Once the pieces had all been routed it was time to the glue up. We used the routed slots in the center of the sign as a jig to tack up the steel frames, then pulled them out and did the final welding. Some steel eye bolts were also welded to the top of the frame. A 5/8" steel bar was welded to the post side of the sign as well. The sign was hung from the matching eye bolts on the structural steel post. Then we welded the 5/8" steel rod to the post on the bottom to keep the sign from swinging should there be a strong wind.
I then used an air powered die grinder to go over the edges to get rid of the glue lines and add a little texture. The faxes of the sign got a little of the treatment at the same time.
Tomorrow we'll begin my favorite part - the hand sculpting of Pike, the engineer. Stay tuned...
-dan