Augusta Sign Company

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Carved Foamboard for Business Signage

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HDU OPTION

Carved foamboard for business signage produced better results than I had anticipated. I had not used foamboard for decades becuse I had some issues with the product in its early development, mostly warping problems. This year, after some research on current foamboard technology, I chose Signfoam brand high-density urethane (HDU) for the job, mostly to save some cost for my customer who was looking for a sign within a certain cost budget. I had initially quoted the project in carved cedar, which I am most familiar with, but included a lower-priced HDU option.

PROPERTY MARKETING

The customer wanted to utilize a section of property he owned with frontage on a well-traveled roadway. The land was not useable for much, so he wanted to get some good marketing use from it with a nice new sign. He is a quality landscape contractor and wanted a showpiece…a nice sign in the middle of a large attractive landscaped bed…to remind passersby that he was available whenever they needed a good landscaper!

GOALS ACHIEVED

“Augusta Sign Company was able to turn my vision of a sign into a reality,” said Kevin Thompson, owner of Sylvan Scapes in Staunton, Virginia; “They were able to achieve my expectations and financial goals for the project.” Kevin saved the extra cost of permit secural by obtaining the necessary sign permit on his own. I always recommend that my customers take care of permitting when possible, not only to save them cost, but it also saves me time and I am able to focus more on sign design and manufacturing for my clients.

HOW I DID IT

For this project, I routed a 3/4″ thick HDU board and backed it up with a 3/4″ painted plywood board that was epoxied to the HDU. To make the sign more interesting and eye-catching, I suggested turning the 8X8 treated posts on a 45 degree angle to give them more prominence. I also recommended making an angled top-cut to give it yet more appeal. I was able to closely match the latex satin finish of the HDU background to the semi-transparent stain of the wood posts using help from Burkes Paint and Wallcovering, my local paint supplier. I used PPG Permanizer finish for the background, Ronan Bulleting Enamel for the lettering and PPG ProLuxe SRD Semi-Transparent Wood Finish for the posts.

SUCCESSFUL PROJECT

It was another successful project that I hope will get many heads turning for Kevin as potential customers drive by on Statler Boulevard in Staunton!

Mark Hackley is owner/operator of Augusta Sign Company, 540-943-9818

How I Made the Sign for Hunters Glen Farm, Lexington, VA

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From Raw Cedar to Finished Sign

Towards the end of summer, I received a phone call from a nice lady about making a sign for a farm she had purchased in Rockbridge County where she had hired an architect to build a new home complete with a horse barn. Now that sounds like a dream come true, especially if you love horses the way she does.

Lettering the pinstripe inner border, gray.

She needed to have a sign completed after Christmas. That sounded very doable considering custom wood signs take a little while to design and construct, but usually only about 6-8 weeks after final design approval and any applicable permit approvals are received.

I was super busy with a huge project at Eastern Mennonite University (see link to the recent EMU blog article), so I had to put her project on the back-burner until that project was complete. She was very understanding and willing to wait! I contacted her again before Thanksgiving to see about writing up the new order. I wish all my customers were as creative in design as she was! We started off with an idea I had, but with the customer’s great input, came up with the final idea. The colors were really great together!

Raw cedar sign, freshly routed.

I was able to have the cedar panel made up and routed by mid-December and was able to get it sanded, primed, and painted by mid-January. I always enjoy the hand-painting process, even though it is very time consuming. In this case, I primed the entire front, back, and edges of the cedar panel with two coats of white Zinsser primer. After that was good and dry, I applied two finish coats of hand-mixed taupe over the entire front. After the taupe enamel dried, I flipped the sign and painted the back and edges in black enamel. On one-sided signs I like to paint the back first since when I flip the sign, there’s less chance that I can scratch or mar the main background paint for the customer’s sign. I try my best to end up with a professionally-finished sign, hand-painted in my shop in Augusta County, VA.

The sign with background still wet. Cold temperatures in the shop were slowing the drying process, so the sign was brought into the house where things are warmer!

Once the back and edges were good and dry, I flipped the panel and lettered the V-carved lettering “black”; the flat-routed horse artwork “hunter green”; and the V-carved river pinstripe “blue”. To finish it all up, I painted the inset oval V-carved border “gray”.

The completed carved, handpainted cedar sign for Hunters Glen Farm.

The oval sign was approximately 36X24 and would be mounted on a new fence at the corner of the acreage up by the main road, where the roadway to the farm originates. This particular project also included a smaller sign mounted on a post that would be installed near the horse barn. The customer would provide her own installation, which I appreciate now that I am nearing retirement age!! I was able to make the delivery as soon as everything was dry. The temperatures in my shop were so cold, that I opted to bring the sign into my house to make sure it was properly cured.

As I was looking back through my portfolio of sign jobs since restarting the sign business in 2015, I noticed I have done a lot of farm signs. If you own a farm and need a nice iconic wooden sign to grace its entrance, please do not hesitate to call!

Mark Hackley owns Augusta Sign Company, 540-943-9818, [email protected]

The Tools of My Trade

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ONE MAN-THREE MAIN FUNCTIONS

Different professions use different tools to get the job done. Since I am involved in all the day-to-day operations of a one-man sign shop, I need to be familiar with a variety of tools to do my job well. I guess, if I wanted to break it down into three important facets, my job is first marketing, sales and administration; then comes design; and last is production and installation.

I spend at least 3 days per week in front of my laptop, where all design and sales is done…no wonder I wear trifocals! Oh well, it gives me a good excuse to miss putts out on the golfcourse!

The tools I use in marketing and sales would not be much different than the tools my son uses as a software engineer, and that is utilizing computer apps and software to “hang my sign” on the virtual street of Googleland; which basically means I use a website with a regular blog as a tool to drive online searches to my website where my contact information is available. The same thing goes for design work: most of it is also done on the computer. But in this blog, I’ll be highlighting the tools I use out in the shop for producing my signage products and services.

Back in the day I used to sell these Mimaki plotters and printers for Tubelite out of the Charlotte, NC branch. When I went back into business in 2015, I purchased one from the company I sold for. They are now called TubeliteDenco.

OUTSOURCING IS MY FRIEND

Since I am a one man shop, I depend on one or two key suppliers for my sign panels, and ones that can provide custom cutting of the panels if needed when things get busy. Most panels nowdays are pre-finished, meaning there is not much shop painting needed unless I am working on a cedar sign project, where I would order raw cedar boards. About 90% of the panels will be finished with digitally printed films that are outsourced; the other 10% will get cut vinyl graphics that I prepare in the shop using a 30″ plotter. I can cut my own vinyl films and make paper patterns and stencils using this important tool.

A random assortment of tools left on the worktable today out in the shop…

Since a third of my time is spent in sales and marketing, and another third in design, that only leaves a day or two out in the shop each week. That means I have to be efficient out there to get things done. The process most performed in my shop is installing graphics on ready-to-letter panels. For this process I use a variety of squeegies. I use felt squeegies to apply printed vinyl and hard plastic squeegies to apply cut vinyl letters and logos. I also use application fluids, precision blades, and various tapes during the graphic application process. Many times I will have to cut a decorative shape in the panel and sometimes attach removeable panels and things like that, so I have all the basic woodworking and metalworking tools that you’d expect to find out in the shop for those kinds of things. On occasion, I get the chance to handpaint a sign, and I have a slew of brushes and other tools for handpainting signs, which I learned to do in the early 1980’s.

I learned to paint signs back in the days when we were actually called “signpainters”!
Here is a shot of some brushes I still get to use on occasion…

SELECTIVE INSTALLATIONS

As a one-man shop perhaps the most difficult task I have is installation of signs. I will not take on a job if it involves a difficult installation unless the customer takes care of that part. I do have a nice set of scaffolding, a very nice set of ladders and a crosswalk, digging tools, and other tools for signage installation, but as I get older, I limit myself to what I can actually do these days. I like to recommend other sign shops I am familiar with for the things I cannot tackle or at least feel uncomfortable trying to even consider.

Me, holding a heavy steel “drive cap” used in driving steel posts in the ground.
I purchased a slew of post driving tools for my Blue Ridge Tunnel Project back in 2020.
A view of various tools out in one part of my workshop today…

Mark Hackley owns and operates his small business, Augusta Sign Company, near Staunton, VA.

540-943-9818

Keeping Up With The Joneses

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Plastic wall letters have always been a great product for me to use for customers seeking a clean, durable brand. For red brick backgrounds, white plastic wall letters make a great choice. This particular customer wanted to add a new partner’s name to the existing name on the wall. I met with the owners to survey the area of the signage and what would have to happen to accomodate the additional letters. They wanted to keep the same letter height, typeface, and color scheme. The only difference would be to use durable 1/2″ thick acrylic versus the existing cut-out and painted plywood letters that they had used for decades.

Sometimes I refer to plastic wall letters as FCO letters, which stands for “flat-cut-out”. There are many ways to make wall letters. Plastic wall letters can be cut from flat stock or they can also be formed in a vacuum forming process using molds. Cutting the plastic letters from flat stock is done by a CNC router. Each letter is cut and then threaded holes are drilled in the backs to accept aluminum or stainless steel studs that hold the letters onto the wall.

The labor hours involved to install plastic wall letters is determined by the wall material: brick taking the longest, gyp board probably the shortest. Once the customer approves the final design, the letters are ordered. After a normal 4-8 week period, the letters arrive at my shop from the manufacturer along with a computer-generated pattern that I use to mount the individual letters on the wall. I arrive early on the site, set up my walkboard and proceed to layout the drill pattern. I find the center of the wall area and, after rolling the pattern like a scroll from each end, I tape the center at the marked centerline. Then I unroll each side, taping it down as needed with high-tack duct tape. Once the pattern is double-checked for center, baseline height, and level, I use a wall punch to make dimples in the brick at each stud location. Then I drill a 3/16″ hole into every marked stud hole, coming back with a 1/4″ drill bill to accomodate the 3/16″ studs and silicone adhesive.

Once the holes are drilled, I dry-fit each letter to make sure everything works and each letter fits correctly into the holes. After all letters are dry-fit, I come back one more time and apply a clear adhesive to each stud, fastening each letter in place. It was a hot day to install the letters, but fortunately my helper, Jennifer Hackley, was able to help me complete the final project!!

Mark Hackley owns Augusta Sign Company in Staunton, VA 540-943-9818

How My Sign Company Made The Sign for Horseshoe Hill

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One afternoon I received a call from a property owner in Keswick, VA wanting a sign for her driveway entrance. After meeting with her at her Charlottesville office I was able to prepare a sign design based on what she had in mind: a small, simple, yet elegant oval sign to greet friends as they entered her property, a beautiful 42 acre lot in the heart of Albemarle horse country.

Finished carved cedar sign in Keswick, Virginia.

Building a wood sign like she had in mind is very motivating for me! Ever since I attended a handcarved sign workshop in Stowe, Vermont back in 1990, I have been interested in all types of handmade wood signs. Then, over time, with the help of computer-aided-design and manufacturing, I became skilled with V-carved and sandblasted lettering techniques. Nowadays, I generally choose western red cedar as the species of wood for sign panels because I’ve gotten to know its track record of carvability and durability over the years; and this is what I selected as the wood for the Horse Shoe Hill sign.

The Horse Shoe Hill sign after it is routed with a CNC machine.

After she ran my preliminary sign design by her architect, who was at that time working on an extensive remodel on the property, she recommended I alter the base of the post by beefing up the scale some versus using a plain 6X6 post column for the sign pole.

Marshall Carpenter sanding the main part of the post outside the shop in Staunton, VA.

I purchased the cedar panel and had the lettering carved per the approved design drawing. Once that was complete, I routed the edge, sanded the letters, background, and edges, and then primed the surface with two coats of oil-based primer. Once the primer was cured, I applied a heavy coat of hunter green enamel over the entire sign. After a few days of drying, I hit the sign with my pounce powder bag and applied the size for the gold leaf. (The pounce powder prevents the gold from adhering to the fresh enamel background.) After the size set to the proper consistency, I applied the gold leaf. As the sign was drying, I constructed a tall 6X6 post using treated yellow pine. Once that was built I primed and painted the post black and installed a large black iron scroll bracket to the top of the post to hang the finished sign from once installed.

The 23K gold leaf applied to the wet size that was prepared for the V-carved letters.

When both the sign and the post were complete, I arranged a date for installation. The architect took care of permitting and I dug a 42″ deep hole to set the post in concrete. I planted the sign post and attached bracing to the post until the concrete cured, after which I installed the sign using stainless steel hardware, and everything was finished. I see that the $6.95 M property is currently for sale in Albemarle County, VA. If you’re looking for it, just look for the nice 23K gold leaf sign! You can’t miss it.

Owner of Augusta Sign Company, Mark Hackley, with a million dollar smile, as he completes the sign for property worth millions! (But since he’s heard the streets of Heaven are solid gold, I don’t think that smile will ever fade!)

Mark Hackley owns and operates Augusta Sign Company and serves the Waynesboro-Staunton-Augusta County area of Virginia with hand-fabricated signs of all types…(and he has been since 1990!)