Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 4)

Well, it's been a year and a half since the last post about the new sign for the store, and over two years since I started making it, but the new sign has finally been installed at the store. Thanksgiving morning, 5am, I woke up and decided, "Today is the day"- and Voilà!

I already posted about the making of the main sign, and the making of the fretwork accent pieces, so here I will just post about the installation and give you a few pics of the finished sign in situ.

Before I could install the sign, I had to re-face the marquee with some new plywood, as the old T1-11 was badly rotted. Ideally I should have ripped down the rotted T1-11 and replaced it, but with the building in as bad of shape as it is, I thought it better to just leave it and sheath over it with some fresh plywood.

Each piece of plywood was pre-cut (5ft tall) and pre-painted before going up on the marquee. They were given three coats of brown exterior house paint, on both sides, and I even used some paintable siliconized acrylic caulking around the edges of each board after the second coat. Hopefully, this will help keep water from deteriorating the plywood prematurely. Each panel was lifted up by hand, with the help of a ground man, and screwed to the marquee face with a prodigious amount of screws. I got as many as I could into the studs, and then just peppered the rest with screws, hoping I would hit something solid underneath. The last panel, on the right side in the picture, was about 2.5 inches too wide. But I was not about to take it down, trim it, reseal and repaint the cut edge and put it back up. It was a HUGE effort to get those panels in place. I am afraid of heights, so working on the porch roof was very difficult and stressful. It can just hang over the right edge by a couple of inches. No one will care. Most people won't even notice.

Raising the panels in place and securing them was easy compared to the sign itself. The main sign is a full sheet of plywood, plus the weight of all the lettering attached to it. My ground man (Delvin is his name) and I muscled the sign up onto the porch roof and let it rest on some 2x4 blocks nailed to the porch roof, while I climbed back up onto the roof and then man-handled it up the rest of the way from there. It was a Herculean task, but by some miracle, I got it up there and rested the bottom edge on a pair of screws that were set into the marquee at the correct height for the bottom edge of the sign (this screw-ledge trick is also how I put the panels in place). After the sign was nudged into its final position, and a couple of screws driven in to secure it, I could remove the ledge-screws. Since the sign was being screwed into the fresh plywood facing, it didn't really matter if the screws went into the studs, but I tried to get some in the studs anyway.

That damned backwards "a" still haunts me.

So that was one day's work, just getting the panels and main sign up. Then I had to wait a few days for good weather until I could finish adding the decorative pieces that flank the sign.

Before I could hang the fretwork pieces, I had to fabricate some brackets for them. I didn't want to drill through the copper facing (or even through the wood) so I cut some pieces of steel and drilled and countersunk holes for screws. I screwed the brackets onto the fret pieces from the back side, and then through the front side I could drive the screws in to attach it to the building. I painted the brackets brown so that they would blend in with the marquee and become invisible.

On the second day of hanging, I was all alone with no ground man. Luckily, the pieces I had to hang were much smaller and lighter. I just took my time and walked them up the ladder one piece at a time. I did have to get up and down the ladder a few times to make sure the fret pieces were straight. It's very hard to tell if something looks straight from up close like that, and measurements can only get you so far.

Only one last thing to hang- the 30" tall brass carriage lights. I bought these things from a flea market about eight years ago. I paid $1. For the pair. Seriously, one dollar. The finish was a bit worn and there was a little corrosion, but I cleaned them up as best as I could (without exerting too much effort) with some polishing compound. I tested that they worked before hanging them, but I'm not sure if I will be able to wire them up. In any event they needed some kind of bracket as well, since they will not be mounted to a gang box like they were designed to be.

The bracket I came up with was a little hacked together, but I was under a time crunch. They were made from 3/4" oak recycled shelving material. I designed them to have a hole in the back for the wires to poke through. Then, when I got them up on the roof, I drilled a 1" hole through the marquee for the wires to feed through. The plan is to wire them from the inside of the building after they are hung. This I can do any time and in any weather. Or not at all, if I never get around to it.  In any event, the mounting bracket now gave me something to screw to the plywood on the marquee.

And that's just about it. For now anyway. There are two more details to be taken care of, but I wasn't going to delay this post any longer. I need to install some flashing along the top edge of the marquee to serve as a drip edge. There used to be some roll roofing that hung over it (you can still see remnants of it in the pics) but it had to be ripped down to put up the panels (and it was rotted). I bought some brown aluminum gutter that I plan to re-bend and hang upside-down over the front edge to serve as a flashing (and no, I don't plan on making another post just for that little finishing detail). And the other thing is to wire the lights (assuming that ever happens).

So, two and a half years in the making, and it is finally finished (90%, anyway). And I do like the way it looks. Hopefully, it will survive the weather for at least a few years. I'm certainly not looking forward to doing it again.

Here are a few more finished pics. The sun was going down and the front of the store was in shadow, so next chance I get I will take some pics with better light and add them to the end here.

See Also:
Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 1)
Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 2)
Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 3)


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Ancient Artifact

I've been making things for as long as I can remember. I made a cardboard box space ship when I was six or seven. I made an electronic intercom system for my bedroom when I was about ten. I made a line of hand painted t-shirts and sneakers when I was about twelve- and on, and on. Most of those items have long since gone to the scrap heap, or disintegrated (I wore some of those t-shirts well into college). But one item from my youthful maker experiments still remains in my possession, and it is in as good of condition as when I made it, back in 1984- when I was twelve.

This is a picture of my first attempt to make a knife. Its shape was loosely inspired by the Klingon D'k tahg, or "warrior's dagger". It was made from a piece of 10 gauge mild steel flat bar that I found laying around in my dad's garage. One night, I just picked it up, clamped it in the work bench vise, and started going at it with a steel file. The corners were clipped with a hack saw. The center was opened up with a drill press, and the majority of the shaping and finishing was done, by hand, with a file. It took a long time. Many many nights were spent out in the garage filing away. Oh, and emery cloth for the polishing. I started working on a cross guard for it, about a year or two after I made the knife, but I soon abandoned that effort.

The blade is 1.75" wide and 9.75" long, and about an eighth of an inch thick. The overall length of the knife is 15.75 inches. Obviously, as a twelve year old, I knew nothing about metalurgy; had no idea about heat treating or tempering. I knew that if you heated a knife blade too much you would ruin the edge, but I didn't really understand why. And I had no idea that mild steel contained too little carbon to ever hold an edge. But hay, it was big and it was wicked looking, and it was all done by me.

The handle was cut from a fallen tree limb I found in the ally behind my parents' house. I have no idea what kind of tree it was, but knowing the region like I do now, it was very possibly silver maple. That neighborhood is littered with them. The tang goes back about a third of the way into the handle. It was affixed by just drilling out a slot in the end of the branch (after whittling off the bark and cutting it to length). Then the slot was jammed over the tang and the branch was hammered home. I always intended to carve a better shape into the handle, but I never did. As with all woodworking projects made at my house during that era, it was stained with used motor oil.

I didn't engrave the MRX initials into the ricasso until a couple years later. But this was also done by hand, using a metal chisel and a hammer.

This is probably the oldest surviving example of any of my projects. Sometimes I look back on some of the things I did as a little kid and I wonder- were my parents even paying attention? Those were different times.

Welding Helmet

Back when I worked at the tire recycling plant, I got pulled from general labor quite frequently to do maintenance work. I have posted previously about some of the projects that I worked on while I was there. I did a lot of welding and metal fabrication while I was there, and at some point, the maintenance manager got tired of me using his welding mask and decided to get me my own. He told me to put my name on it...

So put my name on it, I did. The letters and skull applique were things that I bought at the auto parts store. They are self adhesive, chrome covered, plastic, 3D appliques. The row of square studs are metal. They are the kind that you see on leather wrist bands (well, back when you used to see people wearing leather wrist bands with spikes on them- so like, the 80's, I guess). The spikes are hollow underneath, and have two little pointy tabs on the sides for poking through the leather and crimping over on the other side. I cut tiny slits in the plastic of the mask to poke these points through, and then super glued them in place. The points were not long enough to crimp over on the other side of the plastic.

When I left that job, I did not take the mask with me (though I wish that I had) because, although my boss told me it was mine and I should put my name on it, I took that to mean that it was for my use, but I still considered it company property. I wonder if whoever is wearing it now kept it on there?

I did, of course, take a few pictures of it before I left.  Maybe I'll make another one for use in my new workshop.

This was another one of those projects that is old, and I thought that I had posted it, but now I don't see it anywhere on the blog, so better late than never.

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This past several months, I have been trying hard to get this blog back on its feet. I have posted more new content in the past eight months than I did in the past three years combined. Granted, it hasn't been props or book binding, but still. I have maintained a consistent  posting schedule of a new post every 7-10 days, and I have stayed 4 to 5 posts ahead of the publishing schedule for most of that time. But lately I have hit a lull. I have one more post in the queue, and another two that are still unfinished. I have one or two old projects that I had planned on making brief posts about, and then I'm out of material. So, unless something changes in the next few weeks, there is going to be another dry spell, possibly starting as early as ten days from now (when the last finished post publishes). I have no idea how long it will last.

Shop Cart Air Cleaner v1.5

A few months back, I made an ambient air cleaner out of a shop parts cart. I enclosed the lower tier of the cart with furnace filters and installed a 25" box fan on one side to draw air through the filters and out the fan. Hopefully this would help to clean some of the fine dust out of the air in my workshop, where I do a lot of woodworking.

After using this cart for several months, I can say that it definitely removed some dust from the air. About once a week I would see sawdust building up on the outer layer of filter material, and I would clean it off with the shop-vac. And recently I took the fan out to do an upgrade, and got to see the inner filters, and they are definitely dirty too.

Although it does a fair job of pulling dust out of the air, my shop is large enough that the air cart could definitely do a better job if it could move more air faster. That means an upgrade to the fan. It just so happens that hiding up in the shop's attic I found two furnace blower fans with motors. One of them is going to get mounted to the wall and serve to vent the air out of the shop through the back wall, which will give me some much needed ventilation in the summer. The other is narrow enough, and just about the right height to be mounted in the side panel of the shop cart air cleaner.

After doing a quick cleaning and cursory inspection, I gave all the bearings a quick spurt of lube. Then I wired the motor up for a test spin. Once I was satisfied that all was in working order, I took measurements to see how well this unit might fit into the shop cart air cleaner. The answer was- "like a glove!" I would be hard pressed to have made a flange for this blower that would have fit the cart better.

Next came some wiring. I decided to install a two-gang box on the face of the flange. One side would have a 15 amp light switch for turning the fan motor on and off. The other side would have an always on electrical outlet. The box is fed from a heavy duty three wire cord with a plug end, that I salvaged from one of the ceiling light fixtures (which plug into electrical outlets mounted in the ceiling) when I made some changes to how those cords were routed.

I hadn't really planned on completing the cart upgrade right then. I was really just checking out the blowers and their suitability for the task, but everything went together so smoothly, the next thing I knew, I was half way finished and so I said "fuck it" and wend ahead and installed it.

I had to remove the box fan from the wide side, and the filter panels from one of the narrow sides, and install the blower flange to be flush with the narrow side of the cart. In order to keep it stationary, I drilled two small holes down through the top of the cart into the top of the flange and put sheet metal screws in them. I had to make two tiny wood blocks to screw onto the tips of the screws to keep anyone from getting jabbed by them.

The first time I built this cart, I used masking tape to seal up the gaps, and that worked OK, but this time I decided to try something more substantial. I used aluminum furnace tape- and it worked swimmingly.

The blower has an open front, which could potentially get things falling or shoved inside it, like tools, or hands, so I needed to cover it for safety sake. I had some left over hardware cloth from a recent renovation project. I cut a piece out that was big enough to cover the opening in the blower flange. Then I folded over the edges with a metal ruler so they would not be sharp. I was going to add a piece of that cheap fiberglass filter material to the cover also, but I decided it wasn't really necessary, and might restrict airflow. I

I secured the vent cover to the blower flange with more sheet metal screws.

That's really about all there was to this upgrade. Install a new 25x25x2" filter where the box fan was and we are good to go! Not only do I now have a more powerful air cleaner, but it also features a movable electrical outlet for tools. I just have to keep in mind that the blower motor pulls a lot more amps than a box fan, and not overload that circuit by plugging in too big of a tool while the blower is running.

See Also:
Shop Cart Air Cleaner


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Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 3)

Having finished the main sign, I started working on the accent pieces. Because the new sign is only half the width of the old sign, I knew I needed something else to take up the extra room on the marquee, or the sign would look too small for the space. In keeping with the Victorian Gothic theme, I decided to try to make something that looks like filigree, or fretwork, to flank the sign on either side and take up some of that empty space.

The first thing I needed to do was to determine the size of the fretwork, how much space I had to work with, and how big I wanted the fretwork to be. Also, how big of a piece of material I had to work with. After roughing out how big I wanted it, and roughly what shape I wanted it, I looked around on line for some line art, but I didn't really find anything that fit the bill. I'm not great at drawing, but when pressed, I usually come up with something passable. So, I got a piece of butcher paper roughly the size of what I needed and taped it to the wall. Then I just started doodling on the edge until I had a design that I was happy with.

Once I had a rough design, I started sketching it out at 1:1 scale on the butcher paper. I made marks to block out where the outer edges should be, and I marked a mid-line, and a few other reference  points to try to keep things symmetrical. It took a few tries. There was some erasing, but I ended up with something I thought would suit my needs.

 I only really had to focus on half of it. Once I got that half worked out, it would be easier to just fold the paper at the mid-line (the line of symmetry) and then cut out both sides at once. This ensures that both sides are perfectly symmetrical.

 I laid the paper template out on a table next to the sign to see how it would look in position.

 The dimensions for this fretwork element were partly based on the piece of particle board I had set aside to use for it. It was a scrap that had been laying around my dad's shop for years. In hindsight, I think I should have used a better quality piece of wood for this, but it worked out.

I laid the paper template out on the particle board and lightly spray painted over the edges, leaving a ghost outline on the wood. This would be my cut line. This trick is a lot quicker and easier than trying to trace around the paper template with a pencil.

I made two ghost outlines of the template, one for each side of the sign, and then started cutting them out with a jig saw. Then I painted them both with at least two coats of black exterior paint. I'm hoping that I got them sealed well enough, because if the weather gets through to the wood, these things are just going to disintegrate.

From an early stage I knew I wanted to tie these into the trim on the main sign by cladding them with copper. At first I thought of using the same copper foil, but that would have ended up in a wrinkly patchwork mess. Around the same time I got that foil, I also got a roll of copper sheeting. It was also on sale, but it was still expensive. I think it was something like $90 for a ten foot roll. It's probably somewhere in the vicinity of 24 gauge thickness. Expensive. But it would do a nice job of cladding these pieces. The only problem was, I had never tried anything like this before, and if it didn't work, I would have basically ruined $100 worth of copper sheeting. And I only had enough to do it once.

Oh, there was one more issue. I thought my roll was 24" wide, but I hadn't looked at it in a while. Turns out it was only about 20" wide.  Not quite as wide as the parts that I made. So, I would have to do the cladding in two pieces. I was hoping to avoid a seam, but I would just have to do my best to make it unobtrusive.

I laid the fretwork piece out on the copper and traced around it with a marker. Then I used some emery cloth to rough up the surface of the copper inside the lines, so that it would adhere better to the wooden piece. I spent some time thinking about what kind of adhesive I would use, ruminating on the lessons learned from putting the foil trim around the main sign. I decided on construction adhesive.

I spread the construction adhesive out  on the copper, inside my tracing lines, making sure to get good coverage, especially around the edges. For some reason I had a bad feeling about it as soon as I started. I had used Liquid Nail brand adhesive before with good results, but I went with the Heavy Duty variety this time, and it looked different from what I was used to seeing. I don't know why I doubted it, but I had a funny feeling it wasn't going to work.

I set the fretwork piece in place and put it under weight to dry.

It should have dried within a couple of hours, but by the next day, it still wasn't completely dry. I left it set for a couple more days, just to give it the best possible chance to cure, but when I came back to check on it, it was clear that it was separating at the edge in some places. When I picked at it, it pealed away easily. It had not adhered to the copper. It looked to me like the water in the glue had corroded the copper as it was drying, and that may have inhibited the adhesion.

Thinking I may have ruined my copper sheeting, I carefully pried the copper away from the wood piece, trying hard not to damage it too much.  Luckily it came off without destroying either the copper sheeting or the fretwork. I would at least get another shot at it. It did, however, take a LOT of scraping and sanding to remove all of the glue from both the copper and the wood.

I looked at several other adhesives, careful to read the labels of each, and was surprised that several mentioned copper specifically as not recommended for. There must be something about copper that reacts with the glue and prevents adhesion. Apparently this is a thing, and I didn't know about it. Still thinking that construction adhesive was the way to go, I looked for another brand, that didn't mention copper in the "not recommended for" fine print. I finally settled on Gorilla Glue construction adhesive. It was more expensive by a good margin, but I already had over $100 into just these fret pieces. Not to mention the rest of the sign. . 

Fortunately, the Gorilla Glue worked, at least well enough. Now, onto the hard part, routing around the edges.

I had never really used a router before. My dad never taught them to me, other than to say to be leery of them.  I think they scared him. He hardly ever used them, and he seemed overly cautious of them. As a result, I had no experience with them, and he had instilled a little bit of his aversion for them into me. But a router is what the situation called for, so a router is what I used.

 I managed to find a trim router and a flush trim bit amongst my father's tools and set about to remove the excess copper sheeting from around the fretwork. The flush trim bit has a bearing on the tip that rides along the edge of the work piece, so that you can not cut into the work piece by mistake. The bearing rides along the work piece and lets the cutter get right up to the edge without hitting it. It is used primarily for trimming laminate after it is glued to a counter top or other substrate. I was using it in exactly the same way, just that my laminate material was copper sheeting, not formica.

I had to drill pierce holes in some places in order to rout out the interior curves. One thing that I was not prepared for was how painful it would be having the tiny shards of copper flying at me (especially at my off-hand) at very high speeds. 

This process made a huge mess, and didn't leave much usable scraps, but when it was done, it ended up looking pretty much like I had hoped that it would. Even the small seam at the tip didn't look that bad. I had to do a little work with a file to get down into all the little corners because the router bit is round and can't make a radius of less than 1/4 inch. Also, all the the edges needed to be smoothed out with a file. The router left them pretty rough.

I had to touch up a few spots around the edges where the router cut into the paint. Then I gave each of the two pieces several coats of spar urethane on all sides.

I'm actually quite pleased with the way they turned out. I'm still debating about how I'm going to mount them to the marquee. But we can cover that in another post.


See Also:
Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 1)
Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 2)
Book of Shadows Signage v3.0 (part 4)