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Bella's Arcade [FINISHED]
javeryh:
Marquee arrived - here are the pics as promised. This thing is stunning in person. Super high quality! More details later about service, shipping time, packaging, etc... (all great!)
javeryh:
Review as promised:
Mamemarquees Review
I am getting closer to finishing my MAME arcade cabinet and it is now time to start shifting my thinking from how I want the cabinet to play to how I want the cabinet to look and its overall artistic design. If I want to put this thing in my daughter’s room it is going to have to be really nice to get wife approval. I have known from the start of this project that I wanted to make something girly and personal that my daughter could really call her own and she may not know it right now but in a few years this thing is going to be really cool to have in her room. To me, there’s nothing more important from a visual standpoint on an upright arcade cabinet than the marquee. Your eye is instantly drawn there and I think that it can make or break a cab in terms of appearance and the “I want one of those” factor.
Based on the rave reviews around here I decided that I was going to use Mamemarquees to print the custom marquee for my arcade cabinet. I thought about going to Kinko’s but in the end I decided that a few extra dollars wouldn’t break the bank and it would be worth it. Anyway, on to the review…
1. Ordering and Cost
After finalizing my design (thanks again megashock5!), the first thing I did was place the order on the mamemarquees website. It was easy enough to navigate - I went to the “Customer Design” page and selected the “Customer Designed Marquee.” This brought me to the ordering page and I was presented with a bunch of drop-down menus to customize my order. The first choice was the marquee size (there are different categories based on width). I chose “up to 23.00 inches” since I needed it to be 18.5 inches across ($15.95). The next choice was whether or not I wanted two pieces of plexiglass to ship with my order cut to the exact marquee size. The plexiglass will sandwich the marquee for support and installation. This was a no-brainer for me because I just didn’t want to have to deal with cutting it myself (+$24.99). The next choice was which material I wanted the marquee printed on - Premium or Ultimate. Premium is the standard material and Ultimate comes with a luster laminate which coats the entire marquee and is supposed to look even better when backlit - I went with the Ultimate (+$10.00). Finally, I entered my name and the exact dimensions of my marquee and added it to my cart. Shipping was $7.99 so the total for the entire order was $58.93. Checkout was a breeze and they accepted PayPal which made it really simple to pay for it.
2. Communication
Mamemarquees (Scott) was very responsive to the several emails I sent him over a two or three day span. I always had a response within a few hours of sending the message. I actually submitted the wrong file for printing (it was a near-final version I had without some last second tweaks) and he was very understanding about it and he told me he would wait for me to send him the finalized file before printing. His responsiveness alleviated the little bit of worry on my part that he was printing the wrong file or something. I’m sure he deals with idiot customers such as myself all the time and it probably makes him a little nuts. Anyway, it was a pleasure dealing with him.
3. Delivery Time
I placed my order on January 11 (a Thursday) and I had the marquee in hand on January 20 (the following Saturday) and this was even with the mix-up on my part. Scott sent the package via USPS Priority Mail with delivery confirmation (which is 2-day delivery, I think). Talk about fast!
4. Packaging
The marquee came well packaged in a flat cardboard envelope that was a bit oversized. It was sandwiched between the two sheets of plexiglass for protection. Here are a few shots of the packaging and what it looked like what I opened it up:
5. Overall
I am extremely please with my overall experience with Mamemarquees. Both the service and the product are top notch. The marquee I ordered was a little pricey but definitely worth it. Based on my experience I can recommend them without hesitation to anyone else out there who wants to make their arcade cabinet really stand out.
Here's the final product:
I hope this helps some of you out there who are debating whether or not to use Mamemarquees!
javeryh:
I was able to find a little bit of time over the weekend to get some more work done on the arcade cabinet. I finished making the last cuts on the bezel panel (cutting out the rectangle for the monitor). This proved to be a little more difficult than it sounds because I had no way of getting into the corners to make a perfectly square cut. I ended up eyeballing it and sanding - it came out OK but it will eventually be covered by the black posterboard bezel I'll be making to hide the monitor casing.
The first thing I did (after laying out the rectangle using a t-square and pencil) was to drill pilot holes in the corners. I picked the largest bit I had and drilled 4 holes about 1/8" inside of the lines. Next, using the holes I just cut as starting points, I used my jigsaw to connect the holes - again staying about 1/8" inside of the lines. You can see the pilot holes and the crooked lines I made connecting them in the picture below.
At this point I had a rough cut frame that needed to be cleaned up:
The next thing I had to do was use my router, flush trimming bit and a straight edge to remove the extra material and make a perfect rectangle. This is where I had to get creative with my router set up and my use of shims and clamps. As you can see by the pictures, I had to raise the work piece quite a bit to get everything set up properly. It worked though! This is what I love about home projects - there is always a solution to a problem if you stare at it long enough.
I used a piece of 1"x2" wood as a straight edge and I set it up so I could run the router and flush trimming bit along the inside edge of the bezel cut out. I repeated this process 4 times (once for each side) and I ended up with a perfectly cut rectangle - except for the corners.
As you can see by the next set of pictures, after making the 4 cuts around the bezel, I was left with some material in each of the corners that the router bit could not reach.
In order to remove the excess material, I used the jigsaw, a steady hand and some sandpaper. I wanted the corners to be as square as possible but they will eventually be covered by the black posterboard bezel so I'm not too worried if there are small imperfections in the corners.
This is the final result:
Not too bad, eh?
Dmod:
Looking good.
Why did you decide to raise up the guide and use a flush trimming bit instead of a regular straight bit and just running the router against a straight edge?
I'm a router newbie so this may be a stupid question.
leapinlew:
--- Quote from: Dmod on January 25, 2007, 06:20:35 pm ---Looking good.
Why did you decide to raise up the guide and use a flush trimming bit instead of a regular straight bit and just running the router against a straight edge?
I'm a router newbie so this may be a stupid question.
--- End quote ---
My guess is he doesn't have a straight bit. I suppose he could've hid the flush trim bearing, but if your going to setup a straight edge and use a straight bit - it's really no different that using a flush trim bit.
Looking good Javery! I've been following your progress - I can't wait to see it all done.
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