Everyone has seen a neon sign as they are easily recognizable and stand out because of their brightness, colors, and design. Everyone can spot a neon Budweiser sign, neon Corona sign, neon beer sign, neon open sign, or a neon ATM Sign for various reasons, but not everyone can make a neon sign, or tell you how to make a neon sign.

The process of making neon signs is an intricate process which takes specialized neon equipment, time, patience, and experience. The first process in making neon signs comes in determining the design of the neon sign. How big will the neon sign be? What will the neon sign say? Will it be a neon beer sign, a neon open sign, or a custom neon sign? What colors will make up the neon sign? All of these are design questions that will either be determined by the person who is making the sign or by the person who is ordering a custom neon sign. After determining what the neon sign will look like, the next step is to start making the sign.

Most neon benders (people who make neon beer signs), will draw a pattern of the design on non-asbestos paper. After the pattern is drawn, they will start the bending process. The bending of neon signs is perhaps the hardest and most important part in making neon signs. A neon bender will take a straight tube of glass, typically four or five feet in length, but it can be eight or ten feet in length. These tubes range in diameter typically from 8mm to 18mm, but can be as small as 6mm or as large as 25mm in diameter. Depending on the length and diameter of the glass, the neon bender will heat the glass in either a ribbon burner or with a hand torch.

The neon bender will slowly rotate the tube in the flame of the ribbon burner or torch as well as sliding it back and forth within the flame so as to heat about three to six inches of the glass evenly. The neon bender will continue to do this until the glass begins to become soft. At this point in time the bender will take the tube out of the flame and bend the glass to match the pattern on the non-asbestos paper. While they are performing the bend, it is imperative that the neon bender blows slightly into the tube through a blow hose connected to one end of the tube (while the other end is corked), so as to keep the correct diameter of the glass. As the glass heats up, it begins to collapse on itself, so by slightly blowing into the tube, the neon bender avoids this problem. It is also very important that the neon bender does not stretch the glass when it is hot while making a bend. Because the glass is so hot and melting, it is very easy to stretch the glass. Stretching the glass weakens the glass, which can lead to breakage in the glass upon cooling or while in transit. Also, collapsed glass or stretched glass in the bends will not only weaken the neon sign, it will not look good, which is very important when it comes to neon signs.

After completing one bend and allowing the glass to cool sufficiently, the neon bender will then take the glass and put another part of it in the fire to heat it again to complete another bend. He repeats the same process of heating, bending, blowing, and cooling numerous times until the neon sign is completely finished. The complexity and size of the neon sign determines how long it will take the neon bender to complete bending the sign. Also, a more experienced neon bender typically works faster than a novice, and can work on more complicated neon signs.

Click on this link to see examples of finished neon signs.