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Fixing an error, stand off letters on a tray
Hi folks.
Stupidly we let a sign go out without us inspecting the quality first.
A worker placed the template for the stand offs on the tray and made sure they were legal, I over saw that.
He they placed the letters on to the template and pressed down to make the marks to show him where to drill. But he didn’t place some of the letters correctly. 4 are not correct. They are off by 7mm
whats the way to correct this? I don’t want to do the whole lot again, just correct the bad ones. Should I move the female cup or reglue the male pin, Bering in mind the trays 20 ft in the air still
Thanks for your help
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9 Replies
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I am guessing the 4 innacurate are on same letter. When you realign to be correct the letter should hide some of the 4 holes. Those exposed. If white backing board you could fill with a silicon or vinyl circle? As long as not illuminated you wont see a small screw hole.
Granted not an ideal fix.
By this i an assuming the holes have already been drilled? -
Hi rob
No. There are 4 letters that are pizzed
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I suppose it depends what the locators are glued onto the back of the letters with, but if they can be removed then that’s the way I’d go.
Remove the studs. Then put a bead of BlueTac on the heads of new locators and place them in the cups (already screwed to the signboard) but not as deep as they click in.
Next run a line of tape (probably electrical insulating tape or low tack tape) across the front of the existing letters with the bottom edge where the text baseline should be.
Offer the letter up in place a press against the studs – remove the letter – mark around the stud heads on the back of the letter. Clean and glue on. Replace the letter.
All depends on if the existing studs can be removed.
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This is a not uncommon problem with stand off lettering – particularly when drilling into a roughcast wall where the drill will not always follow it’s intended path and ends up being out by a few mm which puts a lot of stain on the cups and studs when the lettering is pushed into place – in some cases this is enough to cause the stud to break it’s bond on the back of the letter, at the very least the letters end up miss-aligned. The answer I believe is an adjustable cup that can be adjusted once it is screwed into place. I have been experimenting with this very solution and have come up with this:-
https://www.shapeways.com/product/Y46A5 … -inventory
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Clever idea that Phill…
That solution would have helped me a lot over the years with large logos we have done on contract work.
That little bit of movement would have helped a lot!Denise, Its a hard one without actually seeing the letters.
Having reread your post i am reading it as the sign is now erected in place up high?Are these letters, letter "I" or narrow letters that a leg has flexed out of alignment?
sorry if I am sounding daft. Just trying to get in my head around how one hole from each letter can be out on separate letters, and actually fixed in place.As Neil says, removing the stud can be difficult without damaging the letter "dependant on how its been fixed".
if possible, holding it in a clamp of some sort and hacksaw off the stud to the bottom of the shaft, leaving the base on. then using a bench grinder to buff it off. that works as i have done this in the past, but in our workshop.
When a letter is re-located on the rear like this, the bucket/female should still cover the old hole slightly, if not almost and not be very visible, if at all.re-drilling the hole so close to the existing because you will keep dropping into the existing hole and just widening it as a result. this is much worse when on a masonry wall.
Dependant on the bridge of the Letter, you could hacksaw off the leg of the locator and just locate another next to it and drill a fresh hole. this way you "shouldn’t see the base of the old locator" but as i say, depends on the bridge of the peg on the locator.
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quote Phill Fenton:This is a not uncommon problem with stand off lettering – particularly when drilling into a roughcast wall where the drill will not always follow it’s intended path and ends up being out by a few mm which puts a lot of stain on the cups and studs when the lettering is pushed into place – in some cases this is enough to cause the stud to break it’s bond on the back of the letter, at the very least the letters end up miss-aligned. The answer I believe is an adjustable cup that can be adjusted once it is screwed into place. I have been experimenting with this very solution and have come up with this:-
https://www.shapeways.com/product/Y46A5 … -inventory
I’ve never had to realign one – perhaps just lucky, but this is exactly what I thought should be on the market when I read Denise’s post. Grab your patent now!
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Sorry for not explaining myself properly
There are 4 letters that are fitted slightly pizzed.
Each letter fit into their females locators that are screwed onto the tray. The whole letter is pizzed, so to correct a letter at least 3 locators will need to be moved.
An easy way to do it, is to pop of the offending letters from their male pins, put a blog of glue on the pins and drop the letters back on level/straight.
But as mentioned it’s 20ft up.
Phils idea is great. Might not work with very thin letters though, we used the small locators with this design
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If 20ft up i wouldnt worry too much. Just redrill the back panel and refit the females to the panel fill the holes that are left if you want to with colour matched mastic. Presumably all of this will be behind the letter in any case unless very thin strokes. We were recently asked fit new letters to an old panel after much advice from ourselves that you would see the old holes the client was adamant that he would not pay for a new panel we done the job and you really could not see the old holes from ground level.
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My bad, it wasn’t 20ft high lol ( it’s normally men who can’t measure things correctly)
Normal shop facia height.Hubby been out today, couldn’t fix in stu, took down and return to base and make new template, dropped the template a tad lower than last time and redrill all holes again. Locators all but a couple covered the redundant holes
Hubby not happy he’s worked on a Sunday, lesson learnt about quality control.
Thanks to everyone who suggested things.
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