SIGNS DONE RIGHT

From the 1950's when Champion first began to market MDO (medium density overlay) to its being picked up by several mills once the patent expired. We use the best available made by first Champion then Simpson Plywood which became Olympic Panel now owned by Swanson Group we buy the best substrates possible to make our signs on. The most popular thickness for all mills is 1/2", most have five ply's with majority of companies using two or three ply's of fir with the rest being cheapest gum wood or similar most inexpensive wood product available. The Champion/Simpson/Olympic brands, now Swanson Group use U.S.A. and Canadian grown fir for all five ply's in their MDO thus lasts much longer and is less subject to warping. That said we normally use Swanson SIGNREADY UV HDU (High Density Overlay) which requires us ordering it like most of our materials direct from the mill in bundle quantities picked up at the railhead. On occasion due to delays in supply chain we have to use Swanson Group PREFINISHED UV MDO but its the best of all MDO products on the market and combined with our meticulous prep proce4ss once out in the field we cannot tell the difference between the two except by referring to our records or weighing as the HDU is heavier.

Both products along with other mills are marketed as prefinished ready to print or apply graphics but we find them far from ready. They have no finish on the back and if look closely will notice the occasional void between ply's that could allow water to ingress or give insects a weak area to use and nest inside the sign, ants especially like to find a way inside the plywood and build a colony. We fill all voids with automotive bondo or PPG Top Gun 400 Elastomeric Acrylic Urethane Sealant. We bring in panels from other sign vendors who use whatever brand MDO their sign supplier ships and some voids between ply's actually traverse the entire panel and if line up the eye can see an opening completely through four feet of plywood. After edges are sealed we then paint the back of the panel with two coats of the best latex paint we can find.

For decades we used Porter Acrishield to paint the back of our panels but when PPG purchased and rebranded Porter Paint to PPG the Acrishield line was reformulated and at present we are testing two other professional paints to see which will be our new paint for backs of signs. Once prepped we use the best professional finishes from One Shot, Ronan Specialty Paints, Chromatic Bulletin Colors and apply two additional coats of color to front and edges. The machine coated panels (arrive with one coat of primer and one finish coat applied by machines designed to use the least amount of paint possible) do not ship to our standard of finish so we make sure when our signs leave the shop they will last as long as possible for clients to get good service life from both paint and graphics as they will not adhere well to a surface that is not prepped properly.

HALF OF OUR LARGE SIGN INDOOR PAINT RACKS