DIY Projector Screen

johnnyflav

I've started my first foray into projectors, and after seeing the price of a 'proper' screen decided that I'll be making my own.

It seems to be general consenus that the best material to use for the screen is 'white blackout cloth', and I'm trying to find the cheapest place to pick this up. I was up in Stillorgan Decor earlier and they quoted me €56 for ~3 yards of the stuff(96" x 55"). They're a small enough outfit and would have to order it in, so they'll obviously be making something from it themselves.

My question is where would I find a wholesaler(around south dublin preferably) that I might be able to pick this up from for a little bit cheaper, or any good fabric shop that would have it in stock?

OMcGovern

johnnyflav wrote: »

.. after seeing the price of a 'proper' screen decided that I'll be making my own.

FYI : A few months ago I got a 6 x 6 foot tripod projector from the eBay seller below for approx €130. Still think it was a bargain.

Original thread I posted the details in

eBay Seller

regards,
Owen

johnnyflav

Cheers for the info Owen, I'm looking to do something like this or this

Ideally I'm going for 16:9 ratio, as a fixed frame and black velveteen frame, so it'll work nicely for any of gaming/tv/films, and 100" diagonal.

I've done a search here and zhivago, out near finglas seems to be a good place for fabrics. I've sent them an e-mail to see if they'll sell to punters like me, or only wholesale. No response yet so I'll give them a bell in the morn and see what they say.

johnnyflav

Done a bit of searching and thought I'd let anyone who's interested know what progress I've made.

I've gotten almost all of my materials now. I got 108" by 60" of white blackout material from Access Blindsout in Cookstown. Very nice crowd to deal with, I just pulled up and asked for the material, €45 for that.

Got black cotton from Heatons in the square, €11 for three yards. They didn't have velvet ot velveteen, which would have been perfect, but also a good bit more expensive. The option was cotton or felt and the cotton was cheaper and looked cleaner and smoother.

I'm getting my timber from Woodies. 21mm*96mm planned pine, I haven't got it yet but it should work out to about €30.

Screws 4.5mm*20mm €3.29 and four 'L' brackets (89c each)

All in it should result in a lightweight, 100" fixed screen for €90.

I'll post up a few pics of the completed project when it's all done.

am i bovvered

very good thread....I was going to buy a fixed screen but have not got the fund at the moment.... I hope this works out for you.... hope you don't mind a copycat:D

johnnyflav

am i bovvered wrote: »

very good thread....I was going to buy a fixed screen but have not got the fund at the moment.... I hope this works out for you.... hope you don't mind a copycat:D

The more the merrier, hopefully this way we both won't make the same mistakes...:)

OK, all stuff is here, and the build is half way there.

Materials



Cut and ready for wrapping


Wrapped


Mock up of frame


I haven't got time to put the back of it on this weekend, I'll finish it next weekend and post the results then.

So far it's been very straight forward, stapled one side of the fabric then the other. It looks pretty decent if I do say so myself:) Of course the mock up looks a lot rougher than the finished piece will be.

johnnyflav

Got my 97" screen completed finally, and I have to say I am just delighted with the result. 300 looked amazing:thumbsup: (and it was only half way through the film that I realised that the lens hadn't even been focused:suicide:!! How pleased was I when I figured that out) Here's the finished screen in it's 'standby' position. The screen spends most of it's time here, and moves across to cover the window when in use. It's a one person job to do, but two people make it much easier.


Here it is with an image on it (I couldn't persuade my camera to take a decent picture:mad:) I'll try again and see if it comes out any better...


Here's a little more on the construction. I tied up the ends with some folding and staples, in retrospect glue and clever cutting would have done a better job.


The corners are stuck together with these 4" brackets. I'll be adding another bracket to each corner later this week to improve the flush finish of each of the corners.


The hooks are a genius piece of engineering and I just happened upon them while cleaning out the garage. They're more than capable of holding the screen which is about 7kg. They don't need any drilling and can be moved whenever needed. They just hook up over the ceiling border and looped onto a screw on the frame


Now a few little things I didn't account for in this build.
1) I was able to source the wood cheaper then I anticipated (€15 for the lot) which brought the total cost to under €70. :smashin:
2) My careful measurements were wrong... this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. instead of a widescreen screen it's somewhere between that and a letterbox screen. It means I have to rejig the lens shift, focus and zoom when moving between formats but I get a nice wide picture when watching movies and don't lose anything watching TV or using consoles. I'm not sure if I will fix it or not yet, I'll leave it for now and see easy it is to live with. It should be an easy job to do, I left the screen in a usable, but not fully finished state. If I were to change it now it would take 10cm off the width.
3) Staples are great, but be careful about how may you add and how deep they go. After leaving the first part of teh project for a week, I returned to see that the cloth had shifted slightly on the staples and wasn't tight. After you put in your staples and you're happy with they're position etc, you need to hammer them in.
4) Don't be so sure you'll get it right first time. I had a couple of goes at keeping my screen taught before I was able to get the sag out of it. I put in a couple of tester staples first and worked from that.

It's a little but long winded but I hope this helps for anyone else doing the same thing.

am i bovvered

Looks great... you have saved a fortune , I intend to have a go and will post pics. Thanks