jdragun

Hi all, I was just told be a shop I do the neon for that Walgreen's stores are NOT going to be fixing any of the neon that is out or channel letters. They told him to do nothing with the bad piece of neon in the mail lobby and just unplug the WHOLE sign and let it go dark. I am in NY and am wondering if this is a NY thing or national thing? Has anyone heard this? What are they crazy??? Let a good looking neon sign in the lobby of all the buildings just go dark? I saw one by me in Watertown, NY, and it is dark..........anyone have an in with Walgreen's to get this reversed? Makes neon look bad to do this.

Amen. Let's get the public educated.

I agree, but how do you setup such a thing? The big boys won't want to play.

I agree about the obscure stuff......I use West Coast Designs for some of that stuff.........always liked transco's boot though.......I bet my $$ the Ventex will now kill the neon transformer lines.....back to France and Alison i guess.

We need it badly. Not just the shotty work, but the lies that some people spout about L.E.D. vs neon etc. L.E.D. has it's place, but that isn't everywhere and out sign reps at the wholesalers have no idea about neon anymore. I ask questions and they have no clue. It's been this forum and Mark at SVP that have saved my ass in the past and most likely will again in the future. I only learned to bend glass in 1995, and was taught by the shop I worked in. I learned my builds, wiring, etc from books or the guys in the shop.......better leadership by people in the industry who CARE about our industry is needed....... Thanks.

It's outside. Ran the GTO inside through Electrobits Passthru, two France 15k's Wired with virtual ground, from trandformer to glass is about 1 foot, then all glass together and a long GTO run back to the other unit. Since we could drill throught the building anywhere we wanted, easy to setup the GTO for short runs to glass and one long run to vconnect them back. Hope to have that other duck back up next week. It's always something on an install..... John

I know...one blue out....tinked an electrode on the install, rebending it now..... :(......It happens though. John

Woot Woot! I just did a project for a local outdoor supply company. The lead orange goose is 4'x5' and op about 45 feet......they are painted orange and blue with back-lit neon.......hoping the trend continues!

They LOVE to drop ship everthing to me.........I hate to use them.

I'm on your bandwagon! If we stick together there is nothing we can't do. I like the "shining of the light" on them, I'm on the East coast, so we have it all covered. We can use our buying power to make changes, like it was said, stop buying from then and they will change thier tune pretty fast..... On a side note, I've been pretty slow here and making things on spec, so I stopped by a "Big Boy" company that I used to bend for when they had overflow etc. They told me they ONLY use led now, and don't have a neon department anymore and just let another shop handle the little bit of repair work they get......They told me "Neon is dead." I told them, well, it is slolwer than before, but it will never die. LED cannot do waht neon does. Maybe you should check out the Sign Syndicate's web site to get the real comparisons of neon vs. led in real world situations........ Always trying to educate.

Here,Here Erik! A good debate is just that, good, but bull and misinformation does nothing to promote anything. My little neon shop is gettting busier and busier. Neon will NEVER go away. NOTHING can do what neon does. period. Time will tell when that signs starts to show the signs of wear that the LED does, and then will they even be able to get replacements or just trash them and go with whatever is the newest thing now? Where if it was clear neon, just bring it to ANY neon guy and have it repumped or repaired. I love neon and know it isn't going away, hell it' sbeen here for over 100 years!

There are a lot of people just reading.....oh well....Time to bend.

I was imvolved in a bucket accident 18 years ago. Family business I was the neon bender with the owers son who taught me, and I was doing an install with the father. I was in the bucket, no strap, and my truck was hit by a huge box truck. I few 3 stories to the ground in the middle of the hiway. Shattered my ankle, broke parts of my back, pretty well screwed up, but alive......took me years to get back and many surgeries later. Now I just bend, no istalls for me thanks. This is a tradgity for the family. We can all be alittle more careful.

Just read that thread......I agree with you, but anyting tha w ill get the public to look to neon as an option is good in my book. Talking to some builders here, having neon listed as green gives them options with neon as architectural lighting options, and more for me to bend....... Anything that gives correct info about LED vs neon is good in my book because neon will win that fight with proven reliability etc. I wonder how many refits we will all be doing when the sun kills all the plastic etc and the lumens of these led units drop to levels the salesman never told them about........oh well Keep bending!!

BTW if anyone missed it here is a link to the Signs of the Times artical about neon being listed as green: http://www.dragunsigns.com/files/signs_of_the_times_neon.pdf I will still be makeing and repairing neon, just ask someone when you show them a neon next to an led which they like better......