Fixing a Streetsign With My Name on It

In this tutorial we are fixing A lamp.

Pun intented.

A while back Isaw my last name hanging off a facade of an abandoned building nearby in my neighbourhood, tracked the owner down and got permission to remove it and save this beast from the landfill.
At the time of writing this instructable there is nothing left of the building, but the sign is alive and well and brightening my days ( and also my shop).
I do not assume that everyone will find their last time in big shiny letters somewhere, but this instructable is a suggestion of how to go ahead with a similar build.

Tools:

Bosch 18v drill/screw gun: https://amzn.to/38fDihV

Metal drill bit set https://amzn.to/33SErsH

Table saw

Steel brushes to remove rust https://amzn.to/3tYDh9B

A router if you want to get fancy, otherwise a drill will work just fine for this purpose

An old f¤¤¤d up streetsign

Black and white spray paint https://amzn.to/3ylq122
Led strip 50m https://amzn.to/2Rlbrar

18mm plywood strip of about 20cm wide and 3 meters long

5mm plywood strips of about 4 cm wide and 3 meters long

Safety first: if there are any power cables running to the thing, check that the power is off.
then disconnect said power from the light and determine how the thing is held in place.
In my case these lights were screwed to a wooden board from inside the lamps.
Fun....
So I had to undo some old small screws that were painted over to get to the inside of each light.
This was manageable for the first 3. Then it started raining.
Number 4 got ripped from the wall and after determining that this did not harm the light, I proceeded with the Hulk-smash protocol for all the other light boxes.

These lights signs often consist of a plastic element that lets the light through, captured in something sturdy, in this case metal.
I removed the metal lid and, using a metal brush, I removed the rust and grime that was on this lid.
After removing the plastic cover it turned out that the inside was a basic fluorescent light. Snip snip and away!

Then every lightbox got a good cleaning with water and soap.
Now that we have a clean canvas we can proceed.

Bob ross would be furious, but I used some spray paint to bring back the old colours.
The black frame got a new coat of black and the inside was repainted white, since the rain had done some damage over the years.
The old lights will be replaced by a continous LED strip that will snake its way through each lightbox. So I drilled an entry and exit hole in the back of each box for the strip to fit through.
Then using a file I made the opening wide enough and smooth it out so it does not slice through the LED strip.

Since I removed the light from the wall, or the wall from the light ( depending on how you want to look at it) it is now a series of boxes that need some structure in their life.
Coaching is expensive, so I went with some plywood instead.

First I cut a long strip of 18mm plywood that will hold all the boxes, two of these pieces make up the full light, but for simplicity´s sake lets say it is one long piece.

Then two thin strips of the same length, but out of 5mm plywood.
on the back side I glued these strips so that you create a shallow channel, in this channel the LED strip can run between the wall and the wooden light holder. That way you can screw the long plywood board to the wall without crushing th LED strip.
I laid out the boxes an even width apart and used a router to connect the holes in the lightboxes through the wood to the back channel, making room for the LED strips.

The LED strip is one of these you can cut every 1meter.
I wanted to make a few loops or circles with my strip in each lightbox and then snake on through to the next one
So I rolled out a bunch of LEDstrip and did a tiny bit of math.
The box is 50x50cm. so making a circle in there means the diameter is 50.
To get the length of yr circle you multiply by Pi. giving you about 1,5meters.

3 circles in each box is 4.5meters. so I chose 5 as my length per box.
7boxes to have all the letters of my last name makes for 35meters of LED strip.

I pulled and rolled them through each lightbox and added 3 loops per box

then on to connecting everything together.

I was having attachment issues, since no glue would stick the led strip to the inside painted surface.
So I came up with small plywood blocks that squeezed tight into the side of the box, holding the 3 loops in place.
Adding 3 to teach box was enough to hold the loops in their circular form when stood upright.

then the Moment Supreme --> plugging it in.

Afterwards it was a simple operation of using my Benny Benassi drillhamer to make a few holes and attach the big moodlight in my workshop, where I am reminded every day what I am called.

A video version of this is available if you want to see some more details and unneccesary wardrobe switches.

Thank you for reading and leave me a comment if you have any questions, I do try to reply to everybody.