Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Need to hang Esso sign - advice appreciated

I recently bought a 1950's era Esso sign, the 7' oval sign. I already have an antique pole to hang it on which is almost 21' high. I think the original Esso poles were about this size.

I will be adding an horizontal pipe to the pole that the sign will hang from. There is already a hole in the pole for this pipe to hang from, it will be a 2 1/2" pipe.

My sign has the original frame around it with the brackets attached for hanging it. I plan on attaching this to my pipe with chain heavy enough to support the weight.

Is there any reason chain will not work when hanging this sign??

I also plan on running some type of wires to the top of the pole to help support the new pipe. Probably run one to the end of the pipe and one to the middle, as I have seen in the original Esso poles.

sounds like a good plan,
post picture when up...

Use 2 flat straps with bolts thru them for reinforcement. My original standard sign uses them and it looks like this.

Use the chain for towing your truck not your sign. Chain will have to much movement. Won't matter if the wind never blows Their. The flat strap bolted at both end would be your best idea.

Kevin's sign is a very good example of how it should be done. Note the bolt that anchors the sign frame to the cross arm is mounted in double shear.

So if I don't hang with chains I will need to fabricate hangers to weld to my pipe. Anyone have a closeup picture of what that should look like? Don't know what a double shear is.

That flat stock is readily available at any steel supplier. I just bought some recently to repair a windmill tower. You can cut it with a grinder or cut off saw. It bends easy enough using a mounted vise and a big hammer. I think he means by double shear is that it can take a shearing force from either direction (wind both ways).

I can get stock and have our local welding shop bend the straps for me. Just wondering if anyone has a pic of how they should be made.

Look closely at how the sign is mounted to the cross arm in Kevin's picture.
The sign frame has two brackets that go on either side of the bracket on the cross arm. So basically the mounting bolt goes through the sign first sign frame bracket, then through the cross arm bracket, then through the other sign frame bracket. That is double shear. If the sign frame only had one bracket and the cross arm only had one bracket (at each mounting point) that would be single shear. Single shear puts more stress on the bolt.
Ideally the two outer brackets would be spaced more closely than in the picture above, but even with the gap it's far superior to having it mounted in single shear.

Here is strap that is on my frame. I can attach a new strap to my horizontal pipe to connect to this. How should this strap be connected to the pipe?. I wouldn't think it should be welded because there would be no give when the wind blows the sign. Needs to be some kind of hinge mechanism of some kind.

Here is what an original Phillips 66 hanger bracket looks like... designed to slide onto the pole and then tighten:

That helps some. Course that is hanging from a chain link so that link itself allows the sign to swing freely. If I do the same with mine and clamp that hanger bracket tight then it will have no "give" to it when he wind blows.

By the way, here is my sign-

...I've seen sign rings that had something like this...made from flat stock, and bolted to the frame you showed in the earlier pic...hang it over the mast arm, then add the bolt...

That's what I was thinking too. Using the bolt and not welding the strap to the pipe would allow for the sign to move with the wind.