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Speakers & How to make your own screen
Title: Speakers & How to make your own screen
Description: The speakers are a Paradigm signature series: S8 left/right, C5 center, and ADP surrounds. The sub is a Paradigm Reference Servo-15.

Grills are only removed for the photo. Normally they're on.

The speakers still need to be wrapped with black velveteen (like velvet, only cheaper and better at absorbing light) to completely eliminate any light reflections off the screen. I had this with my older speakers and it made them completely invisible when the lights are down and a movie's playing.

The panels around the screen are DIY and described in another photo.

Not seen is the Xantech IR repeater system receiver directly above the screen for rebroadcasting the Pronto remote control signals over to the equipment rack, the CRT projector, and the Lutron Spacer IR wall light switch.

The homemade screen is 96"x54" and has a gain of somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3 (it appears brighter [approximately 1.4] at the edge of screen when compared to Stewart and Draper 1.3 and 1.5 samples, but it's probably closer to 1.1 or 1.2 when comparing directly on axis in the middle of the screen). It's made of curtain blackout material stretched and stapled over a pine frame painted with 2 coats of Behr primer followed by 6 [very careful] coats of Behr Ultrawhite Eggshell finish thinned with floetrol (the eggshell adds just a touch of gain without any hotspotting). A second frame wrapped in velveteen is screwed around the white screen to soak up any light that spills off the screen and to cut a nice clean edge (very effective).

Basic steps followed to build the screen:

1) The curtain blackout material was stapled to the front of a frame build out of 1x4" pine boards.

2) The screen was primed and painted (see below).

3) A velveteen (cheaper and more light absorbant then velvet) wrapped 1x2" frame was attached to the 1x4" frame to cut a nice clean edge to the left/right sides of the projected image. The velveteen was first stapled to the underside of the 1x2" frame, then the 1x2" frame was screwed to the 1x4" frame. The velveteen was then brought over (in front) of the 1x2" and wrapped around to the back of the 1x4" frame and stapled in place. This hides all staples and screws, but if I ever wanted to re-paint the screen, I'd have a lot of staples to remove!

Complete screen-painting instructions are as follows:

Materials needed:

1) 1 quart of Behr latex primer.

2) 1 bottle of floetrol, a paint additive designed to get paint to flow more evenly.

3) 1 quart of Behr ultrawhite eggshell.

4) Rollers with smallest pile possible (get very thin felt like covers if possible). This will help ensure that the paint is put on smoothly. Also buy plenty of these. i.e. Don't try and reuse the one from the primer paint for the top coat.

Painting steps:

1) Set-up your painting area. This might sound like a silly step. But to get an even coat, plan to paint well past the board surface. Use a nice big drop cloth or whatever it takes. I would also plan to stand above the board with the board laying flat on the ground. Then use a roller on a long handle paint while looking down.

2) Apply the latex primer. Getting a perfect coat here isn't crucial, but this is a good time to perfect your stroke with the roller. Lifted the screen up and leaned it on a wall with the viewable surface to the inside to let it dry and avoid having dust settle on the wet surface. You'll get a a lot more dust & fibers if you just leave it lying on the ground. I covered up the roller & tray with a plastic bag, waited an hour then applied the 2nd coat of primer. Then left it for the
night to really dry properly before applying the actual paint the next day.

3) Mix the Behr with the flowtrol in about a 6:1 ratio.

4) Start painting. Make sure not to start and/or stop anywhere on the surface. Only start or stop off the surface on the drop cloth or newspaper. Plan to do about 4+ coats. The thinner and more even you make the coats the smoother the final product will be. Apply very little paint at a time and let the weight of the roller do most of the work. After each coat, lift the screen up and lean it inwards against a wall to let it dry for an hour or two. (Cover up the roller and paint in the meantime). I was able to do a couple of coats per roller this way. Did 2 coats/day for a total of 6 coats. Use a new roller each day.

When you do get your final product, I think you will be able to achieve close to a 1.1-1.3 gain with a completely white (cleanable) surface.

If you want something above 1.3-1.5 gain your proabably going to have to buy professional screen material.

For better instructions see this: http://www.curtpalme.com/Building_a_Screen1.shtm
Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 1:05 am
Views: 5235
Comments: 1
Poster: picree @ Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:42 pm
Kal-this room is SOOO awesome! You do VERY nice work. It is extremely impressive!


 
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