dlaw

I had to stop on my way home last night and sit in a high school because of a tornado between the shop and my house. The town I live in got a small one on the outskirts. No real damage here, just a few faces blown out and tree branches down. Other areas got hit pretty hard in Oklahoma City I saw some faces out nothing like in 1999. We had a days notice that the weather would produce tornados so we could plan for it. My thoughts and prayers are with people of Joplin they really were hit hard. I knew I was safe when I was pulling into Town and the storm chasers are heading out of town

I'm only 37, so I we have had computers and all that since I came into the trade. We Installed an old porcelain neon sign made in 1952 yesterday and the thing I noticed is that there wasn't one self tapping screw in the entire sign. There are several more projects coming up where I get to bring some of the old neon signs in Oklahoma City back to life, I am really looking forward to it.

I have had several issues with Optec, mainly their tech support, one guy tells me a sign is under warranty then you may call back and the next guy says it is not, plus very long periods of time on hold. The parts they sent me always seemed to be new though, I have heard the same thing about their parts.

I would quit my job before I worked for anybody who would take that job, after the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995 I know first hand what a terrorist attack will do to a community, and those people were Americans. Building this Mosque is not only a slap in the face to the U.S. it is a slap in the face to the citizens of NYC. A militia may have a legal right to build a headquarters in downtown OKC but our city leaders would never let that happen. If American contractors are hired they should be boycotted.

That's a great idea

The inspectors in most cities here don't look at signs, my boss was informed by the Stillwater city inspector that there is nothing they can do about it if people don't pull permits, even though the message center portion of the code is pretty restrictive. The signtronix salesmen filled up this town with them and we couldn't get them permitted so they had someone else do it. I do know what you mean about people being cheap when I was in sales I didn't sell low quality just to make it cheap and it did cost me some sales. I didn't sell anything I wasn't proud of still made pretty good money. I would like Oklahoma to start requiring a Journeyman license and apprenticeship program and inspecting my signs would be ok with me.

In Oklahoma all you need for a sign contractor's license is a few bucks, insured, and bonded, The City of Tulsa is the only place you have to pass any qualifications. Installers and Service techs anywhere but Tulsa don't need any kind of license. The majority of the owners in the sign association are against any strict requirements for obtaining a contractors or journymans license, which I somewhat understand, However I see alot of junk work I can only assume is performed by some part time sign companies, or some hack sign companies rent-a-drunks. My question is, in the areas of the country where there are more strict requirements, does this raise the quality of the work, or is it the same every where. I would think that it could get rid of some of the fly by night companies.

We do all kinds, we have an 87' Wilkie crane we use to lift most of the time, using the 520 mainly as a man lift, I have lifted sign boxes and channel letter raceways when I did some installs (I am mainly a service tech), but I have never pushed it's limits, it works great, operates smoothly, as solid a unit as any other. the guys who operate it daily love it

We have a Wilkie 520, It is very reliable, for a small crane it is as good as the skyhooks I used to work with, having to work the load line to telescope in and out while on service calls is a slight inconvenience, but over all you can't beat them, hell for most repairs you can get the parts at any auto parts store.

I dropped 2 hydraulic cylinders from our 520 at Wilkie's plant at 10:00 am they had them fixed for me by 2:30 while I ran errands in OKC. They saved me a 3 hour round trip to pick them up tommorrow. That is good customer service.

Does any have a picture of properly wired LED letters, I was in the office for a few years while Led were becoming common, everyone I have seen just uses 18-2 doorbell wire or speaker wire passed straight through the wall, I doesn't seem like the right way.