Palette Mode
Crossfire Neon Glassbending
What we do

Everything that happens to a length of glass between a drawing and a wall

Six services, all of them carried out in Unit 6. Nothing is subcontracted to a trade bender in another city and nothing is bought in and rebadged. Prices below are real starting prices, not the smallest number we could print.

Send us a drawing Jump to the fee list
On the rail

Six services

  • New signs, bent to your drawing

    The main work. 8, 10, 12 and 15mm tube in forty-six colours, single or multi-circuit, on trays or mounted direct. We will tell you at the drawing stage if a shape cannot be bent — a 6mm inside radius is about the limit and script with tight counters is where most designs fail.

    from £3403–4 weeksmax unit 2.4 × 1.2m

  • Rebends and repairs

    A dead sign is almost never a dead sign. Nine times in ten it is one cracked length or one failed transformer. Bring the unit in, or we collect inside the M25; we match the colour, rebend the section, re-seal and re-age it.

    from £95 a length7–14 dayscollection available

  • Transformers, electrics and testing

    Electronic or copper-core, sized to the actual run rather than to whatever the wholesaler had. Everything is burned in for 24 hours on the rack before it leaves, and goes out with a test certificate to BS EN 50107.

    from £1203–10kVcertificate included

  • Survey, drawing and mounting design

    We measure the wall, check what it is made of, and draw the unit full size so you can see it at the size it will actually be — which is usually the moment a design changes. Includes the fixing detail and, where it is needed, the drawing your landlord or planners will want.

    free inside the M25£180 beyondrefunded against the job

  • Installation

    Standoffs, trays, listed-building fixings, cable routes that do not run across the front of the sign, and the conversation with the landlord. Two of us, a Transit, and ladders that have seen most of south London.

    from £280£10m public liabilityIPAF for anything high

  • Hire for sets and events

    Around ninety pieces in stock, most of them ours, a few of them Ted's from the seventies and hired out on the condition they come back. Flight-cased, PAT-tested, delivered with a spare transformer and a number to ring at two in the morning.

    from £85 a week90 piecesdelivery from £60

The plate

What we work in

The shop's actual capability, so you can check before you draw. If what you want is outside this list, say so anyway — some of it is only a matter of doing the job in sections.

Colour matching is done against the tube, not against a screen. Send a photograph and we will tell you the nearest two we stock.

Tube diameters8 · 10 · 12 · 15mm
Colours in stock46
GasesNeon · argon/mercury
Tightest inside radius6mm
Largest single unit2.4 × 1.2m
Transformers3–10kV
Typical life40,000 hrs
Lead time3–4 weeks
Starting prices

Three sizes of job, and what they actually cost

Every quote is drawn and priced individually — these are honest floors, not teasers. Prices exclude VAT and include ageing, the transformer and the test certificate.

One length

Small unit

from £340

Up to 600mm across, one colour, one circuit. Most words, most house numbers, most bar-back pieces.

  • Full-size pattern drawn first
  • Electronic transformer, 24hr ageing
  • Collection from the shop
Most common

Shopfront

from £1,150

Up to 1.5m, two circuits, on a powder-coated tray. The standard pub, café and salon job.

  • Site survey and fixing detail
  • Two circuits, separately switched
  • Installation inside the M25
  • Five-year guarantee on the glass
Conservation

Restoration

from £95 a length

Original units, matched and rebent. Priced per length after we have seen it, never before.

  • Colour matched against tube, not photos
  • Original glass kept wherever it can be
  • Written record for conservation files
Off the sheet

Four things we will not do

LED “neon”

Silicone flex on a plastic backboard. It is a perfectly good product and there are twenty firms within a mile who will sell it to you. It is not what this shop is for.

Rush jobs on the glass

Ageing takes 24 hours and there is no way round it. We will move an installation date; we will not shorten the rack time and post you a sign that fails in a month.

Copying a living artist's work

People ask fairly often. We will happily make something in a similar register, drawn from scratch, with your name on it rather than theirs.

Quoting off a screenshot alone

We will give you a range from a picture. The actual number comes after the drawing, because the number is the length of tube and you cannot measure that off a JPEG.

Tell us the words and roughly how wide

That is genuinely enough for a range. A drawing gets you a number.

Start an enquiry