo "mean" something. The purpose of a logo is merely to identify, nothing more. What does the Toyota logo mean? It means nothing, at least not to the average viewer. In reality, it is filled with meaning. But the symbolism was no doubt for the benefit of stockholders...

The main thing is to have fun. Take off the top retainer, and one side, too, if necessary. Or the top and both sides. Or just the bottom, which is the most fun. This construction is a pain in the butt no matter what, but if you can do it and have fun, you win. When you put it back, cut the top...

I learned to draw a large oval with three push pins and a string (or wire). Wire is better than string because if the string stretches it can cause the ends of the line to not meet up perfectly, kind of like an old Roland I used that couldn't make a three-foot oval without the same problem. Brad

When you say "foam core," are you talking about Gatorfoam or Fome-Cor? Fome-Cor is pretty flimsy stuff to be cutting on a saw. Surely you mean Gatorfoam?

I don't know of any method for seaming. I believe I have seen a seam in a roll, but I don't know how they do it. Brad in Kansas City

Unclebun, we never called it Egyptian, either. We just called it gothic or straight gothic. Though I have been in Kansas City for a while, I came up in the trade in Illinois in the Peoria area. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sign painters traditionally had their own names for the letter styles they used. Egyptian, as I recall, was a catch-all term and had nothing to do with Egypt or the middle east. Gothic too, was simply a generic reference to a straight, nonserifed letter. Every sign painter learned a "plain...

Long before vinyl graphics appeared, the bottom edge of the door was the accepted standard to measure from for lines of lettering. Since the bottom edge was usually somewhat parallel to the ground—though not always—measuring from the bottom of the door rendered the most pleasing visual. But...

I have had similar lifting problems with Rustoleum brand paint in a spray can. It has a longer cure time, and spraying on plastic makes the cure time even longer. I have never had good success spraying plastic with Rustoleum. Sometimes it seems it didn't cure for days. Would a barrier coat make...

Your heading says "galvanized." Galvanized posts should always be cut with tools made for cutting steel. A cutoff saw with an abrasive blade for steel cutting works fine for this. Harbor Freight models are cheap, but I don't know how long they last. Also, a motorized hack saw is a good...

I never thought I would agree with this idea. I was "old school" and had the viewpoint that a client sitting behind me was an imposition. (I was a artist, dammit, leave me alone). I have done a complete 180 in the last ten years. I now believe the above method to be an excellent and efficient...

When my boss receives specs from architects, he sometimes simply ignores them. For example, we receive requests all the time for "photopolymer" signs for ADA compliance. We never do photopolymer. We had a photopolymer machine at one time, but rarely used it. I don't even know where it is, now...