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Suggestions Sign Boxes / Cabinets

Matt Trudeau

New Member
I'm making a few free standing sign boxes, welded 1"x1" aluminum frame structures. normally we would just break thin gauge aluminum and screw that in from the side. Customer is wanting completely seamless with no mounting screws showing. Other than just covering them up and being sneaky. Anything you can suggest to do? some sort of clip in technique? if it helps, various heights, biggest would be 8' tall.

Thanks!
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Another quickie......... are these backlit or just a 1" thick panel ?? In this section, I would think so, but it's only 1" thick. Or this an old fashioned wrap around the 1" tube ??

Reason being, regardless of how cleverly you might hide things, how is the next guy gonna get inside to service it ?? Some places might not even allow a cabinet that cannot be accessed without problems. Is he not gonna want a disconnect on it, either ??

Sounds like you're gonna hafta sit this guy down and 'splain a few things to him.
 

LINDA BERARD

Designing Signs Since 1978
I'm making a few free standing sign boxes, welded 1"x1" aluminum frame structures. normally we would just break thin gauge aluminum and screw that in from the side. Customer is wanting completely seamless with no mounting screws showing. Other than just covering them up and being sneaky. Anything you can suggest to do? some sort of clip in technique? if it helps, various heights, biggest would be 8' tall.


Have you ever used 3M Dual Lock? It has a very strong hold. Too strong for thin alum though. Thin alum will bend when you pull off the face (or side, or access panel) for service. But Dual Lock will work on 1/8" thick alum. Not sure if it is appropriate for 8' tall alum faces though. On large signs, I'd only use the Dual Lock to attach access panels or other small sections. You can also weld threaded studs to the back of an alum face and attach it to the angle frame with nuts. Just be sure you provide access to the hardware so you can remove the face in the future if necessary.
 

Matt Trudeau

New Member
Another quickie......... are these backlit or just a 1" thick panel ?? In this section, I would think so, but it's only 1" thick. Or this an old fashioned wrap around the 1" tube ??

Reason being, regardless of how cleverly you might hide things, how is the next guy gonna get inside to service it ?? Some places might not even allow a cabinet that cannot be accessed without problems. Is he not gonna want a disconnect on it, either ??

Sounds like you're gonna hafta sit this guy down and 'splain a few things to him.

They will be internally illuminated, installed on concrete pads with wiring run through to those locations from inside. Basically they are wayfinding directories for a strip mall. (a couple tenant logos and name of mall will be illuminated with push through acrylic)

That's exactly what I was thinking, how are we going to get into it if need be. Some designers just want everything the way they want it.... not thinking about actual real life scenarios. haha.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
We just installed a 6'x6' internally lit sign, push thru letters for another sign shop... about 4 weeks ago. It was about 12" deep. The sign was all wrapped up, but I tried to look to see where the screws were along the top or bottom.... or down the sides. Never saw any on the face. (hmmm) We had to put this on a brick pedestal, so we had to strap it to the boom and lower it onto the tubes sticking up. Wiring came up through the bottom, but no place for it, so we made a hole. Thing is, the sign sat flush, so we couldn't put a conduit fitting on it. Anyway, as I mentioned, some idiot used the same method as your customer. They welded the frickin' front and rear panels onto the frame, so we hadda run our straps from side to side. However, this made for a very difficult mission of connecting things in the middle of the sign. Now, we got everything on and left the site, but I told the company who hired us..... don't ever call us to service this sign, cause without burning the faces off, you can't get to anything. They had light bars running every which way inside and wires all over the place. Talk about a mess. Good luck with your customer.
 

Matt Trudeau

New Member
We just installed a 6'x6' internally lit sign, push thru letters for another sign shop... about 4 weeks ago. It was about 12" deep. The sign was all wrapped up, but I tried to look to see where the screws were along the top or bottom.... or down the sides. Never saw any on the face. (hmmm) We had to put this on a brick pedestal, so we had to strap it to the boom and lower it onto the tubes sticking up. Wiring came up through the bottom, but no place for it, so we made a hole. Thing is, the sign sat flush, so we couldn't put a conduit fitting on it. Anyway, as I mentioned, some idiot used the same method as your customer. They welded the frickin' front and rear panels onto the frame, so we hadda run our straps from side to side. However, this made for a very difficult mission of connecting things in the middle of the sign. Now, we got everything on and left the site, but I told the company who hired us..... don't ever call us to service this sign, cause without burning the faces off, you can't get to anything. They had light bars running every which way inside and wires all over the place. Talk about a mess. Good luck with your customer.
Oooh what a nightmare! That's why we never install anything we haven't made ourselves! Thanks for everything.
 

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
We just installed a 6'x6' internally lit sign, push thru letters for another sign shop... about 4 weeks ago. It was about 12" deep. The sign was all wrapped up, but I tried to look to see where the screws were along the top or bottom.... or down the sides. Never saw any on the face. (hmmm) We had to put this on a brick pedestal, so we had to strap it to the boom and lower it onto the tubes sticking up. Wiring came up through the bottom, but no place for it, so we made a hole. Thing is, the sign sat flush, so we couldn't put a conduit fitting on it. Anyway, as I mentioned, some idiot used the same method as your customer. They welded the frickin' front and rear panels onto the frame, so we hadda run our straps from side to side. However, this made for a very difficult mission of connecting things in the middle of the sign. Now, we got everything on and left the site, but I told the company who hired us..... don't ever call us to service this sign, cause without burning the faces off, you can't get to anything. They had light bars running every which way inside and wires all over the place. Talk about a mess. Good luck with your customer.

Sounds like a few signs I did at a movie theater last spring... Signs were welded shut and you couldn't get your hand into the thing. Looked great but it will never be serviced.
 

litewave

New Member
Wondering if the customer can accept a folded panel that's side fixed or is back fixed by an extra fold? A lot of retail wall based or projection signs are made this way because a folded panel or two that are fixed by small countersunk screws on side or back edges does look pretty seamless (and also serviceable).

Option 2
Take two folded pans, do cnc work / put electrics in before or after*

Have fun with your metalworker and say "make the vertical joins seamless".

= Create a rectangular shape both ends open.

Then...

Slide over your frame from top and cap it at top.
Skirt / seal the base.

* If its lit then the lighting can also slide in from top.
I have a few lighting approaches. The 1"x1" is a constraint but it might be doable**

To service remove screws at top of sign.
Slide upwards. No attending site on windy days :0)
Those screws cant be seen unless the client is
really sad and inspecting the top of your signs.
Dont allow him on your ladders.

There is likely option 3 or 4...

** If you pm me a design (include basic widths and artwork) likely I can advise further. Serious.
 
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