The shirley street theater construction thread

Heres where i will post updates on my theater.

The screen is a used PVC 16x9 screen shortened to 12x8. Its made from 1 1/2 PVC. The 2 legs are 2 inch PVC hammered close to 3 feet deep. The screen frames sits inside the legs and can be removed for storage(the legs stay). The screen will be a canvas drop cloth from either home depot or lowes. I will pick that up tuesday along with a grommet kit. Hopefully if nothing goes wrong and weather permitting i can open the theater. The projector is a boxlight cp-300t and the sound system is a panasonic am/fm turntable stereo with thruster floor speakers by panasonic.heres some pics

it is done. the screen is a canvas drop cloth from home depot. used a grommet kit from jo-ann fabrics and rope to hold it too the screen frame. the projector is 20 feet from the screen.

i have gotton most of the wrinkles out sense then. i have also upgraded the DVD player. was going to post updated pics last weekend but it was too wet and cold to set up so i used the garage screen instead.

well with this little spring tease i decided to use the garage screen for the first time sense it got too cold. i showed a alice cooper concert DVD

sorry never thought of that. here's a description

1. the sound system was a realistic boom box model 14-778A with AUX input and with ext speakers hooked up which hang on the wall on each side of the screen. the seats were a leather recliner and a office chair.

2.the projector sat behind us on a dresser with some shims to raise the back of the projector a bit. the microwave cart with the sound system on it was too low for the garage screen + i had my kerosene heater sitting on it.the main screen is behind the garage soaking wet and with leaf stains on it. will put it in the wash when the weather warms up if its still in one piece.I'm going to trim the main screen down from 12x8 to 12x7 for 16x9 aspect and so it will fit upright in the garage for storage.

3. the chairs were a broken leather massage chair and a office chair. i will try and get pics of the speakers and the dresser so you can get a idea.

well the drywall screen took a hit. i had a extenstion cord running behind to run the charger on my car and the cord got snagged by the snowblower pulling the drywall down. trying to put it back up the other piece fell so there bent and scuffed up. so come spring i will build a better garage screen from PVC that will be about 80 inches Diagonally and it will hang from some wood nailed to the studs. the drywall was supposed to be used to fix a hole in the wall in the house but ended up being a screen so now i guess i will have to fix the hole in the wall LOL.

well took advantage of this 70 degree weather today to work on the screen. took the canvass off and will toss in the washing machine. had enough spare PVC laying around that all i needed to was go to home depot and pick up 2 elbows 2 T's and 3 couplers. ran into a misshape after cutting. found out the 2 elbows i picked up were threaded at one end so they didn't fit. so another run to home depot to get the correct ones. total costs $12.54. now the screen is 12X7. the PVC cement i used was left over from last year and it was lumpy like jelly. it still worked so didn't have to buy a new can. heres the old string that held the screen to the frame



i'll take a pic of the completed screen frame during the day Saturday if its not raining.

heres a pic of the freshly washed screen waiting to be installed in the spring.

heres a pic of the frame. as you can see its not even at one end. i will fix that later. also i will raise it up on foot so it sets higher. this will be done by cutting the t's flush with the frame so they act as couplers then splice 2 T's into the frame. so i will need 2 T's 2 elbows and 6 couplers

here is the completed main screen frame. it been raised up so it sits higher and made it even.

no still too cold to sit out at night. probably won't open the theater till may.

well i was hoping to maybe use the theater today sense its going to be warm out but it looks like mother nature hates back yard theaters. its supposed to T-storm today sunday and then its back into the upper 50's 60's instead of the 2 day 80's we had. AND ITS WINDY TOO 30 MPH GUSTS.

ok managed to get a showing in today. went to one of those red box dvd kiosks and rented and showed the Beverly hills chihuahua. my new neighbors were having a house warming party but managed to keep it down during the show. after the movie was over they got loud again(drunk i bet). had a small shower in the middle of the day but the screen dried out. here's a pic of the screen.

ok got a showing in today. was a little bit chilly outside but wore a long sleeves shirt and a spring jacket. heres some screen shots. not the best and not sure if this camera has a shutter setting.

and just a update. im on the 3rd stereo receiver. i switched out the turntable with a 8-track player and it seams to have sound issues. so swapped it out with a boom box that i can hook my floor speakers into. also i no longer have the boxlight projector. it quit and would cost too much to repair ($900 to replace 2 main boards) so have been showing movies with a brand new optoma EP-721 DLP projector. the last movie shown with the boxlight was first sunday.

well with this cool weather and rain im announcing that the main outdoor theater is now closed for the season. movies will be shown inside the garage on the new garage screen that i keep forgetting to take a picture off.

OK heres some long overdue pics.

the current A/V rack



the New garage screen

the theater(including the garage screen) is now closed for the season.