CHANNEL LETTERS

Many sign vendors sell channel letters but most order from an online wholesaler then hire subcontract installer to hang them. To our knowledge we are the only shop in Hall County that makes them in-house. We have been called to repair so many channel sets sold by our competitors we now only do so for someone in a real bind. While some still use neon in channel letters LED lighting is just as bright, much more reliable and on average will save enough electricity over seven years to pay for your letter set. We use only name brand LED modules usually from Sloan, Cree. usLuminaire or GE Current. There are sometimes a better module for a special application or in post covid19 supply chain issues difficulty finding preferred in-stock items but we always use minimum IP65 up to IP68 rated modules for outdoor displays.

On most letters we use 0.080" aluminum for the letter backs or face if its a "reverse letter" cut on our CNC router with 0.040" (its not uncommon for us to see competitors use 0.040" rears with 0.032" returns) aluminum "returns" or sides. Make sure to ask your vendors these important specifications as its not uncommon to see letters that are so warped and curved with time the faces start falling off. We use 3/16" minimum thickness name brand Plexiglass or Acrycast acrylic sheet for our letter faces and name brand Gemini Jewelite trim. If a customer orders letters that are smaller or larger than our normal 12" to 24" height range we can change specs on letters to 0.063" backs with 0.032" returns for small letters or 0.125" rears and 0.063" returns for large letters.

LED MESSAGE PANELS

AARDVARK ANTIQUES

AARDVARK JOB MY LETTER FABRICATION MAN SAID THE COMPLEX SHAPES COULD NOT BE BENT IN

SIZE CHOSEN SO I PROVED TO HIM THE "BOSS" CAN STILL BEND LETTERS AND BEND THEM WELL

When you open many channel letters will still find newer letter sets with neon. A good quality LED will output as much light, requires much less maintenance and saves enough electricity they will pay for themselves often in as little as seven years in reduced energy costs. The center photo above shows one of our raceways and the steel frame being installed. Again, many channel sets are mounted to an aluminum raceway with no structural frame inside which we feel is necessary for full strength to attach to building and help ensure all letters are attached to structural materials.

ZIP CASH TITLE PAWN

ASSORTED CHANNEL SETS

NOTICE LETTERS ABOUT TO FALL CAUSING CLIENT TO CLOSE STORE

VENDOR WHO SOLD & INSTALLED ABOVE LETTERS WOULD NOT RETURN CUSTOMERS PHONE CALLS

Had a call from an Advance Auto store manager whose channel letters installed over main entrance were about to fall and could not open his store and seller was not answering their phones. We found something common now, rather than attach to something structural behind the synthetic stucco they used about a dozen drywall screws, laid a bead of adhesive caulk around the raceway and left. Unfortunately their screws did not hold long enough for caulk to dry and letters were leaning so far could not believe were still up. Got our truck under them and then spent two hours to connect raceway to a steel beam.

We commonly bid jobs against vendors who order channel sets from online wholesalers or a few shops in the north metro Atlanta area that still make letter sets in-house. Several years ago one of our regular clients who owned two grocery stores was opening a third location with restaurant, ice cream/specialty desert store along with retail space for lease in his new shopping center. We bid three large channel sets using the best IP68 rated LED modules, name brand plexiglas acrylic sheet as he wanted red which is the fastest to fade and color shift if use low bid material. Our initial bid was almost $3,000 more than cheapest bid but discovered low bidder was a shop we knew recycles used wiring, transformers and uses neon instead of LEDs. They convinced him neon would be brighter (it can be if they use enough runs in each letter) and since he was a good client we requited hoping all went easy and fast getting our bid to within $1,800 of low bid. I ran the power calculations showing client cost difference in electricity to run neon versus LED was $1,800 over first three years so what our LED lighting saved him on electricity had him at break even in three years with two years left on his warranty.

Tried my best to educate a good client but all he could se is cost over runs on other parts of project and went with low bid. We heard nothing but it was not uncommon for us to notice letters not lit every few weeks and service trucks on site quite often. About six months later we noticed some letters were red, some orange and others trending toward pink. Every shop that makes letters has racks of scraps and in colors such as white using scraps from different lots or even different manufacturers can work without major issue but red color shifts fast and its never consistent from brand to brand or even within the same brand if sheets are different lot numbers made a few months to a few years apart from each other. Was obvious the other shop had cut their faces from not only different lots and manufactures but even different thicknesses and his red letter set looked like a multicolor mess of different shades of red, orange and pink.

About a year later he walked into the shop and asked if I could come look at his letters as he had spent over $3,000 in repairs already and still had letters not lit with a situation where one set spelled an obscene worked in Spanish after dark. I personally opened he top of every raceway to see transformers that were made over twenty years earlier, several colors of GTO wire and most so faded it was obvious letters were built with used wire and power supplies on recycled raceways which his vendor kept running for their 90 day warranty then refused to return. He tried every other local service company before coming to us knowing had he listened to me would still have four years of warranty left and be $1,200 to the good in what he had paid for service and no telling how much extra power savings.

Did something have never done before putting the client in our bucket showing him the cracked/split/spliced wiring (GTO wire is never supposed to be spliced), rusted out non GFI transformers and suggested we replace all wire, power supplies and the letter faces so they would be red again. He signed off on replacing all wiring and power supplies that were not working at the time. He spent another $1,200 on that trip then had a couple more trips to replace other used transformers over next few months, some neon tubes that leaked but we got them working. At the two year mark he had over $5,000 invested in maintenance on his channel letter sets. We have a seven year warranty on structure of sign and five on electronics which had he listened could have saved at least $8,000 in service charges at about the time ours would be ending their warranty. We now only service channel letters we build, if buy elsewhere and have issues we can't spend the time to chase gremlins. If your supplier does not give at least a three year warranty and been in business that long so you can expect them to still be in business when need service be wary.

MORE CHANNEL LETTERS COMING...

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