The Award-Winning Lunsford Think-A-Ma-Jig Sign

2018 marks Lunsford Sign Works 27th year in business.  To celebrate they decided to do a complete rebranding, including a new sign for their business. They set out to create a landmark sign that would really convey their passion for the craft and at the same time be a larger than life, traffic-stopping work of art.  To do that took four years of planning, countless man hours and a sign that would be put together with Precision Board HDU, aluminum, steel and glass.  Owner Joel Lunsford walks us through what it took to bring the Think-A-Ma-Jig to life.

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“After 25 plus years, we wanted to shift our focus to what we really enjoy making: three-dimensional architectural signage, found object sculpture, custom lighting, dimensional illustration and decorative iron work,” says Lunsford. “We finally came up with the concept entitled ‘Think-A-Ma-Jig’. A magical device inspired by three of my heroes: Rube Goldberg, Dr. Seuss, (after all, some clients think that we can just pull out their creative designs from our cat’s tall striped hat) and world renowned dimensional illustrator, the late Eugene Hoffman,” he added.

It took Joel and his team about two years to get the design mostly finalized and ready for fabrication. Production took place over the course of another two years during their slow periods and was finalized last fall. It took more than 1,000 man hours to create the sign as they obsessed over every shop drawing detail. It stands 22 feet tall and weighs about three tons (not including the four tons of concrete at its base).

“We used every tool in the box to fabricate it including our CNC router, plasma and water-jet cutters, welders of different types and all of our heavy-lift equipment,” Joel adds.

Joel says, “the Think-A-Ma-Jig sign was fabricated from Coastal Enterprises Precision Board in multiple layers, aluminum plate, blown glass and steel. We used Matthews metallic paint finishes for all of the lettering and in direct sunlight the lettering acts like a golden beacon which is seen for miles!” He added, “Modern Masters Metal Effects rust coating was used on many of the Precision Board parts to make them indistinguishable from real steel and cut down on some of the weight. Because of the sign’s enormous girth, it was built in sections and assembled outside.”

Lunsford used PBLT-18 Precision Board HDU in two layers of the same density.  They used a Multicam CNC to machine and create the carved prismatic lettering and some of the machine-looking components.  The layers were all glued together using PB Fast Set.

Joel adds, “we like to use Precision Board because it’s easy to machine and durable.  Most importantly we like Coastal Enterprises as a company.  They have done a lot to promote our industry and care about their customers.”

Lunsford’s Think-A-Ma-Jig sign won an award in 2017 in the USSC Sign Contest for “Freestanding Sign, External Illumination or Non-illuminated”.

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Lunsford Sign Works is an award-winning design and custom sign fabrication company located in the central Rocky Mountains. Their primary service area extends throughout the resort regions of Colorado, but their products can be seen both nationally and internationally.

While they are a full service commercial sign company, they specialize in hand-crafted, three-dimensional, architectural signage. Lunsford combines the latest in computer technology with old-world craftsmanship to create both electric and non-electric signs. You can visit their website or give them a call at 970-725-3925. They are located in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO.

Coastal Enterprises offers free samples of Precision Board HDU in any density.  Sign up for our newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our helpful blogs!

Subarctic Signage: Lunsford Signs Makes It Happen

What do you do if you’re a sign maker located in the Rocky Mountains, a region that the Koppen Climate Classification system lists as having a subarctic climate, and you want to make signs that last? Heck, the signs you make aren’t going to have to just stand up to a little rain and sprinkler water, they’re likely facing blizzards and very big hailstones. That means you need to build your signs out of durable materials and build them strong.

This brings us to our longtime friend Joel Lunsford, owner of Lunsford Signs in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO. Years of working with Joel have led to a great amount of admiration for his work making signs last in such a freezing climate.

Joel sent in pictures of one of his most recent signs made out of Precision Board PBLT-20, and it sure is a sturdy-looking sign. The sign was made to replace a wood sign that had seen better days at the Winding River Resort (located on the border of the Rocky Mountain National Park), and was probably installed around the time John Candy starred in everyone’s favorite outdoors movie, The Great Outdoors.

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Using Corel DRAW, Joel designed a sign that would match the Winding River Resort’s rustic theme and got to work. Starting with a sheet of 1.5″ x 4′ x 8′ Precision Board PBLT-20, he cut out letters, barb wire and the background with his CNC router, then hand textured the background to resemble carved wood. Once that was finished, he laminated it to a piece of dibond using PB Bond-240, our one-part urethane adhesive. Next, Joel finished the sign with the Matthews Paint system, resulting in a protective, weatherproof finish.

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Since this sign could be facing some seriously harsh weather, Joel welded a supporting frame out of 2″ aluminum square tubes and secured it to the back of the sign. The metal designs on top were waterjet cut out of 1/4″ plate aluminum, and the posts are 16′ long douglas fir timbers, treated with tar on the bottom four feet and set into concrete.

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The post structure was so large it had to be assembled on the trailer when it came time for the install. Upon arrival at the job site, Joel’s crane truck was used to lift the massive structure out of the trailer and install it in the final resting point. According to Joel, “We choose to use Precision Board PBLT-20 for our carved dimensional signs because we are impressed with its fabrication qualities and performance characteristics. From CNC routing to hand carving, to painting, and ultimately, its exterior durability, we can count on Precision Board to produce our high-quality resort-oriented signage”. As the job came to a close, Joel took some pictures of his beautiful sign and sent them to us to share with you.

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Lunsford Signs has been in business since 1996 is an award-winning design and custom fabrication company located in the central Rocky Mountains. They are a full-service commercial sign company and specialize in hand-crafted, three-dimensional architectural signage. Visit their website, www.lunsfordsigns.com, for more information.

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