Arcade Stuff > Lightbox
Marquee Lightbox
I wanted some decorations for the game room, so I bought a stack of marquees from a friend of mine who was getting out of the arcade business. One of the nicest ones in the stack was a Space Duel marquee. While a lot of the marquees in the stack aren't nice enough for backlighting, since backlighting shows off all the scratches and nicks in the paint, this one was just about perfect. Plus, it matched my space themed game room quite well. So, I decided to build a custom lightbox for it.
Lightboxes are simple to make. For this one I went to Home Depot and picked up some short lengths of wood (about 1/2" thick), a 22" fluorescent light fixture, a piece of L-shaped aluminum, a self-leveling hanger, and some thin hardboard. I cut the wood just big enough to make a box the size of the marquee and nailed it all together, spray painted it black, and attached the fluorescent light fixture to the inside of the box. Then I cut the aluminum and hardboard to size as well, and put it all together with the marquee on the front being held in place by the aluminum and the hardboard as a backing for the box. Finally, I attached the hanger to the back and hung it over the window.
I'm happy with the results. If you decide to make one, the toughest part is deciding how deep the box will be. You want it to be deep enough so that the light is fairly evenly distributed throughout the whole glass.
The other thing to keep in mind is cost. I could have made this one for significantly less money if I had chosen something other than L-shaped aluminum to hold the marquee. I splurged a little there just so it would match the shiny metal rails on the pinball machine right near it. Other than that, it was just a few dollars for the wood, and about $5 for the light fixture.