Making an Acrylic Exterior Sign

[Aaron Koehl]

So, I've been amiss in posting the pictures documenting my sign creation experience. Here's the original thread from last year:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=88816

Not being a high-production sign shop (like Keith's), I am fortunate enough to have a very large enclosed area in which to work. The down side is that my tool selection is somewhat lacking. This is changing, however, as each new project gives me reason to add to my arsenal. :D

There's a deceivingly large number of steps to creating a back-lit, painted acrylic sign, and I took a picture at each step. The most overlooked step, of course, is gathering materials. What should be a simple task often takes much longer than one would expect. Having an established supplier is great, but unfortunately, there's no single place to get the cheapest price on everything, especially where I am. This means I had to spend a couple of days tracking down suppliers, driving to Norfolk for paint, picking up substrates elsewhere, figuring out what extra tools I needed to buy, and so on. I called around and found 4 suppliers for white acrylic sheet within a 45 minute drive, all within $30 of the same price per sheet. Unfortunately, a little buyers remorse set in when I found a 5th supplier a full $60 cheaper per sheet--after the fact.

So, for established sign shops, I'm sure some of you might have suggestions on how you do business. For those who want to relive this experience vicariously, read on. All in all, it was fun!

The sign was for a church, and specified a painted, 4'x8' 3-color back-lit acrylic sign, with letter track and additional vinyl lettering, and was to go into a lightbox in direct sunlight most of the day. Easy enough, right? After getting the customer to sign off on the design, I set about ordering vinyl, getting materials together (and buying some more tools).

I first cut the vinyl on the (Graphteq) vinyl plotter. To mask the area to be painted, I used a light-tack clear translucent vinyl mask (Oracal)--it worked great, and eased the process of aligning the mask for the second paint color. I then cut additional opaque black vinyl for the additional (non-painted) lettering required on the sign. I am going to skip the process of weeding the vinyl, and applying the application tape--that's another show.

The vinyl is weeded, the application tape is applied to the vinyl 'banners' and smoothed, and this brings us to the first picture. Unfortunately, all of the pictures say August 2004--I didn't realize I the timestamp setting was turned on, and to make matters worse, the date was off by 4 years. I am using 1/4" white cast acrylic sheet. Lesson learned: a thinner acrylic sheet would flex much easier into the lightbox, but it did serve its purpose just fine.

I don't own a table saw or panel saw, but I do have a guided circular saw with zero-clearance anti-chip inserts. ;) I have two 50-inch heavy duty aluminum extrusions aligned end-to-end, perfect for cutting panels. The track is clamped down from below directly to the substrate, and here I am squaring up the panels, and reducing the height to fit into the lightbox. This particular guided track is a EurekaZone and the saw is a Makita fitted with the smart base and stock blade.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/675.jpg


Cutting to height

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/676.jpg


Clamped from underneath

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/679.jpg


Zero-clearance directly on the cut line

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/683.jpg


My dust collector. (Update: not true, I finally got a ShopVac)

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/685.jpg


The protective mask on the acrylic sheet works great as a paint mask. (Note: it may contain small pinholes, however) Here I am using the smart guide as a 100" straight edge, and using an X-acto knife, I am removing the mask in the area to be painted.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/692.jpg


Cutting along the guide, to use the protect sheet as a mask.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/694.jpg


Peeling back the area to be painted.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/695.jpg


Applying the Vinyl Mask

Once the acrylic is squared and prepped, the translucent vinyl mask can be applied. Applying vinyl is a pretty simple three-step process, once you get the hang of it.

In my original drawing, I added registration marks for aligning and squaring the graphic to the extents of the acrylic sheet. (blue squares)
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/698.jpg


It's much easier to apply vinyl in halves. By taping down the center, we create a hinge.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/700.jpg

Folding down the center and removing the mask backing.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/701.jpg

Peeling back the vinyl backing, leaving the vinyl and application tape.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/702.jpg

The masking is cut off at a convenient location within the graphic.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/703.jpg

Letters applied with the 14" squeegee. No bubbles where the vinyl is.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/706.jpg

Pulling back the application tape, and leaving the mask in place.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/707.jpg

All vinyl mask applied, ready for painting.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/709.jpg

Painting

Though I have a good sized paint room, it's not currently outfitted with an exhaust system. This would have been preferable given the humidity last August. However, I decided to paint outside, choosing instead to adjust the amount of thinner in my spray. Respirator definitely required, this paint is nasty stuff!

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/710.jpg

Front side, ready for paint. You can see the shadows behind the translucent sign.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/713.jpg

My paint setup. Lacryl 400 with corresponding thinner, priced by the quart, purchased by the gallon. About $100/can, this stuff is special for plastic, and designed to hold up its color and adhesion in the heat. It dries to the touch very quickly, which is very nice indeed.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/714.jpg

Freshly and thoroughly coated. You'll notice the paint darkens considerably in the next few pictures to the final midnight-blue.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/716.jpg


Just a short while later, I am peeling back the translucent vinyl mask. Again, this paint is wonderful, with very clean lines.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/718.jpg

Here the letters are fully weeded.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/720.jpg

Pulling the rest of the mask off.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/721.jpg

Nearly complete, the paint is at its final darkness.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/723.jpg

Finishing

The cross in the middle is supposed to be red, and has to be masked and painted. Rather than buying a gallon of red SprayLat Lacryl, I took my chances with a can of Valspar Plastic Fusion paint, which has held up exceedingly well, a year later.

Here a second piece of translucent vinyl mask is matched up to the registration marks and applied.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/724.jpg

The outer area is masked to prevent overspray, and to protect the letters 'C'. In inadvertently cut the C's out but a couple pieces of scrap vinyl sufficed to cover them back up.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/725.jpg

Spraying using a little Valspar Fusion paint.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/727.jpg

All masking is removed. The blue paint is unaffected by the mask's light adhesion.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/728.jpg

Black vinyl (weeded and masked) is laid out for application.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/729.jpg

Letter Track

Here I am cutting the letter track to length. There are many different kinds of letter track-- these were purchased to support the customer's existing box of acrylic letters. Here in the South (and presumably elsewhere?), churches like to put sayings on their signs when there are no pertinent announcements.

Cutting the letter track to length. The plastic track is bowed and slightly warped along its length. Thus, I employ a couple of spring clamps to hold the track flat against the center of my smart guide, to measure and mark for the cut.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/732.jpg

Warped Letter Track!

Letter track held straight using pieces of masking tape at the inflection points where it wanted to cup. This technique worked really well, as the track was serpentine, but the tape was plenty strong enough.

Track applied using Weld-On #4 (plastic bonding adhesive) and a 19 gauge syringe. (The syringe works much better than the applicators you can buy at the sign supply; these don't clog and the angled tip is just right.) Track is held down using a chunk of aluminum which was the perfect length and plenty heavy. (Just happened to borrow 4 of them from my father in law. Thanks Keith!)

You can see how much curvature is in the track over even a few inches, as I haven't stuck down the last bit of masking tape on the bottom track yet. Track was supplied by GrimCo (very nice to deal with), and in this case, I am using three varieties of track: upper, lower, and combination tracks for the acrylic letters. The letters are being used here to prop the track up, just in case in wants to flop over.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/733.jpg

Installation

The sign is actually a two-sided sign. Here is a second one ready for installation. Note the vinyl lettering is on the opposing side, to be closest to the road.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/670.jpg

Finished Sign

Here is the sign, after a full year of use. This picture was taken in the pouring rain, so there's quite a bit of water on the lightbox face. (I'll try to take another one in better weather, and after I clean the sign off.) Also, it looks like someone put the 'K' upside down this week. :rolleyes:

The lightbox itself has been around for a good 10 years, so it's about time for the top and frame to be repainted, and the moss power-washed from the brick. The garden in front gets replanted every June, so that's about due. The sign inside is holding up great.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/aaron/severn/final.jpg


Hope you enjoyed.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed explanation Aaron! Very well documented and very nice looking final product. For what it's worth, I did one of those recently and used 3/16" "Sign White" material. They gave me a choice, 1/8" or 3/16", so I went with 3/16". When I removed the one existing one that was in the lightbox, it was 1/8", and it was clear. It had been painted completely with a product like Lacryl. They masked off the area the light would come through as white, painted the base color, then removed the mask and painted it all white. So the white shining through was actually clear, painted white. It was all done from the backside as well. They say when you do it like that, the finish will hold up over 20 years. I haven't done it that way yet, but hope to try it out soon.

Thanks again for sharing!

[Phil Phelps]

Nice work, Aaron. The next time you might want to reverse cut your colored vinyl. That way you don't have to paint anything. The vinyl is your background color. You'll need to learn how to laminate it on the Plexiglas with out any air bubbles. Using clear Plexiglas and doing all of your copy on the backside is common practice. However, if you want the entire sign to glow, you need to use a specific paint for that purpose. Gripflex is a product that is transparent enough to allow the sign to illuminate, but it won't have spray streaks bleeding through as you will using other paints. I haven't used Lacryl products and can't speak for them. Is the top of the sign metal? Google Matthews Paints and check out their website. Matthews paint can match any color of any product on planet earth.

[Scott Shepherd]

Lacryl is made exclusively for using on backlight signs. It's in the same market with Matthews and Akzo Nobel products. It's a competitor of the GripFlex product, except less expensive.

[Phil Phelps]

Lacryl is made exclusively for using on backlight signs. It's in the same market with Matthews and Akzo Nobel products. It's a competitor of the GripFlex product, except less expensive.
So, he did need to illuminate the blue? I don't do many outdoor signs mainly because of city code.

[Scott Shepherd]

So, he did need to illuminate the blue?

I have no idea if he needed to illuminate the blue, but I actually spoke with the SprayLat rep (lacryl is their product) last week and we discussed several of their products for an application we have coming up. He explained that Lacryl is translucent and meant only for signs that use backlighting. If you wanted a solid color that wasn't translucent, then they have a different product.

I would image you could use translucent vinyl as you mentioned. Only difference I would see if that one had a life span of about 10 years and one has a lifespan well over 20 years. So I guess it just depends on the job and what the customer wants and can afford.

[Aaron Koehl]

Indeed, with the Lacryl, the light shines very well through both the blue and white- the entire sign is illuminated. I think the paint will hold up longer than vinyl, especially given the heat and full-sun exposure.

The top of the sign and lightbox frame are both metal-- in the picture it's partially wet and partially dry.

[AL Ursich]

Great Project !!!!

I learned much looking.

Thanks,

AL:)

[Joe Pelonio]

Beautiful sign and nicely done tutorial!

I too wondered about using paint rather than reverse weed translucent vinyl, but the life of the vinyl is at best 7-8 years, so if the paint does better then it's worth the extra work for durability. But then you did use vinyl for the lettering down below.

[Aaron Koehl]

Thanks! Funny you should mention.. I let them know the vinyl below would only last about 5 years. Though I have not had to do it yet, I suspect the replacement vinyl could be cleaned and done in-place.

[Joe Pelonio]

Yes, we do that all the time. On a sunny day, or with a heat-gun or hair dryer it will peel off, then use DNA to clean off any residual adhesive. The only problem is that by the the sun will have faded around it so the old letters will be slightly visible as brighter white. That shouldn't matter much since it's viewed from a distance.