You can order a sign like this on the custom section of our website, or get in contact for a custom size or design.
]]>As standard all our signs come without any fixings or fittings attached, allowing you to do exactly what you want with your new sign.
Here are a few suggestions for how to display your new sign:
Need pre drilled holes? No problem. We can provide pre-drilled holes free of charge- just leave a note when you place your order with us.
]]>Our CNC plasma table comfortably cuts up to 10mm thick steel. We recently designed and made these parts for a customer to use on a fabrication project he was working on.
Parts that would have taken hours of labour to produce were drawn up and manufactured by us in under 60 minutes on our machine- saving the customer time and allowing him to finish his project faster.
We can cut up to 10mm thick with our current plasma cutting machine, but all the stock signs we sell are done in 2mm thick mild steel as standard, 2.5mm thick for custom signs. We have cut from 1mm to 10mm thick parts, and can use different thickness on request by the customer.
It entirely depends on the use of your item. As the majority of our signs are intended as home decor, 2mm steel is fine. If you want 3mm steel we're more than happy to supply it, just be aware that your sign will be heavier and you'll need to account for that when you're installing it.
We've recently designed a new style of signs which are double layered 2mm steel, so you can get the strength of 4mm thick steel without the extra weight.
The handle pivot sections were cut on 5mm thick mild steel, while the backing plates were cut on 4mm thick mild steel.
The pieces were designed, cnc plasma cut and cleaned up by us then supplied to the customer for assembly, by his request.
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As well as signs and home decor, we also love to design and plasma cut custom metal parts to order for all sorts of applications.
This week a customer came to us with broken tensioner bracket for his tractor.
The bracket had already had a welding repair once before, so we took measurements from the old part and with it designed a brand new uprated part with a thicker outer edge.
We then plasma cut a new tractor tensioner bracket from 5mm thick mild steel.
The whole process of designing and making the part was done in under an hour, a relief for the farmer who needed his tractor back in action as fast as possible.
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We worked closely with the customer over a few months to bring his vision to life, eventually resulting in these six scenes depicting historical moments from both world wars, and three plates depicting the institutions that were established after the war to prevent any more.
Each one is approximately 620mm x 620mm, plasma cut onto 4mm mild steel.
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If you're buying a plasma cut sign for outside you may need to take some extra steps with it before it's mounted, depending on the finish you want.
If a rusty metal sign or piece of metal yard art is the look you're going for, simply leave your mild steel item outside for nature to do her magic and naturally rust the sign.
Take care where you rest your item though, as rust can stain surfaces, and if a metal item is left touching against a wall or resting on a window ledge some orange marks may start to appear!
To avoid this situation, once your item has rusted to a point you're happy with it you can seal it with some coats of clear lacquer or varnish or, for a more natural look, apply some beeswax or linseed oil. This will inhibit the rust, but not stop it entirely, and will need to be reapplied every 6 months or so.
If you don't want a rusty sign, there are a few different options for sealing metal signs to go outside, depending on your budget and how you want the sign to look.
Painting your sign is the most affordable option as you can do it yourself fairly easily.
All you need to do is sand the item to "key" the metal so paint will stick to it, degrease it with some white spirit or similar, and then paint it.
If you're painting a metal sign for your garden make sure you choose a paint that is suitable for outdoor use, such as Hammerite.
If you choose to get your metal sign powder coated by a specialist powder coater it will cost more, but your sign will have a more hard wearing finish than paint.
Powder coating is exactly what it sounds like- a fine powder is sprayed onto the item then baked in an oven to set it.
When choosing a powder coater find someone who has experience of working with flat signs and ask to see examples of their work if possible. You should tell the powder coater that your sign is for outside so a primer will need to be used first. Powder coating doesn't give as shiny a finish as paint but it should be a flat finish without any runs in it.
Galvanising is another option for outdoor metal signs. Galvanising is the process of dipping a mild steel item in a bath of molten zinc to form a protective layer around it.
Galvanising gives a more agricultural finish than paint and powder coating. It's commonly used for farm gates and will typically be quite textured, but the thick coating should last a lifetime. It's usually a metallic silver when done but will dull off over time and can be painted over.
If you plan on mounting your metal sign onto a piece of wood you need to take (even more!) care.
Mild steel that isn't treated or sealed can react with certain types of wood like oak when it gets wet, turning it a dark blue/ black colour. So if you find yourself asking "why has my oak turned black?!" it's because the oak has been in contact with some iron.
The iron in mild steel draws the tannin acid out of the wood, turning the wood black and making the metal sign feel greasy. This process happens when the sign gets wet or is in a damp area, like outside.
If your metal sign is going to be in a covered area you can use linseed oil or beeswax on the metal which will inhibit rust (although not entirely prevent it).
]]>We accept all the regular stuff like pdf, png, dxf, jpg, ect. But, it can be pretty much any image. We've worked from photos, paintings, hand drawings... literally, if you've got a visual format of it we can do something with it.
Specifically what we do, if you're really interested, is tidy up or sometimes redraw the design or image on the computer, which can take between 10 minutes and a few hours, depending on the complexity of the design and what quality of image we're working from. We then need to save that re drawn image in a specific format, before we run it through the special programme for our machine which turns it into G CODE, a format the machine can understand.
Almost. What we can't work from is a vague description. Or do any design work before an order is placed. It's nothing personal honest, we're just not mind readers and working for free doesn't pay the bills!
So please, we beg of you, if you get in contact to have something custom made be SPECIFIC about what you want (that means dimensions, font choice, ect.) and, if you want to make our day, INCLUDE PICTURES.
CNC Plasma cutting is 2D, so you should plan your design as a silhouette with "positive" solid metal parts and "negative" areas where the holes are going to be cut out.
And of course, if you give us a finished piece of work you've designed and we turn it into a custom plasma cut sign for you, that's still your design to keep and we will not reproduce it to sell on our website.
Thanks!
]]>Basically, plasma is a really hot beam that melts away metal in its path and gas (usually air from a big compressor) blows out at the same time to remove the molten metal and leave a clean cut edge (well, there is still some "dross" left behind that needs cleaning off by hand, but that's the general idea.)
The CNC part simply means a computer controls the cutting, instead of a human hand, making it easier to cut lines with great accuracy.
Plasma cutting is a 2D process, so you should imagine your sign or artwork as a silhouette. Think of it as either "positive" where the solid metal parts are, or "negative" where the holes are cut out of it. That does mean some designs need to be modified to make them work with plasma, but we've gotten pretty good at that now.
CNC Plasma cutting is perfect for cutting large metal signs, custom brackets and car parts, but there is a limit to how small and fine it can cut. If you need small, intricate parts making, a laser cutter would be best for that.
Plasma can cut many types of metal including mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper and brass. Mild steel is most commonly cut as it is the most affordable type of metal. Also stainless steel and aluminium are toxic so special breathing apparatus is needed to cut it safely.
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