Giant Light Up Marquee Letters
by FriendOfHumanity in Living > Decorating
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Giant Light Up Marquee Letters
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Hello,
I was asked, at short notice, to make some glitter-covered 6 foot high letters ,with lights in them, for a Karaoke event.
They wanted the lettering in the style of the film " Sing" that recently came out.
The nearest font that I could find was Super Clarendon.
I have not made anything like this before but it seemed fairly straightforward.
They asked for it it be made from 10mm MDF but that would mean a lot of weight ; they agreed to go with the suggestion of 10cm Celotex foam insulation.
Each Celotex sheet cost £33.
Drawing Out the Letters
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I wanted to project the letters onto the foam but my ancient projector distorts quite bit so I had to print out various sizes of the required word and go with the best result.
I projected them onto the Celotex foil-backed foam and used a big marker.
It was a bit off so I had to freehand a lot of it but it gave the basic shape.
Cutting Out the Letters
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I cut the foam letters out using a serrated plasterboard knife.
The foam has to be supported well as it is quite fragile.
It cuts very easily.
Drilling Holes for the Light Sockets
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Using a 22mm flat head drill bit, I drilled a hole about every 8" for the bulb holders.
The bulb holders were £1.59 each but could be much cheaper from Ebay if time was not an issue.
Cutting a Groove for the Wires
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I cut a v-shaped groove running the length of the letters, passing though each hole; these are for the wiring.
Adding the Bulb Holders
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The bulb holders were just pushed through and held by compression; at the front I added a ring of fire resistant PinkGrip adhesive and smoothed it around with a wet finger.
The wiring is very simple; just parallel.
I had to put two wires into each terminal to achieve this.
The last pairing, of course, led to a plug socket.
I used full sized LED bulbs for the low heat that they give off; they were still quite warm though.
The wiring was the most time intensive part of the build.
Tidying Up
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I cut 5mm plywood boards, slightly smaller than the letter, leaving two struts for supports.
These were stuck onto the back with PinkGrip adhesive.
The Finishing Touch
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I covered it in contact adhesive and then sprinkled litter all over it.
This covered the imperfections in the foam.
I was finding glitter for weeks afterwards.
The End
![singcarreoke.jpg](/proxy/?url=https://content.instructables.com/FKJ/PZQK/J1GPQ1FO/FKJPZQKJ1GPQ1FO.jpg&filename=singcarreoke.jpg)
These are now rented out for Karaoke events and go along way to complementing drunken people singing ABBA songs.
Thanks
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