Building a monolith sign

[Matty Goodwin]

Excellent Kevin.

Way out of my league, I’ll stick to wrapping!

How do you know how much wind force it will stand up to before attempting a job like this this?

Please excuse my ignorance, its not my field!

Matt

[Kevin Flowers]

Matt
i use calculations for pole signs & then over engineer to give an extra margin. Several companies have charts or calculator’s to assist in main structure size & foundation etc
I wish i could wrap & have half your talent from what i have seen but struggle even with normal vinyl since having a plate fitted in my wrist after breaking it in a fall last year. Time to start learning all over again

Kev

[Matty Goodwin]

Thanks Kev.

It’s nice to know that there is mutual respect between all the different aspects that make up the sign industry.

Matt

[John Hughes]

Well done Kevin, very good end result.

How did you hide the joins in the dibond ?

John

[Phill Fenton]

Brilliant work Kevin – well done. Did you fabricate the frame yourself or was this done by a specialist? I also wondered how you had hidden the joins and how you dealt with the edges?

[NeilRoss]

quote Kevin Flowers:

The frame was then powder coated in zinc primer & white topcoat
The panels are secured solely with VHB tape

Yea, smart! The only thing that made me think was that although the VHB tape should be perfectly up to the job, it will only be as good as the adhesion of the powder coating to the frame. I have no experience of powder coating so I’m only flagging it just in case. I’ve seen problems in the past where VHB tape was used on painted surfaces and the paint was the week link. Just a thought.

[Kevin Flowers]

Phil/Niel
Frame was designed by myself & fabricated by Heritage Steel (Next Unit to my own) who i do a lot of work with. They also have powder coating in house so the frame was cleaned – heated – primed then top coated so no problems with adhesion. I then clad with the dibond sheet using VHB tape, 3mtr by 2mtr sheets where used so no joins. The sheet was cut edge to edge of the frame, then the ends where capped with 1mm aluminum stuck in place with BOSTIK SIMSON ISR 70-08 & appropriate primer. This gave a very good corner finish although i did run a file down the edge on one side.
The assembly was then sanded & etch primed, it was then finished with 3 coats of satin signal white with the base being masked & finished in satin black. All wet spraying was done by myself and due to being satin finish needed to look good straight out of the gun no polishing.

Have also recently fabricated Pole & plank signs in aluminium all in house but have mislaid the photos of machining & construction but will try to post at a later date.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments

Kev

[NeilRoss]

quote Kevin Flowers:

Frame was designed by myself & fabricated by Heritage Steel (Next Unit to my own) who i do a lot of work with. Kev

Yes, a seriously well constructed job – and looks the part too. A 3M x 2M sheet of VHB is much more than I had expected. I’d thought it might have been a series of strips. Hope you didn’t think I was casting doubts on your work Kevin – it’s just that I’ve fallen foul of painted surfaces in the past and it just leapt out at me.

[Kevin Flowers]

Neil
the Ali Comp is 3×2 the but there is 12 linear meters of VHB on each side. Posted it for discussion and you may have had a valid point so no problems, sharing experiences good or bad is what the boards are all about.

Kev

[Martin Cole]

,Top notch Kev,

great looking sign and most of it done inhouse too.

How handy is that to have a steel fabricator and powder coater in the unit next to you.

one day I promise I will get down to see you, been saying it for years now 😀

[Kevin Flowers]

Cheers Martin,
I like to do what i can in house & would do the steel fab but weld splatter & plastic dust from the router & wall saw aren’t a good mix.

As to popping in you are always more than welcome when ever your free

Kev