How to lift a 4x20 Poly Face?

[Texas_Signmaker]

Thanks for all the tips. I ended up wrapping the end of the sign around the second bucket and held it with a strap and C clam.. We inched up and everything went smooth. Got it half way in, then I would get out from under the sign and go to the edge and used a C clamp to pull it the rest of the way. Hardest part was lifting the sign on to the buckets without it flopping down before we could strap them...

SOOO much easier using two lifts.

 

[Johnny Best]

Another "Happy Ending"!

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I am not saying I have never installed single-piece oversized faces. I have, but sometimes lived to regret it.
I once installed a pair of 6x8 pans in an existing double-sided pole sign. They were heavy, to be sure, but I man-handled the first one in place. I took the precaution of first thoroughly cleaning the inside lip of the top retainer that was to receive the hanging bar. I even waxed it with a piece of paraffin and then waxed the bottom of the hanging bar as well. The challenge, of course, was hanging onto the face with one hand while controlling the bucket lift with the other. So I attached a rope to the top edge of the plastic using machinist-type center-pull clamps (center-pull clamps don't try to bend the plastic like a regular C-clamp can). I put a rope through the clamps and hooked it over the end of the boom and held it there with one hand while I worked the lift. Once I got a top corner with its hanging bar started, I slid the face in, removing the clamps from the top as I slid the face. Ha, ha, I was invincible!

Unfortunately, the other side did not want to fit at all. The bottom of the cabinet appeared to be a little cantilevered, making the opening on the open side shorter in height. And I think there may have been some sag at the ends, too. In hindsight, perhaps I should have immediately trimmed the bottom edge of the second face, even if it meant going back to the shop, but I didn't. It took the rest of the day to install the face, and I no longer felt invincible.

To get the face into the opening, I put a ratchet strap on the other side of the cabinet to try and pinch the top and bottom together a little on that side, hoping that would spread the open side a little. I don't know if that helped or not, but it wasn't till I loosened the bottom retainer considerably that I was able to get the face started and hanging securely on its hanging bar. I slid the face a ways into the cabinet till it stuck and would go no further. So to get it to slide the rest of the way, I clamped a rope to the leading edge of the face and, leaving a large length of the face extended precariously in the air, positioned myself beyond the opposite end of the sign and used the rotation function of the boom to gently tug the face sideways into the cabinet with the rope attached to the boom. I was then able to button up the retainers and I quit for the day, exhausted, and went home to sit on the porch.
When I eventually got a call to service the same sign, I told them I would "have a hard time getting to it" and suggested they call one of the big shops.

Brad

Center pull C-clamp picture attached. Probably not the correct name for the clamp

Lol, you remind me of a 6x8 I did few years ago. It didn't want to fit.. I discovered halfway though hanging the face that I needed a second bucket because of the sagging...so I had to leave a guy up there with half a sign hanging out and grab another bucket to work the face back in... and it STILL wasn't fitting. I put 100 fasteners though the frame so I could sleep at night... The guy that has to service that thing next is going to love us... but then again there were fasteners ALL over the sign I did today so I guess what comes around goes around.

Thankfully, I don't service signs.

 

[signbrad]

I always called them Twist Clamps but I like the sound of Center pull C clamp better.

The term was used by a young guy who first showed me this type of clamp. I later became skeptical when the same guy corrected me on the term 'fitch.' He said the lettering brush is called a 'finch,' not a fitch. I thought he was kidding, but he was serious. I said, "Shawn are you sure you're not confusing a brush with a bird? There's no 'n' in the word." He just scowled and said, "Look it up."
So, the term "center pull C clamp" may be totally wrong. But I still don't what the real name is. You are the first person I have met (besides my machinist brother-in-law) that has even seen them before. They are a little pricey. You won't see them at Harbor Freight. I like them because they don't try to "walk" when you try to clamp two glued pieces together. They pinch equally from both sides.

********************************

I like Tim Toad's go-fund-me idea. I should put it on my blog. It
will help pay for the pacemaker I got in August.

I got a nice one, Bluetooth enabled. I am supposed to sleep within ten feet of the base unit so it can collect data and send it securely to....somewhere. My smart phone is not supposed to be in the same room with the base unit, but I don't know why.
I have some other restrictions, too.
For example, the nurse giving me instructions said, "Don't operate an electric tool next to your chest."
"Okay, I'll stop sanding my shirts."
She did not even smile. And then, "Don't operate a jackhammer at all. Ever."
"Okay."
"And for four weeks, don't raise your arm above your head and don't lift more than five pounds. No exerting!."
Also, "and tell airport security before you go through the metal detector."
That makes sense.
She knew I cycled, but I was still taken aback when she asked, "What kind of handlebars do you have?"
I said, "Uh, straight bars. On both bikes."
"Good, she said. No drop-down handlebars. It's stretching too much. You can pull a wire out of your heart."
"Oh, my gosh!"
"Later, when you're healed more, you can ride what you want."
I said, "No problem. I don't ride racing bicycles, anyway. I'm a old guy."
"Good," she said."
"What about triathlons?" I asked, tongue-in-cheek.
She said, "Have you not been listening to me?"

 

[visual800]

in all reality these faces should have been pan anyway. thats a damn big face to be flat

 

[Johnny Best]

Brad, your smartphone is another Bluetooth device so it might interfere with your pacemaker. I would have gone to settings on my phone and turned off Bluetooth in case I forgot when it got close to the base unit. Sorry to hear about your heart problems but as we get older things start to happen to us like the plotters and printers we own start to break down. Glad you are still with us. Love your great information and insight you always give us.

Names for tools and such: When I go to the big box store or hardware I now have to ask for corrugated fasteners instead of the name I knew them as from my grandfather, "jewnails" because when I mentioned that at the store they would think I am a bigot.

 

[Gino]

....... well you are, aren't you ?? :rimshot:

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Side question...

I don't service electrical or bulbs, but Brad was bringing up the ease of servicing the sign. Occasionally (like the one I did yesterday) the cabinets have a 2'x2' "door" on the side that opens up. What are they for? Surely a full-grown adult can't enter the sign that way can they?

 

[Gino]

That's for little side jobs.

Yes, the same size hole in any shopping center access panel for behind the fascia.

 

[signbrad]

That's for little side jobs.
Yes, the same size hole in any shopping center access panel for behind the fascia.

This is why every shop needs at least one small installer. Guys who were tank drivers in the Army are perfect.
So are seven-year-olds, but that has not been legal for a hundred years.

When my son was young he loved operating the controls of the bucket truck while I worked. He was good at it and took up very little space in the bucket. Sometimes I would look out my kitchen window and he would be in it when the truck was parked in the driveway, just standing, looking around over the top of the bucket. Sometimes I would see him through the side opening, squatted down, reading a book.

I took chances when I was young that I would never do now. I have grown more safety conscious with age.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Would a couple of these work? I hadn't seen these before and we're going to get several for our shop to move around sheets of plywood and such for the CNC. Good luck!
http://go-foster.com/products/materialhandling/gorillagripper/

I got the Gorilla Gripper in today and it's pretty neat. I'm kind of short at 5'7" so I have to lift high to keep 4x8's from hitting the ground, but it does make it easier. Grips really well. Nglantz drops off my material in the carport and I have to lug it back to my shop so this gripper allows me to carry two ACMs at a time.

Thanks for the suggestion, so far I likey

 

[Gino]

Why don't you make a dolly of some sort and transport any number of products. As long as you're not going over rocks or very bumpy conditions. Heck, even a little red wagon would work with an extended handle.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Why don't you make a dolly of some sort and transport any number of products. As long as you're not going over rocks or very bumpy conditions. Heck, even a little red wagon would work with an extended handle.

I am going over rocks and bumps

It's a stone path from the carport to the shop. I would pave a driveway there but we're planning on moving to larger quarters next summer... May build something like that steel frame building someone mentioned in another thread. Wanted to move this year but housing prices took on a life of their own.