Sign Builder Supplement July 2014

SBI Installs

M85 87 Ft Working Height 30x54 Inch Platform 750 Lb Platform Capacity No CDL Required

A supplement to:

An overview of various sign installations.

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Sign Builder Illustrated // November 2013

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Introduction

It Starts with Safety

T

his special Sign Builder Illustrated: Installs supplement contains articles detailing projects that sign installers have recently put up.

However if there’s one motto you should keep in mind before beginning any type of sign installation, it’s “safety first!”

Two big pieces of equipment regularly used in installs are bucket trucks and cranes, and a couple of vehicle manufacturers are here to offer some advice to help you safely operate this equipment.

Bryan Wilkerson, vice president of Wilkie Mfg., LLC (www.wilkiemfg.com), points out the following pieces of safety advice to follow when working in a bucket/basket during a sign installation: + “Always wear your body harness and belt off to an approved anchor point any time that you’re elevated off the ground. Follow the OSHA guidelines as laid out in OSHA 29 Code of Federal Regulation, Subpart M, Fall Protection, 1926.500, 1926.501, 1926.502, and 1926.503. + “Watch for overhead power lines before you begin work. The proper clearance for working around power lines is laid out in OSHA sections.” + “Make sure the equipment that you will be working on is adequately stabilized.

This could include stabilizer pads, wheel chocks, outriggers, or other devices as required by the manufacture of your lift.” + “Be familiar with the equipment that you are working with and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations in operation and maintenance.”

Sign Cranes: Meanwhile according to David Phillips of Elliott Equipment Company (www.elliottequip.com), the most common causes for crane accidents in urban environments are easily avoidable with good training, maintenance, and plenty of planning.

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SBI Installs // July 2014

One of the most common types of accidents with cranes is tipovers, and to prevent these, Phillips advises: + “Set the crane up on a firm, level surface with adequate support for outrigger/stabilizer loads. Thin concrete, hot asphalt, and partially frozen ground may not support outrigger loads.” + “Riggers must be able to accurately determine weights and distances and be able to select and properly use lifting tackle for the requirements of the lift.” + “Do not side-load the boom. Not only can this cause tipping, but it can

also result in sudden structural failure.” + “Do not lift loads if wind can create a hazard. Winds aloft can be much stronger than at the ground.” + “All wire ropes should be thoroughly inspected at regular intervals. The longer it has been in service or the more severe the service, the more thoroughly and frequently it should be inspected.”

For more tips related to avoiding falls, tipping, and electrocution when using service trucks and equipment, check out the expanded version of this article online at www.signshop.com. signshop.com

Photos (cover and this page): elliott equipment company.

Bucket Trucks:

Photos (cover and this page): elliott equipment company.

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Pylon Sign | By Jeff Wooten

A Toast to a Successful Install

all photos: serrato signs.

A sign shop gets into the “spirits� of a wine bottle sign install.

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SBI Installs // July 2014

signshop.com

Installation Tip: Sign Cranes “Each outrigger should be visible to the operator or to a signal person during extension or setting.”

—David Phillips, Elliott Equipment

The old O’Hara’s sign was very dated. Its face was faded, and it really needed a fresh look.

S

ometimes one thing can lead to another—especially when it comes to sign fabrication. Just ask Andy Serrato, secondgeneration owner of custom sign manufacturer & installer

Serrato Signs, LLC (www.serratosigns.com) in Worcester, Massachusetts. What started out as a simple request for an electronic message center (EMC) soon grew into his shop also building and installing a brand-new awning…and a giant-sized wine bottle. signshop.com

O’Hara’s Wine and Liquors is a fullservice liquor store that’s also located in Worcester, but its plain, fluorescent-lit, pole-mounted cabinet sign had faded.

The establishment’s owner, Jim Vasiliadis, bought the business twenty years ago but had never changed the sign out. It was time for a fresh look.

So Vasiliadis contacted Serrato. “There were two new liquor stores opening within a one-mile radius,” says Serrato, “and July 2014 // SBI Installs

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Pylon Sign | By Jeff Wooten

he didn’t want to get lost.”

As mentioned, Vasiliadis originally only requested switching the changeable copy portion of the sign to an EMC. But during his initial discussion, Vasiliadis mentioned how he always thought a wine bottle image would make a cool sign feature.

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SBI Installs // July 2014

This sparked Serrato’s imagination.

“Instead of putting a wine bottle graphic on the sign face, I instead suggested making the wine bottle the sign itself,” he says.

Serrato believes that conversation with the customer during the design stages is crucial. “We always try to find out their

likes and tastes and who they are as a company,” he says. “I often tell them to drive around the city and let me know what signs and awnings they like.” (Note: From there, Serrato will meet the customer on location and look at their building to work up signage that will complement it best.)

One could say that signage ideas come naturally to Serrato. His father, Louis, started the company back in 1945 out of a garage attached to a one-family cottage.Today Andy has grown the business to its current staff of twelve employees. “We couldn’t have done what we’ve done today without our incredible team here,” he says.

On the O’Hara’s sign, the design process proved tricky. The idea was to craft the sign cabinet in the shape of a wine bottle and then cover it with a vinyl print.

Serrato researched wine bottle images online and explained to his designer that he wanted it to be positioned at an incline angle—as if it’s going off the sign.

However it took a bit of tweaking to get the bottle to look more like a sign. Everything on the bottle appeared dark at first.

The solution rested in the top foil. “After back-and-forth discussions about the lack of white on a wine bottle—it’s not a bottle, it’s a sign!—I came up with the gold top nugget to make it ‘pop’ more,” says Serrato.

The sign frame for the wine bottle cabinet was made from one-inch square tubing and body-skinned with aluminum.

The digital print was output from the shop’s Roland printer to a backlit white piece of Lexan where it was then cut to fit the face. “The bottle and the face are flat, so we put a gradient on the digital print to give it a curved look,” says Serrato.

The finished wine bottle cabinet measures 44 inches wide and 12-feet, 8-inches tall. Vasiliadis didn’t want to use a lot of lamps to light the bottle, so Serrato placed six strands of SloanLED PosterBOX 6500K modules around the interior edge of the sign with the lights facing toward the center of the box.

What’s interesting is that while PosterBOX is used to illuminate large areas with minimal modules, they’re usually mounted in shallower, thinner poster frames.

Serrato credits Ken Davis from Davis Advertising for introducing the product to signshop.com

him and salesman Dave Disaia, Jr., from Garston Sign Supply for convincing him to use it here. “We tried different angles and amounts,” says Serrato. “It really lights up brightly.”

For the EMC, Serrato contacted his Watchfire LED representative, Ben Barr, and they selected a 16mm unit that measures 41 inches tall-by-6-1/4 feet wide. “[Vasiliadis] originally wanted a four-byfour-foot model, but I explained to him that a wider sign would fit his location and prove better for graphics,” says Serrato.

After removing the old sign cabinet, Serrato Signs cut off the top section of the existing pole. “We slid a new eight-inch square steel tube into it and welded it into place,” says Serrato. “We then wrapped a pole cover around the pole.”

The EMC was installed first and then the wine bottle on top of it. “The square tubing welded to the main pole holds the EMC up,” says Serrato, “and another square piece of tubing goes up into the wine bottle. This lined everything up correctly.”

Since the wine bottle weighs 300 pounds, an Elliott crane was used to lift the sign while installers in two bucket trucks guided it into place. “One bucket was lined up in front and the other above it, so we could get the wine bottle up against the pole and weld it into place,” says Serrato.

While Vasiliadis was pleased with the install, Serrato thought more work could be done to improve the aesthetics of the property—particularly the business’s entrance.

The owner was using an old metal canopy, so Serrato suggested an awning.

The awning was fabricated from CooleyBrite material in two sections. “It goes down the building,” says Serrato, adding that graphics and text were added through eradication, “and then turns at an angle.”

During site surveys, Serrato put some flat stock on the building to get the necessary angle and clamped it into place. “It wasn’t a true 30- or 45-degree angle; it was somewhere in-between,” he says. “So we custom-made a special bracket and attached it to the building to ensure the proper angle. Then we made the frame.”

The awning is four feet tall with a four-foot projection, so Serrato ran fourfoot-long white SloanLED HighLINER signshop.com

strands on the back wall three feet apart.

He then placed five strands of white HighLINER within the awning dome— three across the bottom area and two up above it and mounted to the back wall.

Installation of all the signs took place during normal business operating hours.

“The sign wasn’t really a challenge,” says Serrato, “because we were able to set up to the side and not block the entranceway.

For the awning, we’d have to stop occasionally and let customers in.”

In the end, everyone celebrated the installation of this unique sign solution.

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Interior Signage | By Jeff Wooten

Hanging signs complement the industrial-looking interior of Duff’s Cakemix studio.

Hanging signs and window graphics are installed for a high-profile bakery.

F

ans of Food Network’s TV series Ace of Cakes are familiar with celebrity chef and television personality Duff Goldman’s line-up of imaginative theme cakes. Goldman recently co-opened Duff’s Cakemix, an interactive design bakery/doit-yourself cake studio on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles that serves up the star’s delectable treats and teaches visitors how to

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SBI Installs // July 2014

decorate cakes and cupcakes.

For the interior of Duff’s Cakemix, Co-Owner/Organizer Katelyn Rader wanted to use menus and stations that would complement the industrial-looking environment, so she searched for sign shops to make this a reality.

“Because we’re two businesses under one roof, it’s very important to have all

the information disseminated to my customers clearly and concisely,” says Rader, “especially since design plays a huge role in our business.”

After checking out the Web site for Signs

By Tomorrow in Santa Clarita, California (www.signsbytomorrow.com/santaclarita) and being impressed by its clean, professional look, Rader contacted Co-Owner Becky signshop.com

all photos: signs by tomorrow, santa clarita, CA.

Installation Ingredients

Hargrave. “They were super-knowledgeable, quick, and organized,” says Rader.

“I believe that Katelyn felt comfortable knowing that we understood what her needs were and taking that extra time to discuss ideas,” says Hargrave.

Becky and her husband Rod opened Signs By Tomorrow-Santa Clarita in 2005, and their sign work has grown ever since.

Today they have four full-time employees (and one part-time employee) to help build and install a large variety of signage: retail graphics, tradeshow displays, wall murals, wraps, banners, wayfinding, ADA, etc. “We’re also a full-service provider for exterior architectural signs—enveloping conceptual drawings and pulling permits,” says Becky Hargrave.

In-shop their well-rounded group of printers allows them to offer a wider variety of graphics solutions to clients: A Seiko 64 ColorPainter large format eco-solvent printer, a CET FK512 UV flatbed printer, and their most recent addition, an HP L260 large format ecofriendly latex printer.

According to Hargrave, during initial discussions, Rader only had a general idea as to hanging menus but not much more than that. “Once she explained to me what she was looking for, I knew exactly what would fit her needs,” she says.

Due to the size of the frames Rader felt she needed, Signs By Tomorrow suggested Testrite Monster Frames made out of anodized aluminum. “And we custom-built [the frames] so they’d fit their sizes,” says Hargrave.

However Monster Frame is made in such a way that the inside viewable area is not the same as the outside dimension of the frame. So when the Duff ’s Cakemix design group was supplying printready artwork to Signs By Tomorrow, Hargrave gave them specific instructions on the margins within the viewable area, and she reviewed artwork as soon as it arrived. “If the border was getting too close to the edge of the frame, we had to have them redo it,” she says.

Signs By Tomorrow successfully printed the menu boards onto lightweight, sturdy 3/16-inch Ultra® Board foam-core panels using their CET FK512 UV flatbed. signshop.com

Window graphics were installed on the interior side of the windows, so as to avoid the possibility of vandalism from the large amount of everyday passers-by.

The frame itself is side-loading, so when Duff’s Cakemix employees get ready to change out the graphics or update prices, they can pull it out from the side and easily replace it.

Some of the boards also feature small inserts of Velcro® to aid the DIY bakery in changing out “Flavor of the Month” specials themselves. “If we later change our

Testrite Monster Frames made out of anodized aluminum were used to create the hanging menu signs.

pricing or menu options, I’ll go back to [Hargrave] to update them,” says Rader.

Initial discussions also involved three prominent window graphics featuring “parking in back” information, store hours, and a promotion of the bakery’s Intelligentsia Coffee blend that Signs By Tomorrow would print and install.

To deter the possibility of vandalism by the large groups of walk-by traffic, Hargrave determined the window graphics needed to be installed to the interior side of the windows. Several different types of vinyl were employed.

Signs By Tomorrow used its Seiko ecosolvent printer to reverse-print on a clear, adhesive-backed laminate and then backed it with white vinyl. They then contour-cut it and reverse-weeded the graphics.

“Most printers don’t print white ink, so that becomes a little bit of a challenge— especially on a window where you’ve got reflection and you need the white to help the graphic ‘pop,’” says Hargrave.

The first signage Signs By Tomorrow installed for Duff ’s Cakemix were just two of the three window graphics via the dry method of application. This was done on-purpose by Hargrave for a couple of reasons: (1.) To have additional face time with Rader and find out what else she might need, and (2.)

July 2014 // SBI Installs

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Interior Signage | By Jeff Wooten

to survey the facility and figure out how to hang the menus.

“The ceiling is very industrial-looking,” says Hargrave. “It’s wide open with huge, super-duty, orange I-beams.”

The menus/stations are all hung overhead. Their installation involved two persons standing on ladders. Signs By Tomorrow installers ended up having to invest in bits that could be drilled through the very thick I-beams.

Because there are eyelets at the top of the Monster Frame that are bolted in, Hargrave used industrial hardware and zinc chain (instead of thinner earthquake cable) to hang them from the ceiling. “Zinc was also perfect for that raw, industrial look, as the frames are brushed aluminum,” she says.

There were a total of ten frames installed. The Signs By Tomorrow-Santa Clarita installers had to ensure that they were all hanging at the same height and

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secured with the proper hardware.

Installation here took place afterhours, since Signs By Tomorrow didn’t want to drill into the I-beams because of possibilities of oil or metal shavings dropping and falling into food. And as you might expect, drilling through metal I-beams proved tedious and slow going.

After the initial project was complete, Signs By Tomorrow was called back to add an industrial-looking, functional hanging board with bins and peg board hooks to display merchandise. “We used the same Monster Frame system and a printed graphic for the Ultra Board header,” says Hargrave.

The bottom 3/4 of the frame insert is white pegboard. The challenge was to connect the two materials together within the frame and still have it look finished. “We connected the top header to the pegboard with an aluminum bracket/strip on the back and silver

Installation Tip: Site Survey “Seeing the site before doing an installation helps you understand what tools you will need, how many people you will need, and how much time it is going to take.”

—Becky Hargrave hardware on the face and screwed them together,” says Hargrave.

Hargrave says that a sign project can be as good or as bad as your client and describes Rader as a dream. “Having someone listen and make suggestions is what she was looking for. Building that relationship will give us a long-term client,” she says, noting that Duff’s Cakemix is planning on opening more locations in the future. “As they do, we’ll have an opportunity to grow with them—which we love!”

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Vehicle Wraps | By Jeff Wooten

A Real Solid Wrap Install

O

ne of the most popular styles of vehicle wraps these days are solid-color changes, and if installed correctly, nobody will be able to notice your work here. But that’s a good thing— especially for customers looking for an alternative to pricier custom paint jobs!

There are several reasons why solid-color vehicle wrap transformations are appealing to customers. “The main attraction would be the cost,” says Sean Dale, owner of FastTrac Designs (www.fast-tracdesigns.com), a one-stop vehicle wrap, screen-printing, and graphics company in Phoenix, Arizona, “as they’re more likely to fit their budget than painting.

“And a solid-color wrap is a great way for the owner to get a new car look without having to purchase a new car.”

Car owners can also get their vehicles back much faster. “A solid-color change wrap can be completed in two days, as opposed to spending three to five days in a paint booth,” says Dale.

Recently Fast-Trac completed a solidcolor transformation on a Mercedes. The

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customer wanted a clean look for his black car, and Fast-Trac ended up applying a bright white to it. The result is quite literally night-and-day.

Fast-Trac went with 3M Matte White 1080-M10. The interior wooden-like accents were covered in 3M 1080-CF10 white carbon fiber vinyl.

This wasn’t the first solid-color vinyl vehicle transformation Fast-Trac has worked on. They’ve dabbled before with color switches on hoods and roofs and even applied them to boats.

If you’re interested in taking on this kind of work, be aware that there are a lot of different vinyl materials out there for these types of wraps. According to Dale, prior to beginning a color transformation wrap, it’s important to decide what type of material is going to be used.You also have to explain to the customer what type of maintenance will be required afterwards.

“Once that’s done, inspect the vehicle to see if there’s any severe paint or body damage. If so, you may reconsider wrapping it,” he says.

all photos: fast-trac designs.

Solid colors are transforming the wrap industry.

Fast-Trac Designs transformed a Mercedes from black to bright white through a solid-color change using 3M vinyl.

July 2014 // SBI Installs

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Next Fast-Trac Designs will order the material, keeping in mind how much will be needed. “Having enough material onhand is very important,” says Dale.

It took Fast-Trac installers about two days to complete this Mercedes color transformation. “After the installation, we wiped the entire vehicle down with isopropyl alcohol,” says Dale. “If there was an area of the matte white vinyl that got a little dirty during installation, we used a Mr. Clean® Magic Eraser® to clean the area.

“We set the vehicle outside for an hour or two and then inspected it to make sure all the wheel wells and bumper areas weren’t lifting.”

Dale describes solid-color wraps as “meticulous.” “The entire vehicle must be covered smoothly,” he says, “including around the edges and in the contours.”

He also points out that the media can be more challenging to work with. “The material is not laminated, therefore, it is thinner and requires high care and proper tools during installation,” says Dale. “It gathers finger prints and dust.

“It also cannot be heated with a propane torch like most general wraps.”

Fast-Trac provides a care package when a customer receives a wrap and a thirty-day checkup where they’ll inspect how the wrap is holding up and make any needed repairs.

The owner of the Mercedes will have to keep up maintenance, since Matte White vinyl shows imperfections. “We told them the vehicle will have to be hand-washed only with non-abrasive solvents,” says Dale.

“And it cannot be waxed, as that will take away from the matte finish.”

Installation Tip: Vehicle Wraps “Our installation bay is climate controlled and 100 percent clean of dirt or dust.

We have lights placed in strategic areas for maximum light. Good lighting is a must with Matte White vinyl to —Sean Dale keep it clean.”

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signshop.com

The Wilkie Model 58XRB Is designed from the start with your needs in mind.

• Power level power rotate basket with easy front entry to access the work in front of you.

• Jib winch which stores behind the basket when not in use.

• Storable mainline winch for quick conversion from service truck to capable hydraulic crane.

• All hydraulic extension for ease of maintenance and smooth extension.

• Sliding face rest.

• Joystick controls in basket.

• Available in two load ratings standard rating # max load at 23’ or 1995# in Wilkie’s reduced rating at 23’ • Full 360 degree working rating.

• Optional: 110 volt outlet in basket, Welding leads in basket, Air outlet in basket, Pressure washer in basket.

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Wilkie Mfg., L.L.C. 2640 NW 2nd street Oklahoma City, OK 73107 (405)235-0920 Phone (405)236-3324 Fax www.wilkiemfg.com