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I still like MDO and use it alot...I like Dibond and all the other aluminum faces substrantes too, but good ol' MDO...it's a good thing! Right Ray Chapman?
If you treat it right, it'll treat you right! I have been replacing some of my 10-15 year old MDO signs with Dibond , and some with MDO again.
Show us your MDO! !
-------------------- Mike Meyer Sign Painter 189 1st Ave n P.O. Box 3 Mazeppa, Mn 55956
We are not selling, we are staying here in Mazeppa....we cannot re-create what we have here....not in another lifetime! SO Here we are!!!!!!!
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Funny you should bring that up Mikey; for the last few weeks I've been tempted to take some pix of some of the old MDO signs I did about 15 years ago and they still look good.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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We're big MDO users. Thankfully we have a source for really good quality stuff locally. Practically no edge voids. Here's one we did a couple of years ago. I checked it the other day and it looks great. Since I learned the sealing the edges with Titebond III trick, I've felt very confident in using it for long term signs. The main copy was cut from HDU. The carving was directly into the MDO.
This is was very hard to pass up...I was at a coffee shop dive in Pontiac Illinoize in 2006 on one of my many trips and I was spotted this sign!
This Sign is very informative for the beginner....You can see the first layout under the 2nd! Where there is more paint, is where the sign painter had his/her brush loaded up to start the strokes!! It might have been Bill Diaz as it is in his town and only a few blocks away!
Bill, any idea? I love it!
-------------------- Mike Meyer Sign Painter 189 1st Ave n P.O. Box 3 Mazeppa, Mn 55956
We are not selling, we are staying here in Mazeppa....we cannot re-create what we have here....not in another lifetime! SO Here we are!!!!!!!
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The "Notice, absolutely...." on top IS a VERY EARLY Bill Diaz and the "Please park on and Angel" is a Floyd Fitzgerald who was in our shop before us. He suddenly moved to Arizona and suddenly Bill was a sign painter!
I am a little upset about Floyd wanting people to park on an Angel though...you would think they could just fly away when they saw you coming!
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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We use some PVC (mostly interior work), DiBond, and HDU...but the bread and butter signs are still done with MDO. As others have said, we have a lot of signs out there that are still in good shape, but we have put a lot of time in most of them to make them last as long as they have.
For years we used nothing but Simpson Two-Step, but then they were bought out by Olympic and for some reason we have experienced some difficulty in getting Olympic Two-Step and the suppliers are substituting "Guardian", which is not as good a product, in my opinion.
Preparation is what preserves the material, so we round over the edges, treat them with exterior glue and fill the voids with exterior spackling or epoxy. Then comes a water based primer, followed by two to three coats of Porter acrylic. In the process the edges get twice as many coats as the faces.
DiBond is a lot less labor intensive but it can be dinged easily and does not have the rigidity or depth that comes with MDO.
I'm still a big fan but from time to time we have difficulty getting good material and some problems arise.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Mike, to answer your question... Bill was doing painting and decorating. Right after we got married he had a crew of guys and painted commercial and industial buildings and houses, inside or out. He drew house plans and did staining and finish woodwork, etc. Before that, he was at Penn State. He got his masters there and taught drawing and painting as a graduate assistant. His first signs were "interesting". He had no idea how to letter but he had been painting fine art stuff for years! He knew color and contrast and all that "art" stuff, so that was a good start!
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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Yeah, I still MDO signs out there(20yrs) that have weathered "far better than me". I have a doublesided 3' x 8' with aluminum laminate and it looks like crap,....not even a couple of years old yet. Although the edges were sealed there was still enough separation to in moisture screw-up top portion of sign,...what to do, going back to straight MDO for one thing.
-------------------- Rich Stebbing RichSigns Rohnert Park CA 707-795-5588 Posts: 755 | From: Rohnert Park, CA | Registered: Nov 1998
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This is a great thread! I LOVE MDO! I just got done doing 9 cut outs for the local animal park. 8 cut out airbrushed cartoon animals & a 2'x3' cut out that is airbrushed to look like a piece of parchment with the Bleeding Heart Dove legend on it.
I was in such a hurry to get them out I forgot to get pics! I will have to go to the park & take them, then post them on the portfolio page after they put them up.
I will always use MDO.
-------------------- The Word in Signs Bobbie Rochow Jamestown, PA 16134
724-927-6471
thewordinsigns@alltel.net Posts: 3485 | From: Jamestown, PA 16134 | Registered: Oct 2002
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MDO rulez! I've been hand painting more traditional bread and butter signs this year than the last five or six combined...I blame Mike for this. I use the 2-part polyester mix for fiberglass rolled on the edges to water proof it, then sand prime and paint. If the finish is to be red or(gasp) maroon, I'll mix in some auto paint hardener into the Ronan or One Shot.
[ May 20, 2008, 02:29 PM: Message edited by: John Byrd ]
-------------------- John Byrd Ball Ground, Georgia 770-735-6874 http://johnbyrddesign.com so happy I gotta sit on both my hands to keep from wavin' at everybody! Posts: 741 | From: Ball Ground, Georgia, USA | Registered: May 1999
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Heres a couple I did over 7 years ago these are todate pics.....the Rose is on the north side of the building,getting ready to redo the bank,there new name is Tightwad Bank of Reading ks, no joke
The prints were done with the Gerber Edge. so far, they've all held up very well. They were all given two heavy coats of FrogJuice.
The Marcia Stancil signs are 10 years old and have done very well against fading. Unfortunately, the "mother and child" pictorial was vandalized not too long ago and was broken off.
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these are what I did for my cousins farm the door is 30'by 40' cant find the original door pic but thats what it looked like.... the tractors were made from mdo
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When they quit making MDO, Im quitting making signs. Love the stuff.
-------------------- Maker of fine signs and other creative stuff. Located at 109 N. Cumberland ave. Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-837-0242 Posts: 4172 | From: Ages-Brookside, Ky. Up the Holler... | Registered: Jul 1999
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This is a good thread, Mike. Seems like we always get them that are bashing MDO. Sure it's got its flaws, but so does everything else. A lot of this new stuff hasn't even been on the market long enough to see if it's really going to hold up. MDO's been around a long time. Oh, and we used to call it "duraply". If you can find it, HDO is better. For any who don't know what it is, here's a good link.. www.plumcreek.com/downloads/productinfo/MDO.pdf
Biggest problem I've seen with it is the vast difference in quality between brands. Some is very good, and some very bad. I've had some with 5 layers of wood; some with only 3. Some had lots of voids also. Most disturbing is that one of the better brands in the past (used to be Simpson) I've noticed more voids in it now. Takes a little extra prep time to repair.
Still in all, I like it; I've used it for over 30 years, with very few problems. Some that we used years ago, that had voids under the overlay, still held up for several years. Even ones with voids or bad spots can be easily repaired with bondo or glass resin. That's something else that you can't do with a lot of the sandwich or composites.
We used to build a good deal of "box" signs, like sit on top of a brick wall. You could cut MDO up into strips, make the frame and internal suppport ribs out of it. Glue and screw it all together, and they would last for years. We also built a couple of display walls for GE like that. Few of the new products offer that
I know a lot of vinyl shops are in area that don't allow paint; so they have to use the pre-painted stuff, but for the money, and the flexibility, you can't beat it. Like said above, I'll use it until they quit making it; then I'll probably put my brushes away, except for the stripers, of course.
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I totally agree Dale, and those are good pointers and the link is helpfull as well. My local lumber yard keeps in on hand for me, I asked them if anyone else buys it...they said a few carpenters use it for trim pieces and higher end finishing. Nothing I like better than to get a new 4 X 8 and mark out a new design and tear into it with my sabre saw!
There will be plenty of MDO to play with at the Winter Muster here in Minnesota Feb. 2009!
-------------------- Mike Meyer Sign Painter 189 1st Ave n P.O. Box 3 Mazeppa, Mn 55956
We are not selling, we are staying here in Mazeppa....we cannot re-create what we have here....not in another lifetime! SO Here we are!!!!!!!
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The shot of the word 'BUS' brings back memories of how long it took to be able to consistently make that 'S' from a stabilo or china marker quick layout. The years of lettering parking lot signs and 'FOR SALE' eventually paid off with solid lettering abilities. Remember dreading any words with two of the same letters side by side like 'LOOK' or 'MESSAGE' or 'KEEPER'?
-------------------- John Byrd Ball Ground, Georgia 770-735-6874 http://johnbyrddesign.com so happy I gotta sit on both my hands to keep from wavin' at everybody! Posts: 741 | From: Ball Ground, Georgia, USA | Registered: May 1999
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I love all those signs...but I loathe MDO. Gimme good old A/C exterior plywood, or better yet, Alumalite! Love....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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cant find the original door pic but thats what it looked like.... the tractors were made from mdo
pan,,,,Maybe I'll make a step by step 
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