What does it take to build a thousand table top signs? Time, a Shopbot, and a lot of substrate! When a large coffee retailer, Java City, inquired about having us produce some unique menu boards for their locations, we knew after looking at their artwork this would turn out to be a great project.

The Process:

The challenge was to create a small table top menu board that was highly mobile and could stand on its own or be mounted to a wall. The theme the client was looking for was a road sign theme. Working from the client's artwork we produced an initial prototype and a after a few minor tweaks we were ready to start production.

The Aluminum:

Starting off , we began cutting 20 ft 1"x1" aluminum tubing down to 16" lengths. After the aluminum was cut to length, the metal was placed six at a time into a jig on the Shopbot. Using a 1/4" onsrud router bit, the CNC table cut 36 speedholes into the aluminum posts. A little deburring and polishing with a disc sander and the posts were ready.

The Base:

The base needed to be detachable from the rest of the sign, in case the sign needed to be mounted on a wall. White PVC was cut to make the base of the sign. In each PVC base a 3" metal square tube extended up from the center. This was the mounting point for the sign post.
The sign face:

For the sign face acrylic was the substrate of choice. Once the client recieved the signs, interchangeable static clings(provided by a third party) would be placed onto the face of the sign indicating the daily/weekly special. Acrylic made a great choice for the sign face - it had a clean look and the static clings would stick to it. Using 4'x8' sheets of 3/16 inch thick white acrylic we cut these to shape using the Shopbot. once the acrylic was cut to 8.5" wide by 10.5" tall, we applied the graphics onto the signs using high performance vinyl.

The red text and black border were both made with oracle vinyl. The white squares seen in the picture are the markers for the static clings.. The markers were too small to weed beforehand, so they were applied to the acrylic with a block of vinyl left in place around them, the transfer tape was removed, then the excess vinyl was removed from the sign face leaving the small white markers for the static cling graphics.

The company logo in the top left corner of the sign measured .86 of an inch tall, much too small to be made from vinyl. Using the Gerber edge, we were able to print a sharp clean vector image onto the vinyl.






Roast of the month:

The final part of the menu board was the yellow card holder. The client needed an interchangeable card holder to display their monthly promotions. The "Roast of the Month" card holder was created from 3/16" yellow PVC and 1/8 " clear acrylic. A 2.5" x4" pocket was cut into the PVC. The clear acrylic was then glued to the face of the PVC, leaving the pocket accessible from the right side. Oracle vinyl the same color as the PVC, with a window cut out to match the size of the pocket, was then applied to the clear acrylic. Once it was all assembled you could slide a card into the side of the sign and it was visible through the acrylic on the front.

The Sign:

What did we end up with? After bolting the sign faces to the post and inserting it into the base using a wing nut, the resulting product was a sharp looking sign - and a happy client!

Blue Ridge Fabrication & Design