Solar Lighted Sign for the (Festivus) Rest of Us

[wdk450]

Gang:
When Deborah and I started out in the Bighorn, we purchased a custom laser cut, painted, wood sign from a vendor at a Scandinavian festival in Junction City, Oregon. Later down the road, I forgot to put it away when preparing for travel, and it was gone.
A year or so later, I came across this solar lighted home address sign kit at Harbor Freight Tools. While it isn't nearly as big as I would like, I figured a way to make a custom sign inlay for it, on paper printed out on my computer printer. This sign sits on my 5th wheel hitch, charges up during the day, and comes on at nightfall.
Here is an image of the solar sign, which is listed at $19.99: ( http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-numbers-house-address-92650.html )
:
Here is my sign with the Word document insert:

I am keeping my eyes open for something similar, but bigger, and moderately priced.

 

[brianharrison]

Looks good Bill. I like the ingenuity.

The price of the laser etched lighted acrylic can get pricey. Good altenative.

Brian

 

[dbbls59]

Looks nice. How big is the sign?

 

[Gaffer]

Click on the link for all the details.

Looks nice. How big is the sign?

 

[MagnoliaTom]

Gang:
When Deborah and I started out in the Bighorn, we purchased a custom laser cut, painted, wood sign from a vendor at a Scandinavian festival in Junction City, Oregon. Later down the road, I forgot to put it away when preparing for travel, and it was gone.
A year or so later, I came across this solar lighted home address sign kit at Harbor Freight Tools. While it isn't nearly as big as I would like, I figured a way to make a custom sign inlay for it, on paper printed out on my computer printer. This sign sits on my 5th wheel hitch, charges up during the day, and comes on at nightfall.
Here is an image of the solar sign, which is listed at $19.99: ( http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-numbers-house-address-92650.html )
: View attachment 35754
Here is my sign with the Word document insert:
View attachment 35756
I am keeping my eyes open for something similar, but bigger, and moderately priced.

Could you explain how you made your sign? I'm interested in making one myself.

 

[wdk450]

Could you explain how you made your sign? I'm interested in making one myself.

The sign comes from Harbor Freight with a kit of pre-cut black numbers. You normally take off all of the outside screws on the back to open the two halves and put the numbers in on the white acrylic lighted backplate. Instead of the supplied numbers, I just got the computer word processor going, thought about what I wanted to put on the sign, and selected some fonts and font sizes. A little trial and error here getting the printout right, but ink and paper are cheap. I workied it out holding up the printout on the outside front of the sign. There is about a 1/4 inch undisplayed border on the cut out printed page to make it fit snugly inside in the front frame. The LED light shines through the single sheet of printer paper just fine.

BTW, I liked the lighted address number sign so much, I bought one for my house, too.

I think the one on the Bighorn I showed is due for a spray paint job on the metal box.

 

[MagnoliaTom]

Thanks for the info! I'm going to do one too

 

[Silverado23]

Did you use a laser printer to print your word document for the sign?

Have you had any problems with the ink/toner bonding to the clear plastic yet? Or do you change your sign frequently to prevent this issue?

 

[DocFather]

 

[MagnoliaTom]

Now it's time for the airing of grievances

 

[wdk450]

Did you use a laser printer to print your word document for the sign?

Have you had any problems with the ink/toner bonding to the clear plastic yet? Or do you change your sign frequently to prevent this issue?

I use an ink jet printer, with the cartridges refilled from a kit I got on E-Bay. No problems with the paper/ink sticking to the front clear panel. But I did neglect to include that I have had some water intrusion or condensation issues, although there is a rubber O-ring to seal the 2 halves of the sign together. I have added some Shoe Goo to that, and replacing the runny text sign paper piece is easy. Maybe the sign paper piece could be laminated.

 

[wdk450]

Now it's time for the airing of grievances

That might get pretty touchy with the manufacturer's on an RV owners website!!!

 

[MagnoliaTom]

As you know, the airing of grievances is an integral part of festivus. But, you may be right. We'll just skip to the feats of strength!!

 

[Silverado23]

I use an ink jet printer, with the cartridges refilled from a kit I got on E-Bay. No problems with the paper/ink sticking to the front clear panel. But I did neglect to include that I have had some water intrusion or condensation issues, although there is a rubber O-ring to seal the 2 halves of the sign together. I have added some Shoe Goo to that, and replacing the runny text sign paper piece is easy. Maybe the sign paper piece could be laminated.

I did not even think of laminating the sign.

I bet the laminated sign would last longer and prevent issues with toner lift and ink running.

 

[DocFather]

As you know, the airing of grievances is an integral part of festivus. But, you may be right. We'll just skip to the feats of strength!!

Funny stuff!

 

[RoadJunkie]

Print the information on vu-graph celloid.

 

[DocFather]

I apologize for hijacking this thread just a little.

 

[wdk450]

I apologize for hijacking this thread just a little.

When I titled the thread with the words "For the Rest of Us" (i.e. not new Landmark owners getting a free custom sign from Heartland), I just HAD to put in the word Festivus - The terms now go together, and are part of our common language.

 

[wdk450]

Gang:
Well I wished for a bigger solar lighted sign, at a reasonable price, and I got my wish. On Monday, I was grocery shopping in Sacramento at one of my favorite discount grocery chains, Grocery Outlet, when I saw a solar lighted house address sign BIGGER than the ones at Harbor Freight Tools, and FOR LESS MONEY!!! Grocery Outlet had the Emerson Solar-Powered Lighted Address Plaque (I couldn't determine the Model Number, but I found it on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Emerson-Solar-powered-Lighted-Address-Stake/dp/B0091T0ZOC ) for $9.99!!! It is larger, but is also plastic (instead of metal) cased. The solar cell also seems smaller than the Harbor Freight version. We will see how well it works.
I copied my text from the Word file into MS Paint, and expanded it to fill the screen. That was just the right printed size for the the address sign window (10-3/4 inch by 3-3/4 inch). I covered the paper with a piece of clear document protector plastic cut to size and taped to the frame.

Here are some pics: