The No-Limits HDU: Dimensional Signs of Any Size

Precision Board: Widest Variety of Sheet Sizes for Dimensional Signs

For signage professionals, no two projects are ever exactly the same. Every sign or display requires its own unique dimensions, different surface finishes, and special considerations that need attention. Since projects can vary so significantly, the worst thing for a skilled sign maker is to be held back by their materials. Many popular HDU sign boards are only available in a small range of sheet sizes, thicknesses, and densities. This forces sign makers to either alter their design to account for the limited substrate options, or cut what they need from a larger sheet, wasting a large amount of expensive material. No more! It’s time to stop tip-toeing around the capabilities of other manufacturers. It’s time to get exactly what you need for your dimensional signs with Precision Board Plus!

dimensional signs Precision Board

Signage professionals shouldn’t need to compromise when it comes to sign design. That’s why Precision Board Plus HDU is available in the widest variety of sheet sizes on the market. Precision Board comes in eight standard sheet sizes: 20”x60”, 24”x60”, 45”x60”, 30”x80”, 4’x8’, 5’x8’, 4’x10’, and 5’x10’. Not only that; we can provide any sheet thickness you need, up to 24 inches! Whether you need 1½”, 3⅜”, 5¾”, or any other sheet thicknesses you can think of, it’s no problem and no extra cost.  No more bonding multiple sheets together just to achieve the thickness you need: With Precision Board you can buy exactly what your project calls for, no bonding required.

dimensional signs Precision Board

5’x10′ sheet of PBLT-18 on Insignia Sign Company’s Multicam CNC Router

Stop making your job harder by buying sub-optimal HDU sign board. There’s no need to limit your creativity with the “standard” sheet sizes of other manufacturers, when you can buy exactly what you need with Precision Board. It’s time to stop working hard and start working smart. Get your sample of Precision Board today, and set yourself free from limited sheet sizes!

90 days and counting

We’ve attended many trade hows through the years and actively participated in various shows as well. The biggest one to date is the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions EXPO which is held in Orlando, Florida. The event boasts more than a thousand exhibitors and thirty thousand attendees from the amusement park industry around the world.

After attending the show since the 1990’s we finally pushed the go button to be a vendor there this year. We built our display booth this past winter while things were a little slow. In the next couple of weeks we’ll bring it back into the shop, clean it and tweak it with our latest stuff before sending it down the road to Florida. We’ve booked our travel arrangements, bought the required insurance, and let our theme park industry clients know we’ll be there. We’ve submitted our booth plan and even entered it into the Brass Ring Awards for prize consideration. We’re ready.

Now we count down the last ninety days in anticipation…

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Very special delivery

We build many very big projects in our shop. Building them in the shop makes good sense. Our tools are all handy there. Building in the shop means we can be efficient. The climate is always perfect and our materials are always in stock and handy. Best of all we can work regular hours and be home with our families in the off hours.

But once the projects are done we have to get them to our clients – wherever in the world they might be. Handling large pieces safely means it all has to be planned in from the very start. Our first questions to any client is how big can we build and how do we access the site. How will it be moved onsite. The answers effect the design in a big way!

We engineer lift points and sturdy frames into all of our projects to help us get the project around our shop but also to allow us to put it on a truck, secure it and allow it to be handled and eventually fastened down in it’s final location.

In the case of the Viking ships for Dubai everything had to fit into a standard size shipping container.

Today was shipping day for the first Viking ship plus a few other pieces for the targets. Load days are always exciting! About ten days ago we made arrangements with our client to have six containers on trucks delivered to our shop on this day. We also booked a sixty ton crane plus all necessary rigging to do the heavy lifting. The crane we booked has a small twenty by twenty foot footprint for its outboard legs plus the truck base protruding out from this. The space we had arranged the ship pieces was exactly that size plus a space for the trucks to back up to the crane for loading. Features were arranged all around filling every square foot of the driveway in front of the shop. Nothing was left for chance. Our big challenge of the day – load and send off six containers of features – weighing in at a total of 45,000 lbs.

As each truck (spaced out one hour apart) arrived some of our team would unfasten and strip off the canvas top and hoops before backing it up the driveway. I with a helper and the crane would load the large pieces into the container. Then another group of our crew would put the hoops back in place and re-secure the canvas top in place. This was repeated six times in six and a half hours.

The plan was carried out flawlessly and all of the pieces went in without a scratch thanks to the awesome teamwork of our entire crew plus helpful drivers and a very skilled and smooth crane operator.

THANKS!

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Business Signs by Gibbs Graphics

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Gibbs Graphics cracks the code for memorable HDU business signs

Gibbs Graphics is a full-service marketing team based out of Leavenworth, Washington. With a talented team of artists and designers on their roster, they can tackle the marketing needs of a company from top to bottom. This includes designing and building some very cool dimensional business signs with Precision Board HDU! Check out some of their weatherproof creations from last winter.

This time around, the job was to fabricate a sign for the Nutcracker Museum in Leavenworth, something fun and engaging to draw curious patrons from off the street. They designed a friendly-looking Bavarian nutcracker figure (affectionately nicknamed Karl) to hang above the heads of passersby. The nutcracker and its faux-wood mounting bracket would be made from Precision Board PBLT-18, then attached to steel frames for additional support.

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The initial shapes for Karl the Nutcracker, the mounting bracket, and a secondary sign were carved on the shop’s AXYZ CNC router. The Gibbs Graphics crew routed out a front and back face for the nutcracker and the mounting brackets, then used hand tools for the detail carving. Both high-tech CNC routers and basic hand carving tools are equally effective on Precision Board, giving sign makers a lot of freedom in their tool selection. 

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Next, the team primed their creations with our FSC-88 WB Primer. For painting, they used a bright color palette for Karl the Nutcracker and a faux-wood stain for the mounting bracket. You can see that the mounting bracket now closely resembles a long-handled nutcracker, right down to the acorn between the teeth! It’s this high level of detail work that really sets the piece apart and gives it personality.

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The final step was to mount the two signs over the Nutcracker Museum itself. The two pieces provide some great atmosphere for the museum, and will definitely generate a lot of foot traffic. Another job well done by Gibbs Graphics! Be sure to check out their website for more of their handcrafted designs. And if you’re in the Pacific Northwest, give them a call at 509-548-1226 to commission some eye-catching dimensional signage of your own!

Clear as a bell

In the last weeks whenever we’ve had hung visitors to our property I’ve taken them into the shop to look at the train. The visit includes climbing into the train engine cab and trying out the whistle and bell – much to the delight of the kids. While I also took delight in the loud noises I was watching how the kids used the equipment, taking mental notes on how to improve things. The kids couldn’t resist twisting the various taps (as intended). With the operating controls of the train on the right side the bell cord was on wrong side for the kids to pull. Back when I installed the bell I decided to create a fixed mount with the pull cord on the clanger. I noticed the younger kids pulled hard on the rope but didn’t instinctively let go. The resulting CLANK wasn’t right. Since I was gong to remount the bell to the other side of the train I decided to make a swing mount instead. While the old mount was made by hand we would have some high tech help this go around.
Using the brass bell as reference I drew it up roughly to scale, then using the drawing tools in EnRoute created the fancy shaped bracket. It would weld to the side of the steam dome of the locomotive as there wan’t room on top. I combined the crescent shape of the bracket to the mounting flange. 
The bell bracket was a fun little project taking about two hours from start to finish. It’s a whole lot easier to ring now and is a lot louder than previously. Kids are going to love it!
The pull arm was as simple as creating the arm shape and a donut on top and bottom. Once again the combine tool
I decided to add a few more holes in the bracket to be a little more decorative. The shaped would be welded into some 1″ flatcar to create I-beams.  The top piece (with the hole in the centre is to be welded at right angles to the shape just below it. The bell will bolt to this piece and it will pivot to ring.

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.