T-Track masking system

[lellis]

Hello guys,

Hoping to tap into the brain trust here. :confused:

Im going to build a laminate screen shortly and im trying to make a simple masking system. Im very happy for this to be manually operated and be for scope or 16x9 only...

The aim is to have the masking slide in the T-tracks to whichever size i need. The challanges are;

To have the fabric stretched top to bottom, what could i use to connect the top and bottom tracks and hold the velvet?
Have the fabric stretched left to right. (whole lot will prob. be removed for scope movies)
Ensure the whole assembly is very slim. (would have gone with rollers otherwise..


Im in Australia and the room size is fixed, the walls double brick and this has to be very neat and tidy for WAF, we've just moved into our new house.

The whole room to scale looks like, fabic on the walls will conceal soundcheck insulation and be on a snap-tex fabric system.
http://e-wire.net.au/~lellis/HT%20room.jpg

This pic shows the dimentions im aiming for.
http://e-wire.net.au/~lellis/Screen.JPG

Here is the track built into the frame.
http://e-wire.net.au/~lellis/Closeup.jpg

Here is the track profile.
http://e-wire.net.au/~lellis/track.jpg

Here is the plastic slide i can use.
http://e-wire.net.au/~lellis/slide.gif

[Andy238]

Looking at your image. It look like you don't have a lot of space on the sides of your screen. How much room is on each side of the screen (outside of border)? Where is the masking going to go when you watch a 2.35 movie?

Mmmm, kinda lost me on challenge 1 & 2.

Neat track though.

[HDGTX]

Greetings lellis,

Great looking diagrams, what drawing program do you use ?
The plastic bar sliding in the t-track, is that an item one can buy (from where, same place as t-track ?) or did you machine it yourself ?
Here is a link to another thread about Scottj000's 4-way masking system (excuse me if you have already found that thread), with talk about motorizing & controls...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=941076

John from Tennessee, USA

[lellis]

The drawings are made in Google Sketchup.

There would be ~12cm room on the outside of the border.

I am thinking of building a small gap into the frame and have the masking attached to the rear of the frame with small, long spirngs (would be very flat) and it would pull from behind out accross the screen, lock into place in the t-track and retract when unlocked.

Ill sketchup it up tonight...

The slides can be bought from woodwork suppliers who sell t-track

[R Harkness]

Holy crap! THANK YOU for letting me know about Google Sketchup! I've been looking for exactly such a program everywhere. I've just fooled around with it and it's insanely simple and intuitive. Now I can finally start making some sketches myself.

Praised be the Google Masters...

Cheers,

[Cameron]

I downloaded sketchup, but I haven't spent too much time with it. I use Photoshop and Illustrator professionaly, but doing stuff in 3d doesn't compute that well in my little brain. Maybe they have some tutorials as when I started messing around with stuff in Sketchup, I could never achieve the simple desired effect that I was looking for.

[HDGTX]

Hi "lellis",

I ran into this motor kit for curtain rods on eBay from a fellow in your country. Not sure if this item would help you with your project. Below is the PDF instruction sheet & link to a recent listing ..

http://www.hytechscales.com/curtaincontrol/instructions.pdf

http://cgi.*********/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280199623126&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RCRX_Pr2_PcY_BIN_IT&refitem=280196962205&itemcount=2&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=CrossSell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=algo%3DCRX%26its%3DS%252BI%26itu%3DUCI%252BSI%26ot n%3D2

[HDGTX]

How's you build coming along ?