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Foam & Aluminium Sign
Thought it might be nice to show you guys this job we did recently. It aint’ the biggest sign in the world but it sure took a whole lot of thinking about.
The large ‘J’ in the background is 3mm thick aluminium covered with Oracle 751 vinyl. The word ‘Jati’ is made up from 60mm thick painted high density foam letters. The ‘J,a & t’ are mounted straight off the ‘J’ and the ‘i’ is mounted straight off the wall. Because the large ‘J’ spans the window and therefore cannot be fixed, a stiffening T bar had to be riveted to the back side to give the strength required.
It was certainly a different kind of job but the engineering involved made it one of the most interesting ones. The most satisfying aspect was that we were able to manufacture every aspect of the job ourselves.
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12 Replies
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ooh!! very nice devil!! 😆 😆
fantastic sign!!
it’s great when you get a challenge now and then, keeps you going!!great work
Nik
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Excellent job signdevil, lovely 3D sign.
What did you cut the foam letters with? they look too deep for a jigsaw!
Cheers
Dave
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Nice job mate. I used to use the high density foam years ago in the America. I had lots of ideas of bringing it here (1994) but someone had already started bringing it in. I was in touch with the company for a while but it never really became popular and was very expensive.
Do you use the Foam alot? And where do you buy it from these days? I have not really tried here since or created a sign from it.
I think Action Signs in Birmingham sell it but I know of another but the name escapes me now.
What do you pay for a sheet?Cheers
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Great looking sign!
I use alot of foam over here both for letters and for sandblasting.
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thanks for taking the time to post this mate. it looks brill! (hot)
i love “signfoam” its very easy to work with & only wish i had more oppertunity to use it. (costs are high)
thanks for sharing your work with us. 😉 -
Imaginative placement! I like it!
How can you paint the foam? (Which type of paint is best for outdoor?)
More info please 😛 -
quote DaveBruce:Excellent job signdevil, lovely 3D sign.What did you cut the foam letters with? they look too deep for a jigsaw!
Cheers
Dave
Glad you like it. We stopped using a jigsaw many years ago, we use one of these now : http://www.signdevil.com/pages/routing&engraving.htm
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quote rising:Do you use the Foam alot? And where do you buy it from these days? I have not really tried here since or created a sign from it.
I think Action Signs in Birmingham sell it but I know of another but the name escapes me now.
What do you pay for a sheet?Cheers
Hi
Glad you like the sign. I’ll PM the supplier details to you as another huge sign supplies company would not appreciate me broadcasting the details on this board.Cheers
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quote image:Imaginative placement! I like it!
How can you paint the foam? (Which type of paint is best for outdoor?)
More info please 😛Hi
The orange letters are :
2 coats of deep grey undercoat.
3 coats of outdoor durable gloss paint.
Light sand between each coat.The customer was then advised that a bi-yearly inspection programme needed to be adhered to.
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Thats a really smart sign Mr. Devil!! 😀 Proves size isn’t everything 😉
How easy is signfoam to work with btw? I’ve seen it used in a few signs (mainly Henry’s work to be honest, which is rather cool btw) and I imagined it to be quite an expensive material and quite difficult to work with. Combined with the alum. background, the raised letters look fantastic though.
Btw, where abouts in Manchester are you based SignDevil?
Cheers, Dewi
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High Density Foam is great and the ideal product for the signmaker. It’s ‘closed cell’ construction means it absorbs absolutely no water and as such is perfect for outdoor use. It’s an absolute dream to rout and is a great mat’l when it comes to adhering locators to the back of. Downsides are, it’s expensive, easily damaged (whilst in manufacture) and very dusty until sealed. On the whole, I would not hesitate in receommending it.
Lastly, we have shops in Ashton-u-Lyne and Dukinfield, both of which are in Tameside. I know Leigh well and spent many happy hours as a child in the park and woods at the top of The Avenue. Leigh is a nice place regardless of what the fella from Grimsby says. I mean, Grimsby, come on !!!!!
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As High density polyurethane is a closed cell structure, it doesn’t absorb moisture, crack, warp, check or rot, it can be painted with anything, its much easier to work with than wood, you don’t have to match grains when making up panels.
There are large differences with HDU in density and finish, some are prone to look like cheese with small holes (air holes in manufacturing) some require filler primer to get a good smooth finish.
I use mainly lettering enamels One shot and previously Deka Sign enamels and Standox basecoat (carpaint) for painting HDU. Car paints give a really deep glossy finish, look really good.
If you want to experiment or make demo signs, there are much lighter density HDU’s used in the building trade as insulation, up here I use a product made by Inotan (Norway) for truck side insulation. This is ideal for trade shows or indoor signs. I think in the UK there is a blue or pink insulation foam in lower density.
In the UK you have a company called Ciba that produce a really nice HDU called Cibatool they used to be in Duxford Ciba Speciality Chemicals PLC, there products are for industrial tooling but are much harder than Precision Board and Sign-Foam which are the 2 main US manufacturers, but have distributors in the UK. I use a board from Ciba that is called BM5135 .37g density, disadvantage is that its only available in smaller sizes.
There must be other companies making boards in the Uk for prototype engineering etc, where you can specify a density to suit the job, the US boards are often 15lbs or 18lbs density.
Spandex do something called SignRoc which is 1500mm x 750mm which is similar.
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