Another DIY poster/marquee light-box - Page 3

On/Off topic Craig but I am wanting to know your opinion on whether the lights you used would "work" in place of traditional rope light around my ceiling, tucked behind some crown molding?

I like the flat, low profile, low watt nature of these lights but not sure if they will give off enough light to do what I want/need? I am not wanting to light my entire room with the lights that I use behind the crown, just add some accent lighting. Thoughts??

I built some lighted posted boxes back in 2007 so I can't find my invoice, but I bought clear and white plexi from eStreetPlastics. (http://www.estreetplastics.com)

From the few notes I did find, it looks like I might have been able to get 4 Clear and 4 White sheets for $188. If so, that's about $24/sheet. I think I went with the 2447 white.

^ I like the small profile of these led's over the size of rope. For the price maybe I will give these a shot.....I am lost and where to get or which to transformer to use etc. I know it's simple it's just outside my grasp. I know you used a transformer you had but I dont have one lol.

Unfortunately those only come in 1/8 thick (atleast on their website). I would be looking to get 1/16 to match the spotlight frames.

Cuzed another question for you, did you replace the back plexi on the Spotlight frame with the white stuff or are they both there? Here is an example of what I am asking

A.
LED Lights>White Plexi> Plexi that came with the spotlight frame (which way is it facing? Glossy or non glare toward the print)> Poster> Plexi that came with the spotlight frame (again which side is facing out, glossy or non glare>)
Edit: Also if you went with A here, is the white plexi in the frame with the other plexi or is it mounted to the light box itself?

or

B.
LED Lights>White Plexi> Poster> Plexi that came with the spotlight frame (again which side is facing out, glossy or non glare>)

I assembled my spotlight frames last night and had a sticker on the plexi instructing me to remove a "film" to use the glossy side. I messed with multiple corners on 2 of the plexi's and for the life of me couldn't find an edge for this film. Is it possible that its not actually on the sheet?

I ordered my LED's today!!!!!

The sticker was only on one sheet.... I'll email Rob and see what he says. I didn't think I was that dense.

He did reply quickly. There is in fact a very thin film on the glossy side. See the below pictures. It took a few minutes of actually scratching at the face of the corner to get enough material up to pull it off.

Also here are pictures of my 2 posters in my assembled frames! The Indiana Jones poster is only single sided, but doesn't have much white on it so I hope that it will still look good when backlite (I have a few other double sided posters or I might buy another IJ print to double this one up like cuzed did with Chicago).

I bought all my stuff from the same ebay seller, here is the link to the led strips I bought:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270866749872...#ht_7600wt_952

I also bought some cheap end connectors to see how they look in series and 2 power supplies to power each frame setup.

On the LEDs I bought 3 sets of 3, so I should have 1 more 15 foot section to play with (thinking about trimming the outside of one of the frames out to give it that rope light on the outside look to it, since it will probably appear to be floating off the wall anyway with the wide boarder frame) once I use 4 strips per box.

Here is the link to my power supply I bought:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270895151649...9#ht_852wt_952

Rated output is 12V & 5A so it should be plenty of juice for this. (Hopefully)

Looks great and I intend to "steal" your idea, LOL.

One dumb LED question -- if I order 3 sets of the 300 LED strips do these just attach to each other do I need some sort of coupler. And if I grab the 12v 5a switching power supply adapter do I need anything to attach to the LED strips? (Sorry never messed with these things).

Also may I ask what size you made your "boxes" to attach the frames to?

Thanks

Greg

Hi Greg,

If you look at my variation back in response #9, the Spotlight frame actually determines the dimensions of the lightbox. You build the box so that it centers the mounting holes for the frame, which as cuzeed said, are about 27.5 by 40.5. You can then add any additional surround trim, like cuzed did, or simply paint it black to give the frame that floating look, like I did.

Ok so just solder the "strips" of LEDs together and go from there. Same for the attachment of the power supply correct?

Box - ok in my case my frame would just need to be smaller than the spotlight frame then since I am not looking to do any extra woodwork around the wide frame spotlight ones.

Thanks

Greg

You can solder or you can try these "quick connects" that I ordered:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/270851648582...84.m1439.l2649

I haven't received mine yet, but figure for a few bucks they would be worth a shot. Hopefully I will get this stuff in and have a chance to start playing with it this week. I'll report back on the quality of the quick connects.

P.S. My wife walked into our theater this weekend and saw my 2 frames. First words out of her mouth were "I thought we were getting 4? One for each side of the screen and one for each side of the wall?" Note this was AFTER we had discussed several weeks ago that she only wanted them on the side of the wall and NOT on each side of the screen. I immediately said "Well I want to get these 2 done first, before I have all $ tied up in another 2 frames." She said "Oh, ok. Well you need to get the other 2 up soon so the room is finished."

Needless to say I am pumped and will probably end up with 4 of these instead of the 2 I thought!!!!!

Thanks.

Just wait then you will need something else to balance out the room etc etc

This never ends.

I have had my room for almost 10 years now and there are still things from the initial build that I never have gone back and finished or fixed. And now the lighted frames are going into the que to do.

At least this week I should have my riser done and 4 Fusion Escape theater chairs in place. The theater seats for the riser won't be here until I can find some I like for a reasonable price but hey at least one thing will be off the list this week.

Thanks for all the info on these frames guys. Much appreciated. I just need to order some stuff and get moving. I think will do 1 or 2 first and then go for the remaining 4-5 we wanted.

Greg

BTW is this an appropriate PS for the 4 LED strips?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100V-240V-To...ht_3285wt_1396

12v 5a

Just lop the connector off the end I guess?


And lastly did you just tape the led strips down or did you staple or hot glue them? Looks like tape in one of your pics.

Thanks

Greg



**EDIT - Anyone know if a 27x40 doublesided Jaws poster exists out there? It's the wife's favorite movie and it would be great to have one of these frames with one in it.

I would like to have an Abyss poster myself.

Strips that I purchased (and I'm 99% sure that cuzed were as well) have 3M adhesive backings. Basically just peel and stick!

As for power adapters I bought these 2 items:
Power supply itself- http://www.ebay.com/itm/270895151649...84.m1439.l2649

Adapter for power supply- http://www.ebay.com/itm/270855302301...84.m1439.l2649

I bought these because I hate having loose bare wire whenever I can help it. The adapter should just clip onto the LED strip and plug right into the power supply. I purchased all my stuff from the same seller with the hope that everything will be more likely to be compatible than if I picked from Seller A, Seller B, etc. I will probably still wrap these in electrical tape because I am OCD like that when it comes to power in the house.

Electrical tape is a good plan no matter what especially being inside an enclosed box.

Thanks for the links ... the adapter was the piece I was missing.

Greg

OT, but that Dracula poster sold 3 days ago for $143,400!!!

I know. I posted on it over in the other thread. Lots of speculation why it went for half the price of the last one.

Alright time to get this project rolling.

Ordered 5 frames, 5 pieces of Acrylic, 20 sets of LEDs/connectors, and 5 power supplies today.

Hope to get them within a week or so and get started. Crossing my fingers it all goes well.

Each frame should end up right around $200 when completed.

Thanks for the idea!

Greg

My LED's should be here today, acrylic tomorrow, bought wood today, and now just need to find some adequate sized Melamine Board (Lowes only sells precut sheets, to HD I go!!!), and I already have 2 frames. My hope is to get started this week and finish the first 2 by the end of next week. Won't have much time to work on them this weekend because I'm going to the final four. Once I get them going and am confident in everything I'm doing, I'll order the parts/frames for my other 2 I'll be doing (hopefully next week).