Shop Drawings

Your fabricator will be able to supply those. If you are making them yourself, well...

 

editable in what way?

These type of shop drawings are done to the specs of the project.
meaning if you have channel letters that are 18"h in Swiss 721, this layout/ratio will not work for 18"h letters in bazooka

 

A common dilemma is code enforcement authorities needing shop drawings before they can issue a permit. In these cases, it pays to be familiar with the local code. When I sell a sign, I am 99% positive it will pass code. Supplying shop drawings will be part of the permit application. On larger projects, and especially extra code projects such as planned unit developments, it will sometimes be necessary to produce shop drawings before review and approval. I include those costs in my bid to get the design job (which is separate from furnishing and installation).

 

I think he might be referring to generic attachment/electric details, not that actual sign design.

 

Yea, I think he wants to change things around to meet his needs for a working drawing or permit.
Maybe Rick could send him a .pdf.

 

All he wants is a template. You guys are getting carried away with your assumptions. Yeah, Rick has all that stuff, he's always posting those kinda detailed things, but then, so does most anyone who does this stuff for a living.

 

I have them contact me at matthewotaATyahoo,com

 

mike franklin, as others have mentioned, you should be able to get them from your fabricator. Then adjust as needed for the particular project (as you just stated). But usually you will get just the typicals. Standard drawings that show the basics that are present in every scenario (e.g. acrylic faces in front lit channel letters. 99% of Front lit letters will have acrylic faces). But I'm not really sure why no one is posting links. Not sure what the secret is. Maybe because end users can see this forum also? Or is everyone passively trying to get you to search? Who knows? But there are some major players in letter fabrication that post such drawings on their websites. Freely available, for you to download DIRECTly. (Capitalization pun intended)

 

What's wrong with a designer developing channel letter "section detail" drawings himself? If the drawings are supposed to function as actual shop drawings (like a blue print for fabricators to follow when making the sign) then the drawings have to be specific about the components used, show them accurately sized, positioned and labeled. That may also be the case when a local sign code demands to see such details included with sign sketches in order to obtain an installation permit. Unfortunately there is no generic one-size-fits-all template for these components. Just in terms of transformers for channel letters there are many makes and models; they're not all the same size and don't all have the same features. Some LED transformers can be mounted inside the letter, others inside raceways and yet still others that are remote mounted behind the wall. The point is there's lots and lots of variables involved.

I think even if one could start with a stock section detail template of channel letters the designer is still going to be stuck changing a whole bunch of things to tailor it to that specific sign project. The template may end up saving only a small amount of time.

 

But most of the time, just a basic detail of a generic channel letter components like the one below is sufficient. I think that's all the OP was asking for.

 

I understand that. But even in that "basic" section detail drawing there is quite a bit of specific information. There are numerous ways how to "skin the cat" when it comes to building channel letters and installing them. Images like that (and others available pretty quick via Google Image Search) can be a decent resource as a starting point. When I create drawings like that I usually talk with a couple colleagues in my office and our production shop to nail down the specifics where we agree on what components, fasteners, etc should be used in the project and depicted in the drawing. Your example shows a neon filled channel letter design with a high voltage transformer remote mounted behind the wall. That example would be no good for a channel letter sign lit using LEDs, raceway mounting and low voltage transformers. There's a lot of combinations of this stuff unfortunately. You almost have to develop a sort of clip art library of all these components to cover the bases.

Making matters even more of a pain these section detail drawings often have to be shown in one scale on one job and then in a different scale on another just to fit on the same page. That creates extra fun for all the call-out labels. I'm usually happy if I don't have to include that kind of blue print "red tape" in a sign sketch. The requirement seems to be getting more frequent though.