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Built-up acrylic letters – your views please?
Hi all, I ordered some built up lettering which has been delivered this morning & upon opening this is what i found. Have you ever seen screws into the sides of acrylic lettering before? Would you except it?
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28 Replies
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No cant say I would and there not even colour coded screws 🙁
John
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what are the screws holding in? 😮
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Oh my GOD thats very poor. I would in no way fit these please see attached I fitted these some weeks ago and the lettering was made to a very high standard, made by GDI Signs
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The screws are holding in a 10mm Foamex backplate. To say i’m pi$$ed off is a bit of an understatement. I was expecting to see no fixings whatsoever.
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My letters were on stand offs and they had pillars built on the inside of the lettering to support the locator as you can see they look great.
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Richard have you got the contact details for GDI?
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Hi mate ask for colin
http://www.gdisigns.net/you can say Dynamite Signs had some lettering made that there were really impressed with
thanks Rich -
quote Kev Mayger:Hi all, I ordered some built up lettering which has been delivered this morning & upon opening this is what i found. Have you ever seen screws into the sides of acrylic lettering before? Would you except it?No I wouldn’t expect that 😮 shocking
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:no1: never seen anything like that
Lynn
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Terrible. Name and shame!
GDi do some really good stuff especially at the upper end of the market.
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I hope they were as cheap as they look. There is no way Id ever put those up for a customer. There is absolutely no need for visible fixings with todays adhesives………….Id say it was pure laziness, or complete inexperience.
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quote Lynn::no1: never seen anything like thatLynn
Me too!
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quote Kev Mayger:The screws are holding in a 10mm Foamex back plate. To say i’m pi$$ed off is a bit of an understatement. I was expecting to see no fixings whatsoever.my thoughts here are, IF they really need to use the method they have, whats wrong with counter sunk white or painted white screws?
anyway….
If there is a foamex backing plate, i’d assume these letters will be illuminated "front facing" using LED’s. ?
this being the case, you will fit the backing plate like a regular flat-cut letter and wire it in through the back board/fascia to illuminate using LED’s fixed to the face of the flat-cut letter/backing plate.
You will then fix the built-up letter to the "now mounted" flat-cut backing letter holding the LED’s.
How would you imagine the built-up letter would be fitted to the backing plate in such a fashion that would allow access in future for maintenance/cleaning?Dont get me wrong, i know a way around this, but probably not the process a trade supplier would use as it maybe deemed too long winded. however, NOT acrylic, but i have had allot of large stainless letters and powder coated letters fabricated and supplied very similar to that. but as i said, not in acrylic.
the simple way its done in metal letters is soldered bridged between the walls of the return. the thing i dont like about bridges is they tend to create shadows.
of course you could glue clear bridges in the acrylic letters and screw the flatcut backing letter to the bridge from the rear because it wouldnt create a shadow due to the illumination being to the front..rich, i know what you mean with regards to pillars to mount the locator/fixing too… but "if" i am correct that these are front "and possibley side" illuminated you would clearly see the pillers were they are fixed.
i have attached some pictures of a job i did in newcastle some years ago… you will see what i mean from what i said above.
please note, even the L-Shaped lugs for me to fix into were "overkill" and created some shadows. however, luckky for me i was using some old style ashby LED’s in this one and you could actually bend/point the LED so its beam came out at an angle and by-passed the L-shaped lugs, still wasnt perfect though.
(hope that made sense?)if you click the picture to blow-up in size and look close, you will see these side fixing screws on these letters too.
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Rob were those made in-house or supplied (from who?). Nice looking job……..
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We just designed the sign work, fitted the LED’s and installed the signage on site. There was two of these fascia signs for the same shop as it was on a corner. we also did glass etch work and small signage inside.
We did not fabricate the stainless letters though… I did this one about 5 years ago Graeme, but i do not remember the supplier of the built-up letters. sorry…
LED’s were from ashby though… i remember that because i cut the end of my index finger with heavy snips trimming the LED strips. 😳 :lol1:
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The company that supplied these are called Yorkut. I found them in the back of Sign Update Magazine. Never again!!! Do not use them.
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quote Robert Lambie:We just designed the sign work, fitted the LED’s and installed the signage on site. There was two of these fascia signs for the same shop as it was on a corner. we also did glass etch work and small signage inside.
We did not fabricate the stainless letters though… I did this one about 5 years ago Graeme, but i do not remember the supplier of the built-up letters. sorry…
LED’s were from ashby though… i remember that because i cut the end of my index finger with heavy snips trimming the LED strips. 😳 :lol1:
A top tip that has served me well over the years…………"Never put your fingers where you wouldn’t put your wee man" !!!!!!!
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quote Graeme Harrold:quote Robert Lambie:We just designed the sign work, fitted the LED’s and installed the signage on site. There was two of these fascia signs for the same shop as it was on a corner. we also did glass etch work and small signage inside.We did not fabricate the stainless letters though… I did this one about 5 years ago Graeme, but i do not remember the supplier of the built-up letters. sorry…
LED’s were from ashby though… i remember that because i cut the end of my index finger with heavy snips trimming the LED strips. 😳 :lol1:
A top tip that has served me well over the years…………”Never put your fingers where you wouldn’t put your wee man” !!!!!!!
:lol1: So you never pick your nose then Graeme? :lol1:
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quote Kev Mayger:The company that supplied these are called Yorkut. I found them in the back of Sign Update Magazine. Never again!!! Do not use them.
are the letters to be front-illuminated from the inside?
not trying to be funny kev, but "from the pictures" other than the screws not being counter sunk, in white and positioned a little more discretely. the actual fabrication looks pretty good.
anyway, this is why i asked the question, put to anyone really… how would we expect the letters to be attached in a convenient way to allow access at a later stage?
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The thing is they’re not illuminated. Just plain built up acrylic. To be lit from above (not my choice).
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why the foamex backing letters then?
doesn’t make sense as this is going to create more material cost for them and more fabrication time. -
quote Kev Mayger:The company that supplied these are called Yorkut. I found them in the back of Sign Update Magazine. Never again!!! Do not use them.They are listed on the supplier tool bar !
Another company listed on the toolbar is bespoke signs, the company has been desolved and the director made bankrupt !! owing thousands.
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Free plug here for Applec, just used them for letters and they were fantastic.
Personally though I wouldnt be paying for those letters, did you have an account or pay upfront?
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I have to agree with Rob, Why back trays & stand offs, If non-illuminated/ external lighting?
Did they confirm what they were going to do for you?As a trade supplier we always try to send confirmation when items are ordered, stating construction & materials where possible, we have had on occasion customers not actually realizing what they are actually ordering or what they ordered was not what they wanted!
In this case, it appears that PVC locators & internal bridges would have been sufficient leaving no fixings showing.
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quote Gordon Jones:quote Kev Mayger:The company that supplied these are called Yorkut. I found them in the back of Sign Update Magazine. Never again!!! Do not use them.
They are listed on the supplier tool bar !
Another company listed on the toolbar is bespoke signs, the company has been desolved and the director made bankrupt !! owing thousands.
I am not sure the point you are making here Gordon?
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those letters with a foam backtray in would usually be used with internal lighting which is why you use screws through the side – problem is you do it discreatly with small countersunk colour coded screws placed accordingly – it is the correct way to do it for letters that you need to get inside off – for letters that you dont need to get inside of then you block them up inside and glue on a locator – those were shocking !!!
why not have a go and make them your self, theres an excellent demo on this very site
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this is my point though…
other than the screws not being white countersunk, the job looks like a good one to me, yet it is being shot down as poor, but nobodies saying why or how it should have been done? (for an internally lit built-up, because this is what it has been made for, although i accept kev saying he wanted non-illuminated)
the acrylic used also looks like its translucent/opal as opposed to dense white, which would again indicate the job has been created for internal illumination. (going by pictures on this of course)
so my view on this is that it IS a good job with the acceptation of no white countersunk screws.
as i said, this would have taken them longer to make and would have been a more expensive method. so their quote would also have been more expensive also.
Kev what did the company that supplied say when you got back to them?
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ouch!! that looks painful rob!! (!)
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