Most sign cabinets get built one of two ways: stick-built from raw aluminum components, or assembled from a pre-cut extrusion kit. The video above gives the quick overview. This article breaks down how the two approaches compare, what comes in an Excellart Sign Products (ESP) kit, and when kits, full lengths, or kerf-cut profiles make the most sense.
Stick-Built Sign Cabinets
A stick-built cabinet starts with individual components: metal tubes, angle stock, sheet goods, and bent parts. You cut them, square them, and weld them into a finished frame on the shop floor.
Cabinets have been built this way for decades, and the method still holds up. The tradeoff is time. A lot of that time goes into work that repeats on every cabinet: saw setup, dimensional cutting, miter squaring, perimeter weld prep, and frame assembly.
For some custom jobs, that control is useful. But for standard cabinet shapes or repeat builds, a lot of the labor goes into preparing the frame before the shop ever gets to the parts of the sign that create the finished product.
ESP Sign Cabinet Kits
An Excellart Sign Products sign cabinet kit consolidates the tube, angle, sheet, retainer, trim, and hardware-channel components into a single aluminum profile. Instead of building the frame from separate pieces, the cabinet starts with an extrusion designed to carry those features in one system.
Each kit ships pre-cut to the cabinet’s exact dimensions, with corner angles, retainer pieces, and assembly instructions in the box. By the time the kit lands on the shop floor, much of the repetitive frame prep is already handled. In many cases, the kit can be squared and ready for welding in under five minutes after unboxing.
That time goes back into the work that sets your sign apart: the face, the lighting, the finish, and the install.
What’s Included, and What Isn’t
A standard ESP kit includes the pre-cut frame extrusion, corner hardware, retainer pieces, and assembly instructions. The retainer pieces depend on the cabinet style and selected configuration. For more detail on retainer options, see [link to: Sign Frame Retainers Overview].
Flex-face configurations are built differently. Instead of a standard retainer, flex-face kits use a trim cover and the Universal Flex Clip System for face tensioning. The Universal Flex Clip System is sold separately.
An ESP kit does not include LEDs, face material, paint or finish, mounting hardware, or backers. We make the frame. The sign shop makes the sign.
Kits, Full Lengths, and Kerf-Cut Custom Work
Extrusion kits make the most sense for standard cabinet shapes and repeat work where consistency, lead time, and shop efficiency matter. The frame arrives cut to size, the key components are packaged together, and the shop can move quickly into assembly.
For custom one-off shapes that fall outside standard frame geometry, ESP also stocks full-length extrusions in the same integrated-channel profiles. Full lengths give shops the flexibility to cut and build around project-specific dimensions while still using the same ESP extrusion system.
Need a curve, radius, circle, or custom perimeter? ESP also offers kerf cutting on the same profiles, so the material can arrive ready to bend and build. That gives shops another option for shaped cabinets without starting from raw tube, angle, and sheet components.
Kits and full lengths are built to live side by side in a sign shop: kits for the repeat work, full lengths for the custom jobs, and kerf-cut profiles for shaped work that needs more flexibility. Behind all of it sits ESP’s engineering support, helping shops and distributors work through project-specific questions when needed.
Find the Right Sign Cabinet for Your Project
Use the Excellart Kit Finder to answer a few project questions and find the right kit configuration. For project-specific questions, or just to chat contact the Excellart team at (800) 627-9044 or hello@excellart.com.