A Fun and Profitable Non-Sign Project

LAST MONTH WE showcased our Snowie Shaved Ice trailer project that we completely refurbished (see ST, October, page 37). It was what we called a “fun diversion.” This month we’re gonna talk about a project that was fun and profitable at the same time!

Tim Webber Events (Longwood, FL) is a high-end, special-events production company. Think an “amazing parties for Fortune 500 companies” kind of company. How do we know them?

Well, about 15 years ago, we realized we inhabited the same industrial park. He had a fleet of catering trucks, and we just happened to be the best wrappers on the planet. We’ve been fast friends ever since.

Over the years, we have wrapped and fabricated amazing projects with Tim, and they have all been very sexy, custom undertakings that we have had so much fun with! So when he calls, Media 1 is front and center.

A couple months ago he told us one of his largest, oldest clients came to him for a special request. AdventHealth, one of Florida’s largest hospital networks, had just been ranked Central Florida’s #1 hospital. At eight of their locations, they wanted to celebrate that fact with custom acrylic “#1” displays.

Uhhh, what?

He says, yeah, they want eight 5-ft.-tall “#1’s” made of clear acrylic that can be filled with colored balls with employee names on them to applaud their contribution to the company’s success. They will be displayed in the hospitals’ lobbies. What a great idea! But a very quick turn was needed.

The unveiling event was the following Friday, exactly one week from this Friday. And none of us had ever built giant structural acrylic numbers… Well, we did build a 450-gallon, L-shaped, acrylic marine aquarium for this guy named Dale (see St, May 2019, page 32) so I was 100% confident M1 could make this happen. It’s Tim Webber, and we gotta make him look good! Front and center, boys!

M1 designer, Jason Wissig, went to work putting our fabrication ideas to paper for client approval. Here’s the rundown:

5 ft. tall x 4 ft. wide x ½-in.-thick clear, cast acrylic was cut on our 7 x 13-ft. MultiCam CNC router to a serifed font “1” shape — both a front and a back.

The same ½-in.-thick material was cut into sections for the side returns that would make it a 12-in.-thick, hollow number. Alex Beverly, our CNC Beast, supplied all the pieces, then M1 fabricators Steve Pass and Robert Hazelton went to work. Using IPS Adhesives Weld-On 4, they melded each return piece onto the front “1”. Once the front and sides were assembled cleanly, the back “1” was attached to the returns with 10 24 S/S screws. As it couldn’t be successfully glued from the inside, all around, we opted for mechanical fasteners.

The “roof” section was left open so they could fill it up with the intended stuffing, with a top lid provided to place after filling. (Picture a Halloween jack-o-lantern.)

Then a 1-in.-thick pound sign — “hashtag” if you were born after 2002 — was cut, sheeted in 3M blue vinyl and attached to the ”1” using bottom and side clear acrylic support pieces to make it look like it was floating.

One week delivery. Rush charge kinda profit — which we shared with the dudes mentioned earlier ’cause they took my idea and made it happen. I love it when a plan comes together…

Media 1 looked good. Tim Webber looked good! AdventHealth was blown away with the end results, and has now ordered a 5-ft.-tall breast cancer awareness ribbon for their next event. Yet another happy client!

Hey Rick, we might have something here with this Sign Game…

See you guys next month!