Here's the backlit street sign I made finally completed. It's based off old 1960s era backlit street signs that Toronto used to use. It's shown here with a Sylvania F17T8 and a Advance magnetic rapid start F17T8 ballast. I used T8 but I can fit a F20T12 lamp and ballast if needed.
If you want to make it more sophisticated I would say you should put some reflective material inside it, however you would be able to do that, mirrors? Foil? I mean foil could work... and maybe some plastic that could reflect it from both sides and it could make it to where you can't see the tube at all. But, good job so far! It is well done, Maybe I should start up some more projects or something... I need to do other things than just drive around and ruin my brakes. I do look at restores a lot and there has been some cool stuff around here but hmm...
A repo I approve! The font reminds me of the old ones Ive seen still up a few years ago. The metalwork looks production quality too. I kind of like how it's brighter in the centre, kind of a nostalgia look to me.
Very nice. How did you make the panels with the words on them? It would be cool if you could make a sign similar to this that's backlit with a low wattage metal halide or mercury vapor.
Thanks everyone! I milled, drilled and tapped all of the components myself. The tube isn't that visible in real life, in fact it's barely visible through the sign face. The originals were unevenly lit too. They used 4x 60w incandescent lamps in them. I'm guessing traffic signal grade bulbs since regular ones would have been burnt out very soon. Interestingly the incandescent ones also had the same wiring compartment but with a vent to help dissipate the additional heat produced by incandescent lamps. I used the same wiring compartment to mount the ballast. I don't think a fluorescent version actually existed in the wild lol.
For those of you in the GTA, there's a neighbourhood in Markham near Highway 7 and Conservation that still has the illuminated street signs in use. They seem to be fairly close repros on the Toronto ones too but I believe those were also incandescent. Rotblotts also has a few examples in their store as decorations. There's also a singular DANFORTH AVE. one at Danforth and Logan and I believe the one near former Honest Ed's might still be there. Neither still work at night though.
Yeah the font is the standard FHWA font, I think it was either Type B or C. The originals actually used a font similar to condensed Helvetica but I personally prefer FHWA on my street signs lol. I mostly made the panels myself, I had the text cut out on vinyl for me which I used as a stencil. I painted the plastic with transparent blue paint and then peeled the vinyl off to get the look. Regular paint would be opaque to light and won't have the same look illuminated.
A HID illuminated sign would be neat. I'll have to use a wider aluminum extrusion though since the one I used here is only wide enough for T8 and T12 fluorescent. I wouldn't use HID or incandescent with my current design due to heat dissipation concerns.
I actually won't mind if they decide to make and install LED repros of these on the streets, would probably be more visible at night in the downtown core than the current reflective ones used.
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Great job by the way!
For those of you in the GTA, there's a neighbourhood in Markham near Highway 7 and Conservation that still has the illuminated street signs in use. They seem to be fairly close repros on the Toronto ones too but I believe those were also incandescent. Rotblotts also has a few examples in their store as decorations. There's also a singular DANFORTH AVE. one at Danforth and Logan and I believe the one near former Honest Ed's might still be there. Neither still work at night though.
Yeah the font is the standard FHWA font, I think it was either Type B or C. The originals actually used a font similar to condensed Helvetica but I personally prefer FHWA on my street signs lol. I mostly made the panels myself, I had the text cut out on vinyl for me which I used as a stencil. I painted the plastic with transparent blue paint and then peeled the vinyl off to get the look. Regular paint would be opaque to light and won't have the same look illuminated.
A HID illuminated sign would be neat. I'll have to use a wider aluminum extrusion though since the one I used here is only wide enough for T8 and T12 fluorescent. I wouldn't use HID or incandescent with my current design due to heat dissipation concerns.
I actually won't mind if they decide to make and install LED repros of these on the streets, would probably be more visible at night in the downtown core than the current reflective ones used.