Spaceman Theater build - Page 15

I'll save you all the time on the over/under. Final count for today = 1, which is why I didn't take a pic. Seeing that lone panel hanging on the wall was rather depressing after having such great aspirations for the day. At least part of that time included building a panel jig which should help as I move forward. Things should go faster too once I dial in the required gap for the fabric.

I'm heading out for a nice dinner and hope to hit it hard this weekend (in between 2 basketball games and who knows what else).

Nope. One basketball game down. One to go. Thought I'd knock out a few panels between games, but after attempting to wrap a corner on the first panel to gauge fabric thickness, I realized I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm currently researching how to create smooth corners. I don't see much progress happening today.

This approach to corners looks worth a try. I'll report back with my findings.
http://www.ucsart.com/content/how-stretch-canvas

I have a few inside corners as well. I may ask for some tips when I get to those, sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Mine will be between 30-35'. Is that still within the acceptable range for a standard HDMI cable?

Previously on "Spaceman Theater Build":

Using his redneck table saw,

Spaceman ripped furring strips from 1/2" plywood to attach to the wall behind his fabric panels. His OCD kicked into overdrive, causing him to shim the furring strips to address wall irregularities. This slowed him down considerably, but didn't break his spirit.

After getting most of the walls covered with furring strips and getting sidetracked by things like carpet and fabric selection,

Spaceman decided to proceed with panel construction.


Recent progress:
Built a corner jig by screwing some leftover 1x4s to the top of my temporary plywood work bench. I wanted a nice square corner where I could quickly place/stack the pieces of the frame prior to stapling.



Cut a boatload of 1-1/2" wide x 1/2" thick plywood strips for the frames. Since I like a challenge, I used the same circular saw used to cut the furring strips (table saws are for the weak and lazy). After measuring for panel size, plywood strips were cut to length and placed in the panel assembly jig.


2 layers of strips were used with overlapping joints and everything was secured using 7/8" long narrow crown staples using one of these http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/R150FSA-Stapler/index.htm.


After stapling, the edges of the frame got hit with a 1/4" roundover bit. (I may look at enlarging these to 3/8").


Heavy duty ball & socket speaker grill guides from Parts Express are being used to secure each frame to the wall. Here is what 400 of them look like:

And yes, 400 does qualify for a volume discount. Talk to Bev.

To attach the balls and sockets, I placed the stapled frame back into position on the wall. For my 1st 2 panels, I simply held the panel in place while drilling. For the larger panels, I'll be temporarily screwing them into place. Once properly positioned, I found a location that didn't conflict with panel staples and furring strip screws and drilled a pilot hole through the front of the frame and into the furring strip behind the frame.
The pilot hole marks the location for both the ball and socket.


Once the pilot hole is drilled, the frame is taken back down. Using the pilot hole as a guide, a larger hole for the ball is drilled into the back of the frame using a 7/16" spade bit (with blue tape to mark the 1/2" depth).


After switching to a 9/16" spade bit, larger holes are drilled into the furring strips at the location of each pilot hole for the socket.


After inserting the balls and sockets into their holes, the frames pop right into place.



It only took me 2 panels before I screwed up the mounting. After drilling out the 7/16" ball holes on the frame, I forgot to switch to the larger 9/16" bit before drilling the socket holes in the furring strips. Once the socket holes were drilled using the wrong bit, my pilot holes were gone and it was impossible for me to enlarge the hole while maintaining the exact center point. I had to relocate the holes all together.
Edited by Spaceman - 8/20/12 at 8:44pm

I should probably get some of those, but would they have solved my problem of having to accurately enlarge a hole without being able to place the bit in some sort of pilot hole?

You're welcome. I've learned a lot from all of the threads on here over the last few years. Read as many as you can. BigmouthinDC has links to all of his builds in his signature. I would recommend clicking through each of those as he is great at documenting his projects. They will also touch on soundproofing, which is not a part of my build but may be something you wish to implement. Some common advice you will find in many threads:

-Read, read, read
-Plan, plan, plan
-Save, save save
-Don't hang the projector until the very end

Welcome to the madness.
Edited by Spaceman - 8/20/12 at 6:16pm

Ah...a drilling jig. That would be nice, considering I have about 800 holes to drill. Unfortunately, it would probably only help for the holes going into the frames. The holes going into the furring strips obviously can't be done at the table. Since I wasn't consistent when placing screws in the furring strips, I need to determine locations for the balls/sockets on a case by case basis, in order to work around screws and staples. I'll make it work.

I want to have the ability to take them down and add/remove acoustic material behind the fabric as required. I also want an easy way to make repairs if fabric gets damaged.

I have a few panels by my rack that need to be removable so I can gain access to the back of the rack. In that particular location, the rack is recessed into a closet through the wall and the door into the closet will be covered by the removable panels.

The only cons I can see with the ball/socket approach are:
- the extra time required to attach the balls/sockets (probably an extra 15 minutes per panel over traditional pin nailing)
- the extra cost for the balls/sockets (for my room-around $100 to hang approx. 80 panels).

It's certainly easier, faster and cheaper to pin nail them to the wall, but having the ability to pop one off the wall in less than 2 seconds is worth it to me.
Edited by Spaceman - 8/20/12 at 7:50pm