UFB Fabrication

Way back in the day we used to use Makita cordless 9.6 volt. They were pretty cool and ahead of the game but sucked compared to today's stuff. We to switched to Dewalt. They really went down in quality. We now use Bosch. Makita,and Metabo. We used to have a bunch of 60$ corded shop drills that were all Dewalt. Had 8 or so of them that lasted for years. Sadley Dewalt has turned from industrial to hobby/home quality of tools. The last of them finally died. I have been replacing them with every kind of drill and nothing last more than a half year or so. What seems to last the longest currently is the Bosch drills. Remember the old gorilla and the luggage commercials? That is our shop guys and equipment. If any mfg. thinks they have a tuff tool send it to use and we can show how quick it can be broken.

Has anyone bought a new gas can. It has a safety switch then a lever to hold open. The only problem Is that you cant put the nozzle in what you are trying to fill so it takes two people or pour gas over what your filling until you hit the hole. I also had a circle saw that took two hands to turn on then with the saw running you could cut a board. Lastly a guy was improperly using our iron worker and cut the tip of his finger off. When the paramedics looked for the tip it was just below the warning sign with the picture that you could cut a finger off.

I really only go to SOT for the pictures I like some of the sign designs even if we hardly get to design anything any more. I also like the sign design competition but I also wonder about some of the objectivity.

We dont have a ton of office staff so I dont feel the need yet. I do feel it ok to surf the net or play on Facebook while at lunch but at some point a line must drawn. I do wish I had cctv in the shop for the 2 work comp claims we had. If it got to a point to ask to look at someones smart phone I would have already fired them. I am sorry to say but when folks here expect to be paid I also expect of work to be done. I would comment more but I must check my Facebook........

We have a ploter that manly does pen and pounce patterns for letters. The cover on the drum finally gave out and needed to be replaced or repaired. I did not realize actually how many we did until I had to sub out the last month. Anyway Gerber wanted to bend me over for 1800.00 + and the plotter doctor for a bit less. I sent mine to a shop for less than 1/2 that. For Sign Syndacate members I will give the contact info to save some $$$$$ It took 2 weeks. Steve

In our part of the world we do a lot of channel letter replacements. I would guess that that by the time the faces are badly faded the trim has deteriorated so much that they are to bad to go back up. Maybe out west it may be different. But maybe if they are not disturbed they wont fall off for another month......

Do you want simple channel letter or cabinet or something unique. We see this standard stuff every day and is thought to be bread and butter boring but I can do that too. We do not install but if the customer sends a final photo we can add it as well. I do something next week and see how and if it works and see how it goes.

Sorry if the impression was pay to get info for becoming a Board Patron, the intent of Board Patronage is for those individuals who like this site and want to support it. All the tutorials and light tests stuff is just added bonus for doing so. You didn't find the Neon stuff interesting, Using a HV probe? Won't find that stuff in any sign magazine that's for sure I do have to say I'll be adding in some tutorials soon on how to make channel letters and reverse channel letters by hand. Sounds redundant for an electric sign trade board and I know everyone makes theirs by CNC these days but I think we still need to know how to use hand tools. It's a shame the way schools are doing away with their wood, metal and auto shops these days and bust buying CNC's for everything. But back to what you're describing on the "How-To" (Not talking directly to you) for the electric sign trade is just that. NO ONE wants to teach or explain. The electric sign trade is the biggest silent tradesmen, biggest "Mum" single aspect crowd there is to the broad spectrum of the sign industry. You can go to forums where their composed of Printers, stickey guys, wrappers, and pin stripers and they'll talk all day, they even have meets like the letterheads where they will teach you openly. But not when it comes to the electric sign trade! Some of them talk about the electric sign trade, but I haven't read to much from those that really knew anything, most of it was speculation and most of those individuals are hacks fishing for info to be in an area they aren't qualified for. Forums for them, are THEIR school This was and is one of neon's biggest downfalls. No one wanted to teach or explain, it had to be earned, it was ARROGANT. Hell, one of the LED guys here was trying to learn neon, but no one gave him the light of day, so he started producing LEDs, and he's pretty damn good at it! Most tradesmen in our industry think they know "Trade Secrets", there may be a a few, but not as many as they think. This is a big problem with the electric sign industry. But in some ways it also protects it. So this is why no one talks, we have a large visitorship, but, again. No one wants to talk, in part, it involves large contracts. Quite honestly, a lot aren't even brave enough to post their projects in the open for other fellow electric sign tradesmen and women or colleagues to take a look, they'll do it elsewhere for some reason. I know this can be a tough forum for a lot of people, but it's for good reason. To add, unlike some of the other aspect of the sign trade, the electric sign trade is the "cream of the crop" of the broad base sign industry, so in some ways it's almost expected you already know or know enough. This industry is a hard one to crack, most figure if they have the knowledge they have the advantage over their competition, again in some ways it's true. If individuals want to learn about sign painting, guilding, carving I would suggest the Letterheads, they have annual meets if not more. If you would like to see some cool sign related CNC stuff I would suggest showing up to a shopbot tools meet that are held all over the US, different places and times, and free. When people start sharing, people will start learning Hey Eric, as some know we build signs (strictly) wholesale for other sign shops. I did a whole pictorial and article for SOT a few years back on the sign in our avatar that they never ran even though they said they would. We do everything except printing and billboards. We do standard and reverse letters -gasp- by hand. Some of our stuff is pretty hi-tech equipment wise and most shops would not have the equipment to duplicate but I would be happy to contribute info on projects. Let me know what folks want to see and we would be happy to do a photo essay and even answer questions. Let me know Steve

2 things: 1 Would get paid up front from any new customer that is doing take downs from a closed or failing biz. 2nd we dont pay any employee to scrap anything. Either the guys scrap it for free and take the cash off the clock or we and many other shops by us have scrappers that come in and make it go away. One of the bigger shops the guy scraps almost full time and takes away the crate material and throw the plastic in a trailer. The lexan and plex is bring fair money right now. None of the scrapping bs has enough value fr us to pay our guys. I was quoted 72 cent per pound for painted alum scrap BTW.

Anyone Bueller Bueller Bueller.........

Has anyone sithced over fron UL? How has it gone so far? Lets us know or at least send me a PM. Thanks Steve

I am looking for a thing that 15-20 years ago was called a wedge master. To use it you would core drill a hole and put a piece of 4"x30" sched 40 steel pipe in and pour concrete around it. The after dry you slid in sign post inserted wedge in and tightened with a wrench slid rubber cap over and your done. Then when goober knock sign over loosen wedge/bolt drop in new sign post and your a genius who saved the world without digging up parking lot. If I find them I will post pictures or I may start marking them if the patent has run out. Handier the pockets on a pair of pants.......

Hey Kris welcome to the forum. UFB Fabrication

Sad to hear but also good to hear. Was there ample warning or just an all out instant FUBAR. Actually plenty of warning. Sadly folks look at the weather man as the boy who cried wolf. Every time a weather event be it snow sleet hail rain and tornado they over play it. Luckily most folks were in basements. BTW another funnel cloud spotted 5 miles from here. Gonna be raining toads soon.

Moms house got it bad. 100k or so damage. Missed the shop by 500 yds. Its tore down all kinds of stuff around here but luckily no deaths so all in all quite lucky.

So then when you say "safer" its to other inferior systems. Thanks for the clarification. I am just a dumb old sign guy with poor reading skills that must have missed the inference of "safer" in the ad to be safer than fluorescent that it was to retro fitted. BTW when are the other sizes coming out? I have folks ask about it all the time. How do they compare lumen wise to T-8's? Will the make longer than 4'?

I Could frankly give a rip but comparing a fast food franchise to a sign francise is like comparing apples and toyota. Fast food is the perfect franchise. They employ unskilled cheap labor that has huge turn over. They make the same thing every day. I also think most of the biggies are corporate stores not franchise. Look at a quiznos or Jimmy Johns that would take up the same space in the same strip mall. If I had my choice I would take the Quiznos. I dont see many Fast food franchises going out of business either. I would also bet that in the case of a good number of sign products the could buy it from a local fabricator or a cheaper source than Yesco when you factor in shipping. I will say that I was fortunate to get a tour of Yesco Vegas and was impressed and overwhelmed. If ever a shop had its shit together they are it. I dont think you could take the manpower and equipment from all the big shops in St. Louis combined and equal the operation they have. 10 Years ago they were even making circuit boards in house.

I assume the power supply that these are replacing is also UL listed are you saying that UL is wrong and they are not safe? BTW I am not knocking the product. Hello....................?

Interesting concept. I am wondering if the local franchises will get finished product or Mfg. in house. One thing has been shown with the franchise shops is it does not come with talent. A three week training course aint gonna make you a sign guy. I am sure it will be great for "corporate" but at least in my area I dont know any franchise guys with the big boat and the lake house. We do work for some franchises Sign A Rama, Fastsigns and others. We have seen more go than come. More municipalities are enacting/adopting zoning, engineering, licensing, UL, both business and some form of qualification to do installs the more of these franchises will go away. Like I said this is in the St. Louis area. The guys I know with a electrical license are few and far between have taken about a year to study for or have had for many years. You still have to take the block test every so often. Of the newly opened franchise companies all of the Fastsign and Sign A Rama stores have failed and of the others half of them have failed. Could be that St. Louis is a sh!@ market I dont know.

I assume the power supply that these are replacing is also UL listed are you saying that UL is wrong and they are not safe? BTW I am not knocking the product.

Looks interesting. Are the going to offer different size similar to HO lamps? I did see one thing and hate to start a argument but it states on the info safe 24v power. I have seen car fires that are started from safer 12v systems and the cars seem to burn just fine. I have also seen high voltage 15,000v stuff that does not burn. As well as the fixtures they were retro fitting, they were mfg. and installed to UL and code were and are quite safe. Did the SOT write the ad for this ;-)

We wholesale work for other sign shops and our involvement is when something wont work, not be UL or done a better way. I used to try and be the design police for when something really ugly goes thru but have given up. Last week had a set of channel letters with white trim, face, and return on a off white raceway. This week did some with black returns blue trim and red face. It was so ugly I had to check but thats what they wanted. I do see more shops outsourcing many things from Install, Electric, Fabrication and Design that previously done in house. I dont know if this is economy driven or if the shops are not efficient or just plain cant.

I was talking with my foreman who happens to be Muslim (from Bosnia) and he said its not custom he is familiar with at least within the Muslim community. He thought it is a regional hatred from Pakistan or some place like that,that hates us no matter the religion. We talked further and the radical religious elements from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and so on from a small percentage marginalizes a whole society. No different then the westborrow baptist or the rapture idiots.

I think you should have a both at the Vegas show pointing out the value(?) of LED's

Is the light output measured on the face equal ?