G Street Sign Series: Part 1

As with most types of signs, hanging signs need some interior structure to make sure they stay securely in place. Over their lifetime, signs are subjected to high winds and endless gravity. And of course, there is also the occasional “macho dude” who sees something like a hanging sign and suddenly has to prove how tough he is by jumping up and doing a few chin-ups. We always want to be sure that our signs will withstand the vagaries of weather and weirdos and an internal welded steel frame is our insurance policy.

In the G Street sign’s case, the frame was made from 5/8" solid steel bar. This level of structure is probably overkill but better safe than sorry — after all, it is impossible to make something too strong!

The sign will be suspended by the cast steel eye bolts (which are rated for 5000 pounds each - more than enough!). Once the frame was welded we laid it on the (interior) back of the sign to marked out where it would go. Then, using the die grinder we cut in a 1/2" deep slot not the sign.

We repeated this step on the second side as well, test fitting dry to make sure everything lined up tight.

Then we spread on the Coastal Enterprises PB Bond-240 glue which is formulated for Precision Board HDU. We misted the Precision Board with water to activate the glue and clamped it up tight to dry.

Once the steel is firmly glued inside the sign it was time to glue on the rest of the sign’s detail.

Below you can see the results of our efforts — just waiting for paint.

See you next week!