Am I Retarded? How are you guys mounting your marquees?

[Nation]

I did not buy the official happ marquee retainer b/c it was so expensive (especially shipping).  I now have my marquee printed and plexi cut so I was ready to go but I cannot for the life of me figure out how best to mount it. As you can see in the pictures I have tried mounting some corner braces slightly recessed in the marquee area in hopes of holding the marquee + plexi from sliding down my speaker area but the problem is that as I feared you can see the shadow of the braces and it looks horrible.  I also have light leaking all around my marquee which looks horrendous.  I tried lining the edges of my rear piece of plexiglass with black electircal tape but of course that looks bad too.  Am I missing something totally obvious here? What is the best way to mount the marquee? Do I need a real marquee retainer? Won't I still have the problem with light leaking around the edges of my marquee. It seems impossible to get the marquee image + plexi to be a perfect fit which won't allow any light through.

To explain what I had been planning a little better, I had purchased some 3/4" angled aluminum from Home Depot and was going to use it on both the top and bottom of the marquee as the retainer.  Well, the bottom piece would just provide a landing for the marquee while the top piece would hang over and sandwich the marquee between the corner braces and itself.  I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for any help!

[spauldingd]

What I did was to mount the marquee in front rather than inside the top if that makes any sense.  I then simply used 2 pieces of aluminum angle iron painted black that I cut to the exact width of my cab and just screwed it down on the top and bottom so the face of it is smooth.  I doubt you can do this since I assume your marquee is sized to fit inside rather than in front, but maybe it will help the next guy.

Using my amazing ASCII art skills, I will try to diagram what I did.  This would be the side view.  "=" is the wood, "|" is the marquee and "." is the angle iron:


...
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...

Dave in Des Moines

[Havok]

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Oh wait, what was the question again?

 

[VinceVega]

I had the same problem, and I took the easy way out. I cut the plexi to the size of the marquee opening, including the wood, so I just drilled a few holes and used small screws to attach it. It's not the kosher way to do it but it looks fine.

[Epyx]

Hard to say without a picture that shows the way you had your marquee mounted...I see no screw holes on the top where your top retainer would go...and don't see anything on the bottom either?

I have used the following from home depot: 3/4" angled wood from for my first cab, 1/2" plastic angled corner strips on my bartop and with my current project, likely the same angled aluminum pieces you are working with.

For the current method...I cut the angled pieces to the same with as my inner cabinet dimensions.  IE my cab is 26.5" so they were 26.5" on the mark.  The top retainer had 3 holes drilled into it.  I have 3 bolt inserts on the top of my cab that the bolts screw into.  This makes the top retainer removable...ie for cleaning, changing marquees, maintenance on the light etc. 

The bottom portion is a permanent piece.  On my current cab I require an additional angle (you can see in my project thread in signature) I just glued this angle (tonight actually) on and the bottom retainer will get glued to this piece.

Basically...decide which piece (top or bottom) will be the removable one and make the other one permanent (or removable as well if you want).

Let me know if you have any additional questions and post pics with your retainers in action so we can see how they are mounted.

[Epyx]

As for the light leaking...just use adhesive black weather strips from HD...they are thin and you can just run them down the inner side of your cab along the edge of the inner plexi piece. Don't attach it to the plexi or yes you will get a shadow.

[bkenobi]

Real arcade cabinets can have a slit of light leaking at the edge too.  If you want arcade authentic, you don't have to fix it.   

[Thenasty]

goto home depot, get a L-shape braket. Cut to size, drill 3 hole (R-C-L) and SCREW away.

[BobA]

Just a short note:   There are L shaped aluminum in the raw metal stock but they are way too heavy.  The best L shaped brackets are the light white aluminum Ls's that are used support the wall edges of hung ceilings.   They have T shapes for the crosses and L shapes for the walls.  These are easy to cut and very cheap.

[Thenasty]

Yeap. I used the light aluminum version. Very easy to cut with a hacksaw and drilling holes.

[phildo77]

I routed out a slit in the wood surrounding the marquee about a half an inch back from the end of the wood.  The marquee (sandwiched between plexi) slides down from the top and is capped by the top piece.  This eliminates any ugly screws, mounting hardware and light slits from the marquee.  I was actually looking for a better idea here because putting the top piece on while trying to line up the plexi is much harder than you'd think.  But once its in its done. 

EDIT:  Obviously if you do it this way, you'll need to make sure your plexi and print are LARGER than the "VISIBLE" hole for the marquee.  I personally oversized the marquee by 1/4" on each side.

[leapinlew]

Yeap. I used the light aluminum version. Very easy to cut with a hacksaw and drilling holes.

Same here. This is how I mounted my marquees.

I'm disappointed in the BYOAC crowd and only answering half of this guys questions.

[HanoiBoi]

Yeap. I used the light aluminum version. Very easy to cut with a hacksaw and drilling holes.

Same here. This is how I mounted my marquees.

I'm disappointed in the BYOAC crowd and only answering half of this guys questions.

   I hear ya, Lew!

[mingaling]

I routed 2 pieces of MDF into strips that would hold the top and bottom of the marquee in place.  The top I routed to a thin strip and glued it to a metal bracket that I secured to the top of the cab. by drilling screw holes into it.  The bottom I routed out a channel that the marquee sits into.  It is secured by gluing the sides and portion that was not routed for the channel onto the cab..  Since it is the same material as the cab it looks nice and just fits the project better then your average retainer.

[mingaling]

And here...

[syph007]

I used aluminum carpet edging from home depot.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=95768.msg1023725#msg1023725

[Epyx]

I'm disappointed in the BYOAC crowd and only answering half of this guys questions

I thought I answered them all.

[leapinlew]

I'm disappointed in the BYOAC crowd and only answering half of this guys questions

I thought I answered them all.

 

[DashRendar]

I generally tune people out who use the word "retarded" to mean "stupid".

Shrug...I just find it offensive.

[Malenko]

I'm disappointed in the BYOAC crowd and only answering half of this guys questions

I thought I answered them all.

Re: Am I Retarded? How are you guys mounting your marquees?

[bkenobi]

Retarded = slow in this instance.   

[Nation]

I ended up using angled aluminum however I had to use a straight + and L piece for the bottom so there was a ledge for the plexi + graphics to sit on. That plus some thin weatherstripping all the way around behind the plexi and it looks completely acceptable.

Edit: My fault. Did not intend to derail discussion to one about english slang.