Shadow Box Custom Marquee - LED Lights

JRoz

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Hi Guys,

I'm finally getting around to putting my marquee together and I need some help. I don't have a real cab (made one kinda) but I need light up my marquee. Right now its hanging in a picture frame with no lights lol, and so I bought a shadow box that will be perfect for it.

I just ordered some sweet new LEDS that I will mount on the shadow box ceiling (box is about 1 1/2" thick, and line the rest of the box with aluminum foil or metal duct tape to keep the whole box glowing.

In the front of the shadow box, the marquee will sit flush against the glass. My question is..how the deuce do I mount the marquee to the front piece of glass?? I haven't received it yet but I know there are a few options.

Use binder clips and mash the marquee between the main piece of glass and another plexi-glass behind it, but even that..how do I fasten that to the sides of it?

Someone recommended just using magic tape on the inside of the box..so just tape the back of the marquee to the sides of the wall right up against the glass. Does anyone else have any ideas..i'm having a little difficult with the whole idea of fastening this against the glass..what am I missing?? :)

thanks
Jason
 
Not a marquee, but I used the same concept when building signs and movie poster boxes. I used 2 pieces of plexi with the graphic or poster between them, then cut, mitered and drilled aluminum angle brackets to frame and fasten everything to the 'shadow box'. You can also have the top and bottom inset, let the sides run long, cut a slot in the bottom frame and use a metal bracket on the top.

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damn those look great..how thick were these brackets? I really dont want to have to start getting another piece of plexi-glass cut. Any other ideas how to have them sit against the glass..i kinda like this taping idea now haha
 
damn those look great..how thick were these brackets? I really dont want to have to start getting another piece of plexi-glass cut. Any other ideas how to have them sit against the glass..i kinda like this taping idea now haha

Yeah it depends on the look you are going for and how much work you wanna do. I guess to save time and money I coulda just taped mine to the window and used the sun to back light them but I wanted them to actually look good and last. These are aluminum angle brackets that you buy in 36 or 48 inch lengths, one side of the L is an inch wide, the other is like a half inch wide. I used the inch side as the screw flange. Measure to length, cut with a tin snips, grind the edge, measure and drill holes in the sides. Or you can get out the scotch tape.
 
Not a marquee, but I used the same concept when building signs and movie poster boxes. I used 2 pieces of plexi with the graphic or poster between them, then cut, mitered and drilled aluminum angle brackets to frame and fasten everything to the 'shadow box'. You can also have the top and bottom inset, let the sides run long, cut a slot in the bottom frame and use a metal bracket on the top.

Phet,
Those look awesome. What did you use for the actual "shadow box"?
 
Yea the thing is the shadow box is 20"x9". Plus i dont have tin cutters or access to lots of tools. My "work space" is in my living room in my New York City apartment hahah. I think i'm just going to do the tape route if no one else has a good idea. the person that did his came out great but I figured after awhile the tape would come off. Plus the LED's dont give off much heat if anything so I wont have to worry about them heating up to melt the tape
 
who is the guy?..don't see a name or anything hah.
 
I used 1x4's for the box frame and 1/4 inch fiberboard or peg board for the backs. Here's some pics in progress:

Phet,
That's awesome. I've actually toyed around with the idea of doing something like that for my basses/guitars but I never thought about it for movie posters.

What type of lighting did you use?

Regular hallogen tube lights?

I've got a 12 Monkeys double sided movie poster this would be perfect for!!!
 
Dang now you are making me feel lazy for not getting around to doing that on a few Marquees I've been meaning to do.. :p Thanks Phet. lol
 
Dang now you are making me feel lazy for not getting around to doing that on a few Marquees I've been meaning to do.. :p Thanks Phet. lol

The best part is that I learned how to build these shadow boxes from building bases for my Nintendo and Taito cabs. I kept refining my technique until I could crank out 3-4 of these in a day. Who says arcade restoration doesn't have real world applications?

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