Here's a pic of the biggest KITE I ever built!!

60-70 mph wind gusts work hardened a weld and sent my new sign flying acrossed the yard like Aladin's carpet.



Time to rebuild with gooder welds and some hard core bolts too.

Bewber you just can win can you........... Sorry for the troubles.

Thanks Tim, but I was able to turn it into a positive experience. I used the sign falling as an excuse to go make ammends with my fueding neighbor. We spoke calmly and cleared the air about the BS that went on, and seemed to make great strides towards being on a friendly basis again.

It stinks that I'll have to redo so much work, but at the end of the day - it's not really THAT big of a deal if it gets me back on good terms with the one guy that I have to share the building with.

Silver linings, baby - they ARE there if you look.

Amen.........

Not only is it the biggest kite but I bet its also the most espensive kite too.Its amazing what even a mild gust of
wind can do to a sign even a well built sign.Congrats on getting back on better terms with your neighbor.Use some
anchoring cable and a bunch of giant spikes next time.
Good Luck
Jim Gordon

I don't think cables, etc are allowed - but I already have it all fingered out in my head how to make it right with rebar.

1. I saw the title of the thread and new it was Bewbs

2. I was gonna ask how the metalheads sign faired in comparison, but as you said, better things came of it all (awesome).

3. When you posted the sign (no pun) a couple of weeks back, I thought, "Gee that wouldn't hold up to a tropical storm down here.....but he won't have to worry about that". I was wrong.

Wind is funny. I was in Long Beach, MS right after Katrina (read ground zero). The ENTIRE Waffle House was wiped off the face of the earth (talking slab only left) save the 70ft high Waffle House sign, that wasn't missing a plastic panel......go figure.

The sign faces west - and took direct hits of SERIOUS gusts of wind for the past 2 days - giving it constant rocking back and forth day and night and weakening the welds on one side of one side. Once it started to crack and it took a 60-70mph punch in the face - that was all she wrote. Boom. KO'd.

I think I'll be able to reuse almost everything but the 2x4 wooden portion which isn't too big of a deal, all the steel is fine, and the actual sign boards weren't damaged too badly.

If this wind ever takes a breath so that I can reconstruct - I will do so with the steel uprights not only being welded even better than ever, but also JB welded, and also bolted down, and also gusseted like a mofo. It's pretty much being rebuilt with anger and determination engineered into it like never before. Function > Form, and Zephyrus (Greek god of wind from the west) might have won today, but this is the last time.

The silver lining here is
John needs to improve his welding techniques,.
and then put the Harmony and dry cleaning part, on hinges,.it'll catch peoples eye,.
mobile signs are better marketing,.

nick

Zephyrus (Greek god of wind from the west)

Zephyrus was actually a guy who opened up a burrito stand in Athens, which is why the wind is attributed to him.



nick has a novel idea..... hinge the sign?

John's welding is just fine, thank you. I've seen his beehives.

Haha - seriously though. I really am confident in my welding. There just wasn't enough of it to hold back the fluke punishment it was put through.

A hinged sign would fall and not come back, so I think the only logical next move would be to build it on a solid base of coil springs, so that it can always pop back up like a punching clown ...... either that or some military grade swivel so that it'll turn with the wind like a weather vane.

Swiveling sign would actually be cool. LOL

Bewber wrote:

Haha - seriously though. I really am confident in my welding. There just wasn't enough of it to hold back the fluke punishment it was put through.A hinged sign would fall and not come back,.

well,you,re confident on your welding,. but the rest of the world??
If you try to fight the elements, they will always win, if you learn from nature and bend with the wind you will succeed, i don't understand how you think a hinged sign will blow away,. the most it can do is to ride the wind up to almost the horizontal position,. when it is in this position, the wind has very little force on it,. 4 pieces of 1/2 ID " stainless pipe welded to 4 small plates bolted to the sign with a 1/2" stainless rod for the pin, welded to 3 uprights bolted to the overhead bar,.IF you are confident on your welding,. as i stated the wind doesn't have a solid object to build pressure against,.
of course some 3" i beam for a cage, and two 4" posts filled with concrete, will work too,.with 3/8ths cable for stays,.if want me to drop by and weld it for you i can,..

Nick

Kidding aside, the township doesn't allow movement, or hinges, or swivels. My original design was to have it be surrounded by a heavy duty steel beamed frame with the actual sign being suspended by heavy chain. No dice.

This means that I have no choice BUT to fight the elements - but will do so with much more knowledge of what it'd take to win than before.

Bewber wrote:

Kidding aside, the township doesn't allow movement, or hinges, or swivels. .

oh,...

Man that's too bad about your sign, but glad you made up with the neighbor.

-Mike

maybe you can make it so the middle section is removable. My parents motel sign had a removable center we took out when hurricanes were coming.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=46662

pic of the Bewb sign destroying storm! Wow 955 Mb that's no BS right there!!!!

Cool pic! Needless to say, a deal like that doesn't swing by our hood very often. I'll be ready for the next one though.

Ok team, so I've been taking advantage of this awesome weather we've been having and have been working on the framing and construction and whatnot for the resurection of our sign, aka "Lazarus".

Today I got everything painted that I think needed painted. I modified the design slightly so that it wasn't one huge solid wind-catching block up there. There's going to be about a foot of open space between the sign and the letterboard for air to get through. I'm not as crazy about it's looks - but I was even less crazy about the fancy one laying on the dang ground - so I'll live with it.

To make it stronger, on the bases of the steel uprights, my welds this time are easily 3-4 times more heavy duty than before. I've also gusseted the outer sides of the uprights with 5/8" steel re-bar. They are welded all the way down the side of the horizontal support, bend inward, and are welded like a madman to the upright about 6 feet up - with two cross pieces welded in place between the two on it's way up.

I'm going tomorrow to pick up some grade 8 bolts to also BOLT them to the crossbar too.

So far, it's already MUCH stronger than before and there's not alot else I can think to do - so hopefully this third time is the charm!

Here's the new, more sign-installation friendly and less blowey-downy frame design:


And here's an equally crappy cell phone pic of one of the rebar gussets that I'm entrustin my life with:


All that's missing now is the plywood panels that cover up the steel uprights, which should be fairly straight forward, and I do believe that before sundown on Sunday, the 4th day of this resurection, our friend Lazarus (shown waiting in the background) will be ready to rise again!

Can I gittun AMEN?!

Thank you brothers for your support and encouragement in this time of great need!

Almost there...again. ; ) Good luck this time around!