How do you make wrap marquee lights?

[whiskeymike]

Anyone care to share their process for making Marquee lights with a wrap like these?

00375061-023970_290.jpg

If I took a guess, I would imagine you place tabs on the inside letter, bend them over 90 degrees. Then cut long strips, bend to conform and then tack weld at the tabs? What gauge metal should be used for the wrap?

I've looked at tutorials on the web and they are all DIY, cut plywood, tin snips for cutting and then wrap in galvanized flashing. Seems like we would have a better way with plasma cutting, brakes, etc..

[Capstone]

ultimately it comes down to cost imo. If you're looking to make them for yourself you might come close to just covering your costs compared to buying one at Target, Kohls or Walmart, but the chinese have these licked in all the home stores. I've looked and none of them sell for much more than $20 per letter at about 16-20" tall. No chance my labor for fabrication is that cheap, and that's just for the metals fab part, and before you put one bulb in.

[Metriccar]

Agreed. They have these at "Hobby Lobby" and I would not waste my time trying to make these to sell. I don't know how many times I came up with something only to see that the Chinese are doing it at 75% of the cost of metal.

[Capstone]

Just to add on some of my thoughts to this type of question we see in different forms all the time.

Anytime you happen to see some metal related decor in a national chain, you have already lost the ability to make one cent on that exact item. Period. You might as well just keep walking. If you are hoping to build a business with any type of CNC cutting table (Plasma/Laser/Water/Router) it had better be for; your own special product and be prepared to overcome or at least live with copycats; or personalized items; or an industrial part some motorsports/fab/builder/mfr needs from you locally; or all three. The best PlasmaCAM brochure out there is still just there to sell you the machine, and they have done a really great job of marketing "the dream" but they aren't in the business of making you rich or successful and there's no such thing as a turn-key money making machine with these tables; you still have to work all of the other aspects of any business to get ahead.

.02

[tnbndr]

I had someone approach me about making these types of letters. I actually had been planning on making one just for the sake of saying I can make one.
They had a pic of what they wanted similar to yours. I asked where they took the pic and they should buy from that artist. It was a google search pic.
I suggested they search the big box stores, hobby lobby etc. and they would find what they want much more reasonable. I gave them a rough quote per letter that it would cost for me to do them. They were quite shocked so we talked about all the costs and time involved and we parted ways.
Three weeks later he has contacted me again and wants me to build the letters. I was completely surprised and told him I thought they had found what they wanted and were on their merry way. Turns out you can only find these letters up to a certain size, they wanted them 36" tall and 6' deep.
So I told him to stop buy and I would need full payment up front and they would be done in about three weeks.
So to answer the original questions posted , I build the flat body out of 14 gauge CR and did the wrap in 20 gauge. I did not do any tabs, just measure straight pieces of the wrap, press against the body of the letter and tack weld. Measure and cut the pieces for the curves accurately or it will be messy.
I put a spacer on my bench to keep the body of the letter 2" up, that would be the back of the letter and 4" projected to the front to keep the socket and bulbs flush with the edge of the wrap.
Turns out the guy is an electrician so he did the lighting himself but supplied me with a socket so that I could place the holes. The sockets come in packs of 25 so keep that in mind when placing your holes as they are about $3.00 each.
To help estimate your costs, it took me about an hour per letter average to cut and tack on the wraps.
Here is a link to the sockets he used.
http://www.actionlighting.com/e26-e27-t ... 16sk-2248/

[acourtjester]

Thanks for the construction info it shows that some people are willing to pay for quality custom work.
Here is one I did for a local church that was lighted differently I used LEDs behind the top layer to reflect off the lower layer. Lighted image was shown laying on the floor to see how the lights worked. Don't have the finished project hung on the wall yet. I used a LED string from Ebay with a remote controller about $25. for the LEDs. The crosses were about 4' side to side.

DSCN2108.JPG

DSCN2115.JPG

[Capstone]

Great work Dennis. I'm glad you found a worthy customer, but as you stated, it's not likely an item you'd make on "spec" to sell out of the blue.

Good explanation on the build process too. I go to actionlighting for a lot of my Xmas Lighting stuff, they cater to commercial sales for large marquees etc so that's a great contact to have for future reference. My experience with them has been positive.

[tnbndr]

Nice job on the crosses. And with that strip lighting they can change the colors per season and change the brightness.

[whiskeymike]

I had someone approach me about making these types of letters. I actually had been planning on making one just for the sake of saying I can make one.
They had a pic of what they wanted similar to yours. I asked where they took the pic and they should buy from that artist. It was a google search pic.
I suggested they search the big box stores, hobby lobby etc. and they would find what they want much more reasonable. I gave them a rough quote per letter that it would cost for me to do them. They were quite shocked so we talked about all the costs and time involved and we parted ways.
Three weeks later he has contacted me again and wants me to build the letters. I was completely surprised and told him I thought they had found what they wanted and were on their merry way. Turns out you can only find these letters up to a certain size, they wanted them 36" tall and 6' deep.
So I told him to stop buy and I would need full payment up front and they would be done in about three weeks.
So to answer the original questions posted , I build the flat body out of 14 gauge CR and did the wrap in 20 gauge. I did not do any tabs, just measure straight pieces of the wrap, press against the body of the letter and tack weld. Measure and cut the pieces for the curves accurately or it will be messy.
I put a spacer on my bench to keep the body of the letter 2" up, that would be the back of the letter and 4" projected to the front to keep the socket and bulbs flush with the edge of the wrap.
Turns out the guy is an electrician so he did the lighting himself but supplied me with a socket so that I could place the holes. The sockets come in packs of 25 so keep that in mind when placing your holes as they are about $3.00 each.
To help estimate your costs, it took me about an hour per letter average to cut and tack on the wraps.
Here is a link to the sockets he used.

Thanks for taking the time to write up the process. On the wrap, do you cut it to a butt joint? Or do you have them overlap a short bit? I would imagine at 20 gauge, you can cut them long and trim with snips. Any tips on getting crisp bends for the corners? At 20 gauge, a brake seems overkill and may make it less accurate when you go back and forth.

I'm not making the letters specifically. As mentioned, the Chinese and Mexican made versions are too cheap and devalue them. I have a few projects I want to wrap in a similar way and am interested in how they are constructed as I'm looking for a similar end design. As an example, one is a rectangle house number plate, back lit with a wrap and back cover to protect it from the elements.

[tnbndr]

Whiskeymike:
I cut my wraps to exact length and butted them together, a few tacks will hold them together.
I have a 30" box and pan brake that I used for the sharp bends, carefully measure and bend. The radii I rolled in my sheet metal roller close to the proper radius but once you start and tack weld it is easy to form around the bend. A pre-roll wouldn't even be necessary.
It was my first try at this but things worked out and I really wouldn't do anything different. I think I only screwed up one piece by cutting it about a 1/4" too short, but I was able to use it somewhere else.
I drew the letters in CAD so I was able to take a total length of all the lines so I knew how much 6" material to order.

[littlefatbuddy]

I make a lot of different marquee type projects. My process is much the same as tnbndr. I make square cuts all the way around rather than trying to measure and brake or bend the corners. I simply butt the piece up, mark it, then use a speed square for a straight cut line. I use hand shears (scissor type) and cut on the line. I then tack the pieces together. I use the Christmas light type setup from Novelty lights. It took about two months for people to realize what I made and Micheal's sold were not the same thing. My prices are a little low but I make it up in volume. I would say 99% of these buyers are referred to me by customers. Wedding season seems to be very busy. I would also like to strongly advise you always have your bulbs screwed all the way in. If one should ground out on the metal it makes a very pretty light show for a second. Ask me how I know:) Finally, way more money and opportunity in decorative marquee pieces than letters alone. At least in my market.

[_Ogre]

nice work to all of you

[motoguy]

Thanks for the construction info it shows that some people are willing to pay for quality custom work.
Here is one I did for a local church that was lighted differently I used LEDs behind the top layer to reflect off the lower layer. Lighted image was shown laying on the floor to see how the lights worked. Don't have the finished project hung on the wall yet. I used a LED string from Ebay with a remote controller about $25. for the LEDs. The crosses were about 4' side to side.

DSCN2108.JPG

DSCN2115.JPG

I haven't done any layered stuff yet. On this one, with LED's between layers, how did you offset it?

[acourtjester]

I used 1/4" bolts the I turned the heads down to have a step in them. Drilled the top layer and put the bolts with the step in the hole then tig welded them on. Then used 2 nuts on each stud for a spacer between the layers with a nut holding the back on.

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