I"ve been asked to make my first sign, but before I say yes...

A local business (my accountant) has asked me if i can make a new sign for their exterior. They want something modern and I immediately thought acrylic would be a neat touch with some stand-offs. The problem is weather resistance and I had a few questions. Mainly, they want the letters on their sign to be reflective. I was thinking the gold or bronze mirrored acrylic on a 1/2 inch black acrylic backing. Will the mirrored acrylic itself hold up to the weather and will gluing the two acrylics together with weld-on 3 hold up? I've also heard rowmark bonds well to acrylic with weld-on and was thinking of the outdoor bronze plastic. Am I in over my head?

I have some mirror acrylic which I tried to glue with Weld-on 3
it melted the back where the mirror is and smeared it all over the place.
did not try any other glue
ken

Well, thats not good. is there an adhesive backing i could use i wonder? seems like something like that wouldn't really hold up outdoors.

What tools/machinery to you have at your disposal? Just the laser or other things as well? Any idea of the size sign we're talking about? What will it be mounted to?

I have a 25 watt trotec speedy 1 and two champion 1900 engravers. Not much I know. Its going to be 29x17 and mounted to brick.

I have done a few large signs with mirror acrylic on black PVC board, with a vinyl logo behind, for an added effect. There is a special adhesive that comes in caulk tubes made for mirrors, I used that and it has held up outdoors for about 5 years so far. I have also cut non-vinyl reflective
adhesive film and applied it to acrylic with transfer tape left on, then laser cut letters and that too has worked out fine but looked more street-sign-like.

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Originally Posted by Joe Pelonio

I have done a few large signs with mirror acrylic on black PVC board, with a vinyl logo behind, for an added effect. There is a special adhesive that comes in caulk tubes made for mirrors, I used that and it has held up outdoors for about 5 years so far. I have also cut non-vinyl reflective
adhesive film and applied it to acrylic with transfer tape left on, then laser cut letters and that too has worked out fine but looked more street-sign-like.

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That caulk adhesive seems like the trick. What's the name of it?

Maybe your thinking of Butyl?

Well, I finally finished it after much trial and error. Turned out pretty nice. Here are some Before and after pics:

Attachment 176151Attachment 176153Attachment 176152Attachment 176154Attachment 176150Attachment 176155

I'm wondering though if i could get some advice on pricing. I'm thinking of charging about $550 for the pair. The only reason I ask is the next door neighbor already wants one! This is my accountant, so they got a bit of a deal, but I'm not sure what to charge your average business.

Looks pretty nice to me! Good job!

$550 for the pair seems a little high to me, but if you can get it, you should. I don't think it's off the chart, it's just on the high side in my opinion. I don't know your market or location, so $550 might be cheap in that area and you might be fine.

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Originally Posted by Scott Shepherd

Looks pretty nice to me! Good job!

$550 for the pair seems a little high to me, but if you can get it, you should. I don't think it's off the chart, it's just on the high side in my opinion. I don't know your market or location, so $550 might be cheap in that area and you might be fine.

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Maybe $450-$500? It's 1/2 inch acrylic (16.5x26 for the big one 4.5x16.5 for the numbers) with standoffs and cut letters mounted direct to the backing board. Material wise its not too too expensive, I have to get it cut to size for me currently, which drives it up, but my main cost was labor. opinions are definitely welcome though. What would you charge for it?i only ask as no sign business around here really does anything like this and i'm not sure what to base it off of, plus im just starting out.

Dan, I don't know your manufacturing method for all the letters, etc, so that clouds my ability to say if you are right for what you did. For me, those would be vinyl cut letters, so to make the large sign, I'd probably be charging something in the $250 range, the small one, maybe $150. So $400, but it would probably be $125 to install the 2 of them, so $550 installed might be a good price. I forgot all about the install part of it when I said it seemed a little high.

If that included install, I'd say I'd be right with you.

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Originally Posted by Dan Ashlin

my main cost was labor

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That's your most valuable asset, don't undervalue it.

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Originally Posted by Dan Ashlin

What would you charge for it?

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I would base it on cost of materials * (2 -3 or so) plus my hourly rate (mine is 120/hr)

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Originally Posted by Dan Ashlin

i only ask as no sign business around here really does anything like this

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That gives you more leverage to command a decent price. You have no competition so don't undercut yourself!

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Originally Posted by Dan Ashlin

plus im just starting out.

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So what? Why should that matter? If you start out as the "low price leader" it will be hard to make a comeback when you think you deserve it. Charge a fair price now, not when you think you have earned it.

Gary

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Originally Posted by Scott Shepherd

Dan, I don't know your manufacturing method for all the letters, etc, so that clouds my ability to say if you are right for what you did. For me, those would be vinyl cut letters, so to make the large sign, I'd probably be charging something in the $250 range, the small one, maybe $150. So $400, but it would probably be $125 to install the 2 of them, so $550 installed might be a good price. I forgot all about the install part of it when I said it seemed a little high.

If that included install, I'd say I'd be right with you.

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Yeah, that was installed lol. Thanks for the input, this forum is invaluable and your posts in particular i know have been a huge help. The letters i used on it are cut from rowmark outdoor gold and silver. i raster engraved a channel for the letters to sit in and then glued them in with IPS weld-on so they are inset a bit. it looks sharp, but vinyl is the way to go for sure next time, it just seems easier. I'm inexperienced with that, but i'm considering buying one of the cheap US cutter machines to get my feet wet with it.

Thanks Dan, I appreciate the kind words. I started off the same way as you. Joe Pelonio helped me a ton. I didn't know anything about vinyl, bought a US Cutter Copam plotter. Had no earthly idea how it worked. Never seen one, never seen one work. With Joe's help, I was running in no time and I haven't looked back yet. 3 years later, the Copam has been idle for 2 years since it was replaced by a larger, better machine.

I've done a decent amount of vinyl work now and my plotter plays a good size role in my business. It compliments the laser very well. My Copam and my larger Graphtec have paid for themselves many times over, both of them.

I'm not sure a week goes by where we don't do some sort of vinyl work. If you plan to do more work like that, go ahead and start with a nice machine and skip the cheap one. A base model can be paid for in a single job or two. I've had several jobs that have paid for our plotter in that one job and we didn't get the cheap one.

Good luck! If I can help, let me know.

p.s. If you need vinyl cut in the future, let me know, I'll cut it and send it on.

Thanks-
Steve