How to Make Neon Signs

Neon signs add vintage style and are an effective way to promote any business or event, yet making these signs correctly is crucial to their quality and durability. We will walk through the steps involved in creating custom neon signs.

To make a neon sign, a few essential materials will be necessary. First, draw your design with pencil across several sheets of paper in order to assess size and shape requirements. Next, trace it with string to determine the approximate length of wire needed and cut to length using wire cutters – once cut you can bend along its outline for your sign!

Production of neon lights is an extensive and complex task that demands considerable skill. First, glass tubes must be heated until they become flexible – usually composed of soft lead or borosilicate glass, which are both resilient yet highly temperature resistant materials. Producers commonly utilize ribbon, cannon, and hand torches as heating devices to heat the tubing.

Once the glass tube has become flexible, it’s time to attach electrodes – small metal pieces melted onto each glass tube’s end by heat or solder. These electrodes will transmit electricity through neon gas and illuminate your sign. Noble gases such as neon, helium and xenon are all used to produce neon effects with neon emitting red-orange to pink hues while xenon produces greenish blue hues.

Additionally to installing electrodes, it will also be necessary to clean any impurities out of the glass tube by hand and remove any dirt or scratches which might hinder luminosity of your sign. Once this step has been completed, fill your tube with noble gas for the neon effect to complete its creation.

Once your sign has been assembled, the next step should be testing it. Simply connect a power source to the light strip and switch it on before checking its brightness and other features to make sure everything works as intended. If all appears well, your sign can go on display!