Securing a sign

Matty F · 2011-08-30T23:03:22+00:00

I'm renovating a sign that's about a metre wide and made of 3mmcopper. When it's all polished up I reckon someone will try to stealit.It has been bolted with six 5/16" steel bolts (with hex heads) into avery large piece of steel that nobody can possible move (weighs abouta ton and is welded to a vertical rail concreted into the ground).It's been suggested that Allen bolts be used instead - the thief wouldneed an Allen key. But I want to think of something better.e.g. locking one or more of the bolts with a padlock. But how?The existing four bolt heads on the ends can be unscrewed with aspanner but are somewhat covered by the letters on the sign, which are20mm thick aluminium that is bolted to the copper with 30mm spacers.Those bolt heads are not accessable until the copper is removed.I'd like to modify the two bolts holding the middle of the copper.At the moment the aluminium letter in the middle of the sign has to beremoved to see those bolts, so it's a bit of a puzzle to undo thesign, but a feat which I achieved in a few minutes.Sure the thieves may damage the sign trying to get it off with ajemmy, but I don't want to give them the satisfaction of stealing thecopper, or the aluminium.A thought that has just occured to me is to use round head bolts inthe middle. When they have rusted in and need to be removed in 40years, an angle grinder can chop off the heads.

Aug 30, 2011 22 Replies

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the_constructor 14 years ago

At the end of the day, no matter what you use to secure the copper or what you secure it to, if the thieves want it, they will have it.....

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Nightjar 14 years ago

As it is copper, it would probably be simplest to put a couple of connectors on the back and run the 24 hour alarm circuit through the sign itself.

Colin Bignell

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Matty F 14 years ago

Yes there are lots of rivets. I decided to keep the original method.

Here's the finished job.

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turned the heads off hex bolts and screwed them in with visegrips and painted them.

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of the aluminium letters are fastened over the securing bolts so that visegrips cannot be turned. The other letters cannot be removed until the securing bolts are removed. The bolts holding on the letters will be covered with timber secured by screws that will be countersunk and bogged over and the timber painted black. That should be a sufficiently difficult problem for thieves to solve in the dark.

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