Can Anyone Cut Sheet Metal? (for arcade signs)

Phetishboy

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Anyone here have the ability to cut sheet metal signs? I would do it in wood, but I think painted sheet metal would be more authentic. I am looking to get one about 3-4 feet high by 1 foot wide that I can hang on the wall and back light. I basically want a giant slightly curved arrow that would stick out from the wall on 2-3 rods and have the word 'arcade' painted vertically from top to bottom. I'd probably need 2 of them, so I could sandwich the wiring/dc transformers, etc between them. I want it to look similar to this (sorry for the small pic):

liquorarrowsign.jpg
 
Maybe contact an "Industrial Arts" / Metal Shop class at a high school - assuming they even have those classes these days. Those were fun classes BITD. <thinks back to "The Breakfast Club" movie - "Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?" >
 
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You need to find someone with software to do lettering,etc. This can all be entered manually into a plasma table but writing the program would take forever and trying to do it by hand with a handheld plasma cutter would be Very sloppy. Try a Printing Company maybe they can point you in the right direction if you can't find a "Sign" shop
 
Maybe PrOk can cut something out of plastic with his laser cutter? Similar to how he did the Tron toppers.

I will be contacting him at some point. For now, Brett has offered to cut me the signs out of Birch Plywood instead. Should be pretty sweet.
 
Any local sheetmetal or hvac shop should have a shear and the metal to do this.It wouldn't take them but a couple minutes and shouldn't cost much either.
 
I can make whatever you want but logistics will kill it. Are you going to the Millwaukee auction by chance?

No, but there are some dudes around that area that I will be dealing with soon. When is the auction? Here's a bigger image of the sign:

liquorsign.jpg
 
Sign

It is the 28th of this month. The back of the sign is no problem. The letters will take some time. If you want just the outline of the sign. I can have that done in time. Can you draw it up in CAD?
 
If you are not in a rush, I may be able to do it in metal.. I've got a CNC Plasma cutter, but busy a hell right now at work. Probably be atleast a month before I'd get to it..
 
Well as I said, Brett is getting his design together to cut it out of wood with his CNC Router. I wanna see how that turns out first before I commission anything else. I am also gonna have one done for my theatre, I just wanna see how the arcade one looks in wood. There is no rush, and it will just be for the outline if done in metal, as I will be painting the metal and adding EL wire to (raised above) the letters to look like neon. Thanks for responding you guys, I now know who to turn to for the rest of my signs in metal. Sweet.
 
Signs like that these days are made from aluminum. A water jet cutter is what you'll need but I think you could do the same with plastic since it is going to remain indoors. I've made several similar signs with that feel to them for customers using MDF or MDO, bondo and paint. The finish on the piece is what is going to make it look like metal not the actual material it is made out of.
 
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