Puusepäntie workshop got an illuminated sign

Suomeksi

There was a wrecked illuminated sign of aluminium construction on the outside wall of the Puusepäntie workshop, rented by Aviation Museum Society, left there by a former tenant.
We decided to take it down to see if it could be repaired and transformed to an illuminated sign advertising the workshop of our society. So we took the sign down. The aluminium frame of the sign was, however, badly damaged and would have needed considerable repair work. However, our neck was “saved” when we got hold of an old illuminated aluminium sign of the OP cooperative bank’s real estate, 60 cm x 60 cm in size. It was also intact, so we decided to turn it into an outside advertisement for our Puusepäntie workshop.

We dislocated at first the plexiglass plate of the outer cover. the original sticker emblem could be removed from its surface in pieces with a sharp scraper. Finally, the plexiglass surface of the illuminated sign was wiped clean of the sticker glue with Sinol.

The aluminium surfaces of the frames of the illuminated sign had been oxidized and tarnished. We gently ground the surfaces clean using both an abrasive pad and very fine sanding paper. The old fluorescent lights were removed and after cleaning the inside of the sign the old lamps were replaced with LED-lights.

On the surface of the opaque plexiglass of the illuminated sign we designed a presentation of our workshop. The upper part of the illuminated sign will show a picture of the Focke-Wulf FW 44 Stieglitz (SZ-18), owned by Aviation Museum Society, with clouds in the background, and the lower part will hold the logo of the society and the text Aviation Museum Society Finland.
The abovementioned entity will be printed on the surface of the illuminated sign plex by a printing company. The printing required a vector representation to be made.

We fastened the frame of the outwardly cleaned illuminated sign, equipped with LED-lights, onto the wall of our Puusepäntie workshop, above the opening of the overhead door. We fixed a temporary cardboard plate as the outer cover of the sign to prevent the rain from getting inside.

When the front cover was received from the printing company, with its resplendent picture, the plexiglass was installed, replacing the cardboard one. So the splendid, illuminated sign advertising Aviation Museum Society’s Puusepäntie workhop was ready. The sign is yet be connected to the power supply with a pecu (photo electric control unit, “twilight switch”), so that with the darkening autumn nights it will switch on, advertising the Aviation Museum Society’s workshop.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo

Translation: Matti Liuskallio