What Goes Into Making a Channel Letter Sign? Behind the Scenes at Lee's Signs

Most people walk past channel letter signs every day without thinking about what's inside them. But every set of channel letters is a manufactured product — engineered, fabricated, painted, wired, and installed by real people using real equipment. Here's how it happens in our shop.

Step 1: Design and Engineering

Every project starts with our designer, Geo. The client provides their logo, business name, and preferred colors. Geo creates a production-ready design specifying letter height, font, return depth (the side wall — typically 3.5"–5"), illumination type (front-lit, halo-lit, combination, or open face), exact PMS colors, and mounting method.

Letter height is determined by building size, viewing distance, and local sign ordinance. A strip mall storefront typically gets 18"–24" tall letters. A standalone building visible from a highway might need 36"–48".

The minimum stroke width for a fabricated channel letter is about 2" — anything thinner and you can't physically fit LED modules inside.

Step 2: Channel Bending

We use an Accubend Lite channel letter bending machine. The operator loads the production file, feeds aluminum strip (.040" or .063" gauge), and the machine bends it to match every curve and angle of each letter. A complex letter like an "S" might have 30+ individual bends. The machine works to tolerances measured in fractions of a degree.

For shapes the machine can't handle — extremely tight radii or complex logo elements — we hand-bend using a manual brake and custom templates.

Step 3: Backs, Faces, and Assembly

Backs: For front-lit letters, the back is cut from 1/8" ACM (aluminum composite material) on our Multicam 3000 CNC router. ACM is the industry standard — flat, rigid, lightweight, and weather-resistant. For halo-lit letters, the back is clear polycarbonate to allow light through.

Faces: For front-lit letters, the face is translucent acrylic (3/16" thick) in the specified color. If the exact brand color isn't available in stock acrylic, we use white acrylic with a translucent vinyl overlay in the precise PMS color. For halo-lit letters, the face is CNC-routed aluminum that gets painted.

Trim cap — a 1" plastic extrusion — snaps onto the front edge of the return. It creates a clean finished edge and holds the acrylic face in place.

Step 4: LED Wiring and Electrical

This is Cirilo's domain. LED modules (small circuit boards with 2–3 LED chips each, typically 0.72W–1.8W per module, 12V DC) are installed inside each letter, spaced 2"–3" apart in a grid pattern for even illumination.

Modules are wired in series and connect to power supplies that convert 120V AC to 12V DC. A typical power supply handles 60 watts — enough for 5–15 letters depending on size.

Every module is tested before the face goes on. Finding a dead module now takes minutes; finding it after installation on a building takes hours and a boom truck.

The completed assembly must carry a UL listing — fabricated in compliance with UL 48 standards, which is required for permit approval in most Georgia jurisdictions.

Step 5: Painting

Every metal component goes through our Matthews paint booth. Matthews is a two-part polyurethane system — the same automotive-grade technology used on cars and aircraft. It's extremely resistant to UV degradation, chalking, and physical abrasion.

We can match any PMS color — custom mixing is standard, not an upcharge. Raceway bodies are painted to match the building facade so only the letters are prominent.

Step 6: Raceway Fabrication

Most channel letter sets mount on a raceway — a rectangular aluminum enclosure (typically 5" x 5" or 5" x 7") that runs the full length of the sign. The raceway serves as mounting platform, wiring enclosure, and meets code requirements. Letters are pre-mounted and wired to the raceway in the shop, so the installation crew hangs one pre-assembled unit instead of 15 individual letters.

Step 7: Installation

Ray leads our installation crew using our 50-ft Versalift boom trucks. A full-size mounting pattern positions exact bolt locations on the building. The raceway is secured, leveled, and the electrician makes the final connection from the building's panel to the sign.

A typical storefront installation takes 3–6 hours. The business can usually remain open during installation.

Typical Timeline

Design and approval: 3–7 days. Permitting: 3–10 business days. Fabrication: 10–15 business days. Installation: 1 day. Total: 3–5 weeks.

Why This Matters

The difference between a $2,500 set from an online broker and a $5,000 set from Lee's Signs isn't markup. It's materials, labor, equipment, and 35 years of knowledge behind every decision.

When you buy from Lee's Signs, you're buying from the people who designed it, bent the aluminum, wired the LEDs, painted it, and bolted it to your building. We're in Norcross. We answer our phone. And we know exactly how your sign was built — because we built it.