Can anyone give me any pointers please on pricing?

[Warren Beard]

Hi Paul

It is a bit daunting doing the first one but the best advice I can give you besides what you get here is phone the supplier and have a chat with them, they will be able to guide you to what is best to use etc.

Give Fabricut a call and ask for Paul, top bloke and excellent product and prices.( 02087517250 )

cheers

Warren

[Peter Dee]

Paul, jump right in as it’s really easy.
Remember, customers don’t know that you haven’t done this before.
Find out what they want then cost it, add a margin and quote.
Locators depend on what you are fixing to generally and what the letters are made of.
Buy the letters ready made with stand-offs fitted plus a paper template.
Tape the template to the panel, drill through or loosely screw your fixing cups straight over the template. Pull off the paper, do up the cups and press on the letters.

[Kevin Flowers]

Paul
as Warren said speak with Paul at Fabricut (although i think he may be on Holiday at the moment) he his not just a supplier of the parts you need but runs a large sign company as well & is always more than willing to give advice etc.

Kev

[Paul Humble]

Well, ive just been to see the job and it basically involves me drilling about 80 holes through a big girder!!!

Hmmmm, do I want this one??? lol

[Peter Dee]

Reminds me of when I turned up to fit some lettering on the face of some quarry tiles.
An absolute nightmare trying to drill in to those.
Can’t you face it with a tray?

[Paul Humble]

quote Peter Dee:

Reminds me of when I turned up to fit some lettering on the face of some quarry tiles.
An absolute nightmare trying to drill in to those.
Can’t you face it with a tray?

No, the have stipulated the letters must be attached direct to the girder, plus it marks the start of a historical Cycle Route, so if I balls it up ill be in bother.

Girder is about 1/2" thick.

[Fred McLean]

Paul,if you can hire one and if the footprint is small enough the tool to use is an electro-magnet based drill!Might need a small generator as well if no power available,but the time saving would probably pay for the hire 😀

[Tim Painter]

Why not fabricate it with some sort of ferrous metal based back plate and then weld the whole assembly to the girder or bring in the services of a local mobile welder.

Surely a girder is structural and some smart sole will say what ya drillin bloody holes in that for.

Just my 2p’s worth.

Tim.

[Neil Churchman]

well you can charge more if your fitting to a steel beam

use size 6 self tapping screws about 1/2" long and plenty of new jobbing HSS drill bits and some 3in1 oil

set the drill speed to slow and keep the drill tip and hole well lubricated with the oil

lots of short bursts of power on the drill and just drill to a depth just over
1/2" buy wrapping tape around the drill as a marker

if the steel is only 6mm thick, make sure it’s not going to spoil
the job if you drill the whole way through by mistake, and if you do,
touch in with some hammerite after cleaning off the oil to prevent rusting

sure your break a few drill bits while your drilling but you’ve added that to
the additional costs for installing to a problem surface

hope it works out allright

[Paul Humble]

quote Tim Painter:

Why not fabricate it with some sort of ferrous metal based back plate and then weld the whole assembly to the girder or bring in the services of a local mobile welder.

Surely a girder is structural and some smart sole will say what ya drillin bloody holes in that for.

Just my 2p’s worth.

Tim.

Its an archway made from an old girder, structural integrity shouldnt be an issue.

[Peter Normington]

You could just use self drilling/tapping screws to fit the locators, but choose the ones with torx, allen or hex heads as much easier to use on heavy metal

Peter

[Peter Dee]

I might consider fitting the letters on a black painted ally space frame or curved rails, which would only need 4 to 6 good fixings.

[Lee Attewell]

Really good advice above mate ^^^

All I can add is that if you don’t try it …You’ll never know.

I got a national marketing Company on the strength of " We’re green but we’ll get the job done…WELL!"

Can you ask your local suppliers for advice? I don’t think you’ve told us the type or size of the lettering you’re about to fix so it’s hard to give you solid advice. I’ve got a quote to do that has letters over 2M high in 2mm Ally with returns…Never done one the same in my life, but hey…I’ll get it done.

14M x 1M long light box…Errr!!! Yep…We’ll figure it out 🙂

All you need is to get the confidence to get the job done. Sometimes you’ll blow your money but isn’t the lesson worth paying for?

At the end of the day you could also think…Can I be everything to everyone? If you’re not comfortable in doing the job. Then there’s no shame in passing on it either.