CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

Today is glue-on-the-laminate day. I'll post pics of the transitional steps in a few days to that URL I linked above, but this is the current state of the thing:

The hardboard is glued to the aluminum, trimmed off flush, a few screws around the edges for good measure, joints sanded flat, joints and screw holes filled and then sanded flat again, and the whole thing scuffed up for good key with the contact cement.

It would be freaking awesome job if the whole thing was actually flat, which it isn't. The long pieces of aluminum are slightly bowed out of true, resulting in a very slight concavity relative to the screen face. A secondary effect of that is a slight hump in the center, across the horizontal supports, because the concave bow makes the edges lower than the center there.

These are extremely minor variances, the hump in the center is not visible at all, you can only just feel it when running your hand over the surface, and the concave bow is only perceivable when sighting carefully down the edge, but it is still disheartening. I think the bending occurred because of the way I was working on the frame, up on supports. I thought the square aluminum tube would be more resistant to that sort of deformation, so I didn't take appropriate care in supporting it while I was screwing the brackets in. I just held it in one hand while screwing with the other.

I just hope it will be usable. If there is one thing I can say no question at this point, and treat all the I-told-you-so's as read here, it is that the 2x4 frame and 2 panels of 1/2" MDF are a much better way to go, if you can get over the weight issue.

If I had a better place to work I could have pulled this off, but big sheets of mdf would be a lot more forgiving.

lyd

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

Well, it's done, for good or ill.

I plan to construct a nice border later, but it seemed to need something now, and I had some old hockey tape lying around that perfectly matched the extra inch I left in the screen itself, so...

That's that. Now I just need help hanging it. With that last application of material, the laminate itself, it became too heavy for me to easily manage alone.

lyd

Mr. Green · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:46 am Post subject:

Wow, what an ordeal! Sorry, it hasn't gone well. Hopefully your latest attempt will work well enough. I wanted to do the wilsonart screen as well, but I need a pull down. I'm too cheap for the motorized screen, but I was thinking (still just thinking at this point) that this screen would do it for me...

http://www.eastporters.com/estore/cart.php?target=product&product_id=111&category_id=33 Much cheaper.

Yes it's 4:3 format, but at 120" diagonal if I want 16:9, I just don't pull it down as far. Then I'll just have a piece of blackout material I can stretch across for the top border (or use a couple velcro tabs to hold it up). If I want 4:3 format, then I get a really big screen.

I did have a thought... Could you screw a 1/2" thick sheet of MDF to the wall, then use contact cement to put the laminate on?

OR...

screw a 2 x 4 horizontally to the wall where the bottom of the screen will be (to keep the screen perfectly verticle). Then do the same at the top but cut a 45 degree into it to create a hook. The picture should explain a little more clearly. I've seen commercial cabinets installed this way. That way you bond the laminate to the MDF while it's on the floor, then get a friend to help you hook it into place.

Just an idea in case your latest attempt fails. My way would cost almost nothing to do. Just MDF and 2X4's. Hopefully your laminate will survive if you remove it again.

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:02 am Post subject:

you can get MDF 5'x10' at least I can in Canada.
thats why I suggested that earlier in this post.

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

**Joust** · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:15 am Post subject:

so can you see your seems?
It looks good in the pictures but the CCD is not as critical as the human eye.

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 4:20 am Post subject:

Glad to see you finished it. Good looking aluminium frame. Hope this works for you. (this time) Thumbs Up

I was thinking 1/4 plywood as a substrate to keep things lite but then I had to work with some recently and it wouldn't lay flat. It always warps. IT would have to be nailed to 2x3's at a bare minimum.

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 6:41 am Post subject:

GEBrown · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 729 Location: Denver

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:13 pm Post subject:

Yep you can't un-know it's there.

Mr. Green · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 12:58 am Post subject:

You'll see it... unfortunately. I have a one (just one) dead pixel near the centre of my plasma TV. Unless there's a lot of movement in what I'm watching, I can always see it and I'm 2.5 times the screen width away from it. It's almost enough to drive you mad.

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

I went ahead and hung it myself anyway.

Part two of the construction pics, hastily assembled and sparsely annotated, are here. If you want to start from the beginning you can go here.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Now I can get down to the real business of setting up the projector. At least until the next screen build.

lyd

PiRho · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Lake Stevens, WA

I feel the pain on getting the screen just right.
I went a bit overboard with a 60"x104" screen area plus a 2" black border using 1/2" MDF as a backer.
Largest mdf available locally was 4x8 sheets. Bought three, using one in the center as a flat reference,
then gluing and screwing the other two from the back so the seam between them was right down the middle.
Perfect. Barely had to sand the joint.
To make sure the bond to the screen material went well, I primed the MDF surface before putting down the
contact cement. I used 5x10' white parkland plastics material for the screen.
The size and weight were almost too much, it took four people to hang it. I used a steel hook system similar
to the wood mounts mentioned before.
In the end, it was a very flat, very nice screen.
I was sad to sell that house. I've heard from friends that they still enjoy the system I built.
Good news is I'm a homeowner again and am figuring how to fit a theatre into the new place.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Lyd, would a carefully-applied tiny spot of white paint cover the flaw well enough so you don't notice it from the viewing position? Probably wouldn't match the DW perfectly, but better than the spot does....

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Why didn't you just paint a screen on the wall?

lyd · Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi

The wall is not anything close to flat, as you can see by all the shimming required for the screen hanger. It's old plaster, and there are numerous bulges, sags and other oddities.

lyd