Neon Newfoundland Sign

I decided to make a mock neon sign to spruce things up. I used EL wire to light up Newfoundland island and copper foil for colour against a black background. Let’s go!

I had the idea to make a light-up sign on the back burner for a while now and decided to make it in preparation for some events happening in August, 2022.

I used the following materials and tools

I wanted to make as large a sign as I could from the length of EL wire I had. To estimate this, I used a feature in Inkscape to measure the perimeter of a “Path” type of object. In the top menu, you go to Extensions > Visualize Path > Measure Path… A pop-up dialog window will ask for some parameters. In the top-right drop-down selecter, choose “Length” for Measurement Type. At the bottom of the window, choose what units you want to display (inches, meters, etc.). The other parameters are for the text size and its placement. You may want to make the text larger so you can see it without zooming-in on your image, then click “Apply”.

I scaled the map of Newfoundland until the measured perimeter value was close to my length of EL wire. I kept the measured length a few inches shy of my wire length so I wouldn’t run out when it came time to attach it to the sign. My map would be about 14.5″ wide and 16.5″ tall for my 9-foot spool of EL wire.

I printed out a full-sized outline of Newfoundland on multiple pages and taped them together to make a template. I taped the template to the MDF to drill holes along the perimeter, which will later become attachment points for the EL wire.

I began to attach the EL wire, bending it to match the contours along the way, and see how close Inkscape’s measurement got. I used a coated steel wire to act like staples to hold on the wire.

I had about 7″ extra EL wire after finishing Newfoundland’s outline, so I’d say Inkescape was pretty close. I will move forward with the size of sign I have, but I could’ve made it slightly bigger before running out of EL wire. Now, the staples a great job holding the wire in place, but in the end, I didn’t like how you could see the staples covering the light. I will try using clear fishing line when I finish the sign.

I used a table saw to rip the MDF board to size and put Nf island in the center of the sign. I also cut the wooden furrowing strips to later give the sign a frame.

With all the pieces cut to size, I glue on the wooden strips along the top and sides. You could also use staples or brad nails to add more strength to the joint of the MDF and frame strips, but that could be overkill for this application. In any case, I leave the bottom open so that the the battery pack and power switch can be accessed. When the glue dried, I painted the front, rear, and sides black. I used a black “automotive enamel” for the first coat, then used a black “appliance enamel” paint for the second coat. The appliance paint adds a rough texture to the surface.

You could simply use a stencil to paint Newfoundland on over the black background, but I had copper foil sheets and decided to use those to make the island body. I applied the sticky-back foil directly on the face to cover all the drilled holes, and used a clean, dry rag to rub over the surface of the foil to get good contact on the rough surface.

I used a needle to poke through the foil at every drill hole made, used a craft knife to connect the dots along the contours of the island, then removed the excess foil.

I could try applying chemicals and form a patina on the foil, but I like the shiny copper, plus there is a slight chance that the reaction could eat all the way through the thin foil layer and I don’t want to risk it now. I apply two coats of clear coat to protect the copper from getting fingerprints or getting tarnished.

Now all that is left is attaching the EL wire. I use clear fishing line to tie-on the wire at each attachment point. It takes longer to attach using the fishing line than the steel staple method and the wire tends to spin/wiggle a little more at each attachment point, but there are no more shadows on the wire when it lights up! Also, I found that the tail of extra EL wire was longer with the fishing line than with the steel wire staples. A future neon Nf sign could be even slightly larger.

I hammer-in a sawtooth hanger and attach felt pads on the back of the frame. For now I just use heavy duty carpet tape to fix the battery pack to the back. I will leave it as is for now, since this sign is just for me, but I may try a plug-in type of EL power source in the future for a more stationary sign.