Best/Simplest DIY materal available in Canada

[Newfiestang50]

Guy's,

I was just wondering if there are some proven laminates or other materials(something you down't have to paint) available here in Canada to be used as a screen? I have read alot of info on here but I also read that most of the proven materials like "do-able" are very difficult to find. Any help would be appriciated. :)

[Bcguy420]

it was a pain to find the doable board I had to travel over the border to Washington state to pick some up well worth it tho plus I didn't have to pay any duty cause it was so cheap :) Great results with my cannon lv-s2 now just waiting on my HD70 to be delivered for some big screen HD goodness my 30inch widescreen JVC HD is too damn small lol .

Intresting fact the Doable board is stamped made in Canada and made my Davidson so try searching for it using that name might help but if you can't find it and are close to a border crossing and a home depot in the USA go that route

[The_Fuzz]

I picked up a sheet of melamine from Home Depot for $22.00. It is 1/2 inch thick 4x8 particleboard, so fairly heavy. Coated on both sides. Make sure you pick a good flat sheet with no flaws on the surface. Get them to cut it there to around 87 inches for a 16x9 screen. (it is actually 49 inches tall). I hung it with 2 metal railings from Totem that have a little lip on them. One goes on the wall, one on the screen, and they form a french cleat. They were $17.00 each. You will then want a border, you can make out of 1x3, and paint black. I'm still working on that. I just got my projector a few weeks ago, so I've had alot to do. I can show you some pictures if you're interested in any of these products.

The quality of the screen itself is very good, from what I can tell. No hotspotting, good gain . . I don't have anything else to compare it to, but I think it is wonderful. There was another thread around talking about this, and some people used somthing to take abit of the shine off the surface, others painted it . .I haven't found it necessary.

[skyman00]

Newfie-
Slanner found some 1/4" 4x8 White Masonite from Rona.
See here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9020841#post9020841
He's got some setup and screen shots posted. I'll link him over here so that, hopefully, he can impart the details. HTH.

Bcguy-
When you get your HD-70 set up and going, link some setup and screenies over in the Official Do-able thread. TIA, -j

[klokwerk]

i found that Industrial Paints and Plastics in Canada carry all sorts of plastics like gatorboard etc.
i purchased an 8' x 4' sheet of 1/4" of rigid expanded sheet ($100) and with my HD70 (memory express has the best price in alberta) it looks great to me

[Favelle]

All the HD's in Canada carry masonite (backing for cabinets) that are laminated white on one side. They come in 3 different thicknesses (and thus weights). 1/8, 1/2, and 3/4". By themselves, they are damn decent! But they can EASILY be painted as well!! Very nice! Only problem is the 48" height is going to limit screen size for the BIGGGGIE screen lovers.

[Newfiestang50]

Thanks alot, I will check HD

[prod]

Rona carries Wilsonart laminate. I picked up a 4x8 sheet at the St.Clair/Keele location in Toronto but I think it may be a different brand, there was only a UPC code on it. I checked against the Wilsonart Designer White chip they had and it looked the same, but it was only $50 regular price. I was expecting $80+.
However, I think I will return it and get the Fashion Grey. When I got the white home and tried it out, my white ceiling and white couch reflected too much.

[dougi3000]

home depot here cannot order wilsonart in vancouver by itself, it has to come with the cabinet.

rona ordered it for me, but it takes like a week. $100 for a 4x8.
still waiting. For some reason they had bad inventory and said it was instock but it wasn't.

:/

Mirror clips at homedepot are the ugliest things you can get. It is a clear flowery type clip from the 1980's. Looking in IKEA, and found nothing, they don't sell mirror clips without the mirror.

[Slanner]

Here is my setup with screenshots.
1/4 inche white masonite.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p109/slanner/htsetup.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p109/slanner/spidy1.jpg
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p109/slanner/spidy2.jpg

[Zorac]

for a plastic solution, ask for puck board, never tried it as a screen, but ive used it on numerous projects, its white (although it does come in yellow, red, and blue as well! :P ) it sounds similar to the white plastic alot of ppl on here talk about.

or if your into painting, with the help of wbassett i have a variety of benjermin moore paints that work very well in terms of colour, and way better than behr in terms of application ease.