Five Advantages of Carved Wood Signs

March 1, 2017 By Mark Hackley

Five Advantages of Carved Wood Signs

Five advantages of carved wood signs over say choosing other various forms of signs are not really hard to see, if you look closely.

First, the main advantage is interest. The carved letters make the letters interesting. Since light reflects at an angle, the V-Carved letters serve to boost reflectivity. Add gold leaf and, “Wow!”

“The lettering on our new church directional sign looks great,” said Kenneth Lee of Rodes United Methodist Church in Nelson County, Virginia. I just completed a carved wood sign for Mr. Lee after his former sign was destroyed during routine mowing. (See accompanying photos of this nice little sign.)

Here are four more advantages of carved wood signs:

Carved signs last a long time: Since the wood is usually cedar, redwood, or mahogany, these species are insect and rot resistant. With 10-year maintenance periods, the signs will long outlive most sign buyers!

Carved signs value is much greater than signs made with less-precious materials and less-tedious labor. These signs are truly the Cadillacs of signs, but if you’re okay with a Kia then that’s your prerogative.

Carved signs can be designed to blend in with the environment, yet stand out as graphics.

Carved signs look awesome when spot-lit!

I’m sure there are even many more reasons why your church, your professional office, your medical practice, your law firm, your downtown retail store, your florist, your retirement center, your hospital, your school, your veterinary clinic, (see where I’m going here?) would choose a carved wood sign over other options. Let us know if you’d like to see your name in WOOD!

WOODN’T YOU? I SURE WOOD! (But I’m partial.)

Mark Hackley is owner of Augusta Sign Company, Waynesboro, VA 22980

Decals – an easy way to brand your retail store

February 15, 2017 By Mark Hackley

Decals – an easy way to brand your retail store

Last week I was contracted to make and install about 30 decals of a well-known brand of residential and commercial paint. The owner of two retail stores, one in Waynesboro, Virginia and one in Staunton, had renovated their store interiors, repainting the shelving fixtures in an updated color. When they repainted the store fixtures, they painted over the old logos, so they hired me to make new ones.

The shelves ranged in width from about 48″ to 65″ and the decals were designed to fit all widths. I provided a scaled sketch and presented a color swatch of the decal color. The customer could not get a copy of the logo in vector format, so I was able to vectorize what they provided as a jpg. The project took about 10 days to complete from the time I received their proof approval and deposit check, taking about a week to get the vinyl material, a day to cut and prepare the graphics, and a few days to schedule and make the final deliveries and installations at both stores.

Even though it was an interior application, I used high performance 10-year exterior Avery vinyl film for the decals so they will last a long time.

Mark Hackley, President of Augusta Sign Company, Waynesboro, VA 22980. 540-943-9818

Covers for Electric Signs

February 15, 2017 By Mark Hackley

Covers for Electric Signs

I frequently get calls from new customers who have purchased existing electric signs with their new business property within my service area of the Waynesboro, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Winchester, Roanoke, Lynchburg regions of Virginia. They call me for pricing and timing needed to change their covers for electric signs. They regularly call “covers” what I call “faces” but what they are needing is new sign panels for electric signs.

I generally would need to survey their situations to get them an accurate price and turn-around time. Most often, these replacement signs fall into one of these types:

Least expensive type: Flat plastic sign panels of either acrylic (Plexiglas) or polycarbonate (Lexan) with either graphics on the outer surface or backsprayed.
Stronger type and best for thinner cabinets: What I call “pan” faces, which are vacuum-formed plastic signs made of either some type of acrylic or polycarbonate material with either graphics on the outer surface or backsprayed.
Or, Strongest of all and dimensional for added good looks: Embossed graphics on a pan face.

If you are in need of replacement covers for your lit sign in Central or Western Virginia, I would be happy to take a look.

Mark Hackley, Augusta Sign Company, 540-943-9818

How to Make a Sandblasted Wood Sign

January 31, 2017 By Mark Hackley

How to make a Sandblasted Wood Sign

RECIPE FOR A WOOD SIGN

How to make a sandblasted wood sign should be well-explained in this article. Making a sandblasted wood sign, or any customized solid wood sign for that matter, begins with gluing up the raw boards stacked end on end with a high-grade exterior wood glue. My choice has always been West System brand marine epoxies. Clear, All-Heart, Vertical Grain (CAHVG) boards are the best grade for carving, routing or blasting, so after you purchase those, you want to rip them down on your table saw to a maximum of 7.25″ wide boards, the less the better to avoid the possibility of the finished sign panel bowing/cupping/warping out in the weather.

Glue and clamp the boards at about 80% tightness to avoid squeezing out the epoxy in the joints, using clamps on both sides of the panel spaced at 24 inches or so on center or less for even pressure. After curing overnight, remove the clamps and sand with a power sander starting with rough grit and ending with fine grit. An orbital sander works fine. After sanding and prior to sand-blasting, you have the choice to either apply a stencil (a thin rubber mask that can be cut with the desired design) directly on the bare wood, or prime and paint the panel and then affix the stencil. In the case of the sign shown for C.F. Richards Christian School in Staunton, Virginia, my subcontractor blasted the sign raw. The advantage of this method is that the stencil won’t pull the paint on the letters. The advantage of painting first is it’s a lot easier to paint the sign as you leave the stencil on the letters while staining the background, then you peel the stencil and the sign is done. However, that isn’t always the case, and more than half the time you have lots of touch ups or worst case is you end up having to re-sand, prime, and paint because the stencil pulls the finish.

In the case of the C.F Richards School example, I primed the background with a high-quality primer and then painted the lettering, logo, and borders with high-quality sign enamels. Since this was a one-sided sign with the back exposed, I also primed and painted the back. The aluminum posts and finials were black, so we decided to also paint the back black to match.

LASTING IMPRESSION-LOW COST PER MONTH

This sign, put into service in January, 2017 will last an undetermined time spanning many decades. The seemingly high cost per square foot is not as big a price as it seems when you calculate the cost per month (CPM) of the advertising. If the sign lasts 50 years with 3 maintenance periods and the monthly cost ends up being eleven dollars a month for very high-impact branding. Unfortunately, the C.F. Richards Christian School is not on a main thoroughfare, so the traffic count is mostly made up of parents, staff and neighbors and their friends living on the residential street where it’s located. Otherwise, if on a highly traveled street with high traffic count, the cost per impression would be extremely low at $11.00 a month. Compare that with TV, radio, magazine or newspaper advertising, and you’ll see that signage is one of the few marketing options that has great value. Kind of up there with blogging on the internet!!

Mark Hackley is owner/operator of Augusta Sign Company– A small business that designs, makes, installs and maintains custom wood signs for customers in Virginia. 540-943-9818 mark@augustasigncompany.com

A Great Year for Signs!

December 30, 2016 By Mark Hackley

YEAR IN REVIEW AT AUGUSTA SIGN COMPANY

Restoration of Wood Signs

Augusta Sign Company celebrates it’s first full calendar year in business! Hooray!!

I started and ended the year off doing what I like best: restoring old wood signs. Some of the signs weren’t worth restoring and needed to be replaced, but usually if they were built from woods like cedar, redwood, or mahogany, then restoration was the best option for my customers. MDO plywood signs that aren’t framed may not be good restoration candidates and replacement is usually best. Such was the case with a sign I replaced as a signage subcontractor for a local landscaper. Last January, I replaced the oval panel for the Claybrook Subdivison sign, and restored the wrought iron bracket. Recently I got a call for help from a customer for whom I made a sign in the 1990’s. He needed help reviving the pizzazz that his store sign once conveyed. To restore his florist sign, I re-stained and re-painted the entire 2-sided sandcarved western red cedar sign and brackets.

Permanent Outdoor Signs

Probably of all the signs I design, make and install, 85% of them are for permanent outdoor applications. When I formerly founded, owned and operated Tree Street Signs in Crimora, my motto was “Make a Lasting Impression”. I still carry that motto, and try to steer my customers to utilize only the best quality materials in their signage. That’s why I recommend framing for any sign materials with porous edges. Unframed edges will allow moisture into the panel over time. It doesn’t take Mother Nature very long to penetrate and destroy unprotected edges! For metal signs, I try to make sure the framing and support structures are strong enough to help the signs stand up to the sometimes harsh Augusta County winds and rains and other forces of nature.

If signs are lit, I try to consider how the signage will appear at night. If the sign is made up of dimensional letters on a flat wall surface, I pay attention to the background colors and letter colors to make sure shadowing effects during the day don’t impede readability. If the sign is internally illuminated, I try to make sure the colors are true at night by using high performance translucent vinyls for the graphics. I also select the best brands of acrylic or polycarbonate sign faces manufactured specifically for the fluorescent or LED lighting technologies designed for the particular sign application.

Sometimes a customer can save some money by using reflective graphics materials versus having to incur the expense to run power to an outlying site for a sign. Such was the case with signs constructed for the Augusta True Value retail store in Weyers Cave, Virginia.

Parking Lot Signs

Every month of last year I had lots of smaller fill in jobs doing parking lot signs or other non-main-sign projects. One private school customer had me make banners for its gymnasium, lettering for its school vans, and fire lane signs and striping for the parking lot after the fire inspector recommended them.

Vinyl Signs and Graphics

Lots of times I will make simple vinyl signs on my vinyl plotter or have signs digitally printed on sheets of vinyl and applied to various substrates. I printed the Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group brand on high performance 3M vinyl and applied it to 3mm ACM. The customer used the sign for a new office in Waynesboro.

Banners

Banners are another good filler type project at Augusta Sign Company. Throughout last year I made banners for many customers. Banners typically last about two years outdoors, so they are not the best material option for permanent signs. Yet, if you’re a start-up business or non-profit with limited capital for signs, banners can be a good option to get your name out there for a few years. If your banner is not being used for temporary advertising, you’ll probably need to investigate whether a sign permit for the banner is required.

Vehicle Lettering

When I owned and operated Tree Street Signs in Crimora in the 1990’s, I did my share of vehicle graphics. Lettering the vehicles for service contractors with fleets of commercial trucks was a large portion of the workload. Now that I downsized with Augusta Sign Company, my shop can only facilitate small vehicles. The fleet of cars I lettered for Valley Vital Care fit perfectly in my 14′ X 30′ garage. I can also handle decals and magnetic signs easily from my smaller shop, and have done many of these for customers over the past year. In warmer months from spring through the fall, I can also letter larger trucks and vans in my side lot, and I also utilize my customer’s places of business to install vehicle graphics year-round on larger units.

Signs for Churches

I remember being hesitant about jumping back into the sign business full-time after it had been about 15 years of just doing signs on a part-time basis. During my period of hesitancy, one thing pastors and counselors would tell me over and over was, “You can make a mission of your business.”

Maybe that’s what I am doing. I often enjoy sharing my faith story to customers. It’s no wonder that many of my customers last year were churches. I made or restored signs for at least 10 or 12 churches last year! God is good!

I hope you have a blessed New Year!

Mark Hackley is owner of Augusta Sign Company in Waynesboro, Virginia

Contact: 540-943-9818 mark@augustasigncompany.com