Started my 110" Wide DIY Curved Screen Build

I have a dedicated build thread in the other side of the forum, but I thought I would share the screen build over here as I have gotten many ideas and inspiration from more than a couple of folks here. I will be using 1.5" screen track (window type screen) to secure my Phifer screen material to the back of the border pieces. I wanted to use something that would be removable for future needs.

I started with two 2x8x10 wood pieces to transfer over the radius of my curved false wall.




I thought the 2x8 would be enough to get the whole radius of the curve, however I was shy by about 1/2" on the backside. I figured I would try cutting one piece and if it wasn't sturdy enough I would go buy 2X10's.




Once cut though it was fine, very sturdy as a matter of fact.

You can see the arch on the front side which is what is important, on the backside you can see how it goes flat.

I was able to smooth out the curve a little better with a small hand plane.
Test fit on the false wall.



Then I was test fitting the vertical pieces 1x4x10's which make up the screen border and where the screen tracks will be attached to.



The 1x4's take shape extremely well and the curve I'm looking for is perfectly smooth. I cut 45 degree angles on the 2 horizontal pieces and now need to get the vertical pieces done. The 1x4's will be secured to the front of the frame with liquid nails and trim nailer. The inside vertical frame is simply made up of a 2x4x10 cut in half, just need to trim to the exact measurement that I need. My finished screen viewing area should be 110" wide by 46.5" high 119.5" diagonal for 2:37 aspect ratio.

I assembled the basic structure. I attached the 1X4's to the horizontal pieces as I described above. Then I attached the vertical frame pieces.
The first side attached.



Other side attached and stood up to see how stable it was and get the actual finished height.




Laying back down with the side border pieces on. They are not attached as I want to get the velvet first so I can best figure out how to wrap.


Won't get to do much in the next couple of days, but Friday night I hope to secure the screen track and by Saturday get the velvet, quite possible that it will be done by the end of the weekend.

Man I know the work space is messy but no comments after 228 views.... hmmm maybe this will prod some responses .

Started off by painting the inside and backside of the frame so their wouldn't be any reflections.


Then I used these corner braces to help shore up the corners of the border. I figured it would also be a good way to secure the side border pieces after they were wrapped instead of making it permanent with liquid nails and trim nails, especially since this area has no curve.




After this I started to secure the screen track pieces to the horizontal pieces of the border. No need to staple them as I thought I might need to do. They held just fine when splining the screen.





Then it was time to wrap it with velvet. What I would have done differently is to have wrapped the velvet before securing the screen track like I did with the vetical pieces. Unfortunately with the bottom piece of the screen if you go up to it you can see some staples and areas where the velvet was trimmed. Would've been a non issue if it was wrapped first and I then secured the track. I'll hopefully should be able to solve this with a thin velvet wrapped filler piece.



The vertical pieces i did while off the frame, then put in place for fit and finish.


The bottom was wrapped and the vertical pieces were secured with the corner braces. This is the point I got to on Sunday night.



Monday after running a few errands I was able to get to the good part. I bought the 63" material vs. the 98" but I tried to angle the fabric as much as I could. No biggie as my projector is only 720P but I thougt I would try in case I ever go 1080P. My original idea was to spline the first outermost row of the track and then spline the second row to make the screen tight, but I really didn't need to as the screen was very tight in most areas and only needed to respline a couple of areas. Splinnig the second row wouldn't have helped the problem areas.
Front of the screen


Back of the screen mostly trimmed off except the top. There's a couple of waves you can see on the left, this is mostly because there is no supports in the middle and the material splinned naturally pulls down on the frame. This is a non issue though when the screen is mounted. The space the screen goes into is about 1/8-1/4" bigger than the frame, I'm using mini clamps to secure the screen, this helps the frame to be pulled nice and taught removing any waves.


Now with the screen put in place, room was dark but flash was lighting it up:





No flash:




and there it is for about $350.00 in materials.

Thanks for the kind words owl1,

I actually bought phifer sheerweave material last year from Chris at SeymourAV.

Im actually using Klipsch speakers available at Best Buy, good or bad I had a limited budget and these fit the bill. I have the C2, 4 S2's and a pair of B2's. To me they sound awesome, the surrounds have tweeters which angle off to each side. They feature WDST which envelopes the whole listening area.

The front speakers sit on shelves attached to the wall. The left and right speakers are about 11" deep and are about an 1.5" away from the wall and the screen sits at about 18" so about 5-6 inches space away from the screen. Here are a couple shots showing the speakers and the shelves they sit on taken early in my build.





BTW, the subwoofer is a JBL 12" sub.

I'll snap some pics for you tonight. I simply used some mini clamps, works like a charm. Very easy to remove if need be.

Thanks jerix,

If you click my build link on my signature line and go to page 8 you will see some screen pics. They are not the greatest, but that is because of my camera, and the way I had to take the pictures, not the screen.

WannaTheater,

Here are the pics showing the screen secured with the clamps. The top clamps are closer to the center to help support that area. All the sags from the weight of the frame are removed when clamped.


The bottom clamps are closer to the left and right speakers



Basically the screen sits on top of the false wall. The border sticks out about 1/4" all around on the outside edges, this way when the screen is placed on the false wall it wont go past the edge due to the 1'4" lip.

Thanks superleo,

It really turned out as good as I had hoped and was pretty easy to put together. The movies that we have enjoyed so far have been nothing short of fantastic.

Thanks mtbdudex,

I am proud of how the whole thing came together.

I only had the wood in my basement for a couple of days before starting to make my cuts. I did go after the straighest pieces I could find, although I didn't have much difficulty with the 2x8x10's they were mostly pretty good for the picking. I don't know if it is because of the size of the lumber but I had a real easy time picking it out.

Funny thing was after I picked my preferred pieces as well as the 1x4x10's I parked my cart and went looking for other items that I needed, low behold and this never has happened to me at Lowes or HD somebody put all my lumber back so I had to go re-pick everything. I had a tougher time getting straight 1x4's.

I know what you are talking about warping or twisting lumber. I remember one time I had a 2x4 that I bought, which was straight when I got it and less than a week later it had formed into very nice arc. The begginnings of a canoe I suppose.

In any event after I cut my initial frame piece I wasn't too concerned as it was very stiff, but I knew I had limited time. The next day I cut the next curved piece of the frame and attached the horizontal pieces of the border in order to provide stability. I attached the border pieces with liquid nails and a trim gun. I also cut and attached the vertical frame pieces which was one 2x4x10 cut in half. Over the next few days of working on the frame I was looking for any signs of warpage, to my relief I found no evidence of it.

Now with the frame in place and the clamps holding I have no concern of it becoming an issue.

whodarem,

I went and measured for you so I could have an accurate distance. My projector is 14'5" back from the center of my screen. Since my screen is curved it is 3" deeper in the center vs. the sides. From 11' you might have a greater amount of pincushion but if you make a curved screen you should be fine, maybe a slightly greater curve radius like 4-5".

IMO 11' is a perfect distance for this size screen. I have 2 rows of seating, the first one being about 9-9.5 feet and I'm perfectly comfortable but the Mrs. isn't. She prefers the back row seating which puts you at about 15-16'. She would probably be ok at 11'.

The thing you'll have to deal with is if you'll be able to get enough zoom thru your lens from 11'. From the distance I'm at, I'm projecting just about the smallest image I can from my projector. While I can zoom some if I need to, once you get past a certain point the image starts to vignette or be cutoff because the whole light beam wont make it thru the prisms. If your making your own lens, it may be worth getting the large trophy prisms to make sure you have enough room for zooming.

Good luck, let me know if there is anything else.

Ah, I posted a few in my build thread, but they were just some quick shots that I took of upconverted dvd's. Tonight I will try to get some new shots with the PS3 and post them later on.

Didn't get around to taking any new pics. Dealing with to much snow and then there was the wrapping for Christmas... so here are a couple of the pics that I took before. I'll hopefully be able to get some new ones today or tomorrow.

Ok I managed to get some newer pics off of my PS3 with Blu Ray. Like before I had to take these pics under not so ideal conditions. I used to have a tripod but it's broken and I didn't have an easy way to set the camera, so I sat in the second row and held the camera with both hands (my elbows supported by my legs), no flash and on most shots I allowed the timer to take the pic.

Stargate:





Dark Knight:





I love this shot, no hint of CA from from my DIY Anamorphic Lens





Any hint of blurriness is either because of me or the camera.

Thanks Wazzey,

The nice thing about a curved screen is thatn it wraps towards you and gives a more enveloping effect I believe. The technical benifit though is when you are using an anamorphic lens. With just about every lens available DIY or otherwise you will have certain amount of pinchushion (curving of image on top and bottom for the most part). A curved screen helps to conteract this. I would only use a curved screen with a lens in place. Without a lens in place the image ends were curving upwards.

No moire problems for me. My projector is 720P so it hasn't been an issue. I tried to rotate the material as much as I could in case I ever upgrade but I only got the 63" material so I probably got about a 7 degree rotation. No worries if it becomes an issue with an upgrade the material can be had pretty easily and affordably now.

Aussiebob was kind enough to foward me his excel calculator via email which allowed me to put in all sorts of info to determine the proper radius. Throw, size, seating distance, etc.

I believe the result was about 3.5 inches, but I went with 3" and it has worked out fine.

Yes, When I was projecting on my screen before I put the lens in place, it had the opposite effect of pincushion due to the curved screen.

Thanks Chris,

The screen is definately one of the highlights of my theater room. I was dreading even attempting this, but it turned out to be fairly simple to do and very rewarding.