Neon’s torchbearer

[Erik Sine]

Neon’s torchbearer

St. Albans craftsman last of a sign-making breed

By Rusty Marks

Staff writer

Jim Day’s St. Albans sign shop may be the only one in the state where neon signs are still made and repaired.

It’s 10:30 a.m. and Jim Day has already had about 10 cups of coffee.

“I had to pour the last one out,” the 74-year-old sign maker said. “I couldn’t handle any more of it.”

Every day at 7:30 or 8, Day is in his small workshop on Georges Drive in St. Albans. “I try to get Sundays off, but sometimes I don’t even get that,” he said.

The hectic schedule is part work ethic, part personal drive and part necessity. Day is probably the only guy in the state of West Virginia who makes and repairs neon signs.

When owners of Spencer’s historic Robey Theater wanted the neon sign that graces the front of the building brought back to life, they came to Jim Day. A visit to Day Sign Co. reveals dozens of light-up signs in various stages of repair and assembly.

He’ll work on entire signs, or just a letter at a time. Day recently fixed a component from a sign that came in from the eastern part of Kanawha County.

It was probably a capital “E.” But depending on the way it was held, it could have been an “M,” a “W” or even a “3.” “I don’t really care what it is, to be truthful,” Day said. “Sometimes they’ll tell you, and sometimes they don’t.”

Day has been crafting neon signs for 47 years.

Somewhere along the line, the sign had lost its oomph. The “E” or “W” or whatever it was would still light, but glowed dimly. Day suspected it hadn’t been charged with enough gas when it was made.

A neon sign is basically a sealed glass tube filled with argon or neon gas. When excited by electricity, the gas glows brightly, red for neon and a bluish white for argon. Any other colors on a neon sign are achieved by using colored glass.

Day said the first commercial neon sign in the United States was made for Packard Motor Car Co. in 1907. While many companies are now using LEDs — or light-emitting diodes — for lighted signs, there is still enough demand for the nostalgic look of neon to keep Day busy all the time.

Day uses several different burners fed by natural gas to heat and bend glass tubing to make neon signs. To fix the “E,” he knocked off both ends and replaced them with new electrodes.

He then fused the letter to a labyrinth of glass tubing hooked to a couple of bottles of gas and an ancient electric air pump.

Neon sign tubes are bent into shape after being heated. Then they’re filled with neon gas, which glows red when electrified.

Once the “E” is connected to the tubing, a flick of a switch turns on the pump. With a “ploop, ploop, ploop,” the pump sucks out all the air in the tubing, creating a vacuum. After burning off all the impurities, Day pumps the empty “E” full of neon.

The tube connecting the “E” to the gas system is sealed off, and Day hooks the sign up to a couple of electric leads to burn in. After a few minutes, it glows a bright and uniform red.

Day first went to work for other sign makers when he was 18 years old. He made his first neon sign in 1959.

“I kind of fell into it,” he said. “Most of it is trial and error. It just takes a lot of hands-on experience.”

Day opened his own shop in 1964. And while he enjoys making all kinds of signs, he likes neon the best.

“If I run out of neon to work on [for customers], I come out here and make something for myself,” he said.

Why doesn’t he retire?

“I can’t,” Day said. “I’d like to. Then again, I enjoy this too much.”

[joemomma]

Ploop, ploop, ploop? I always thought it was more like glub, glub, glub.

[B.O.P.]

Ploop, ploop, ploop? I always thought it was more like glub, glub, glub.

If it's an old Cenco Megavac it's more like clack, clack, clack.

[DAVE THE NEON GUY]

Great article..... You gotta love it. :weld: