The Cinemar Home Theater Construction Thread - Page 87

This past weekend, I met with my old friend insulation.

I had enough left over from the project to fill the lower half of all the columns below the chair rail.

I'm going to hold off on filling the top portion for now. I may opt for something more finger friendly since I may need to pull it out from time to time. I'd like something that stays together fairly well and doesn't shed on the carpet.

Any ideas? Cotton batting?

I think the rule of thumb is to fill any hollow cavities with regular insulation; however, I think since the upper portion of my columns have openings for the speakers, they may be better used for other acoustic treatments such as bass traps or diffusion.

I'll get in touch with you Wes via PM or phone. Perhaps we can get together soon if our schedules permit.

I really like the LED strips. Much brighter than the ones I bought several years ago for 4x the price.

Mine have 3 Led's every 2 inches.

Hi Roknrol,

1. Yeah - I went through all this trouble of trying to add supports to the bar...must have made half a dozen trips to a variety of stores and hours trying to hide them in the design. Then the counter guy shows up and says I don't even need them. So I took them out.

2. Yes - you have the measurements correct give or take an 1/8" here or there.

3. Two of the corners were built with just 4x4's surround by 3/4" maple. The corner at the elbow of the "L" does have an extra 2x4 on each side plus the 3/4" maple wrap. If you look back in my thread you can see the pics showing this.


Hope that helps.

I think my initial order through Amazon had the less expensive ones and then the more expensive ones. When they arrived they were identical. Go figure.

The packaging reads: Hitlights: 5050-60LED/M

I haven't looked at any of the controllers out there.

I seem to pretty much leave the colors the same. The only thing I really do is turn the step lights brighter when small kids or large crowds of drinking adults are present. Otherwise I have the step lights set to a very dim dark blue that is just enough to reveal where the steps are.

The ceiling I pretty much use the blue all the time.

Cool. Thanks.

Too funny. Your ears must have been ringing.

After adding the 3D glasses rack to my Patch Panel cabinet, I thought a little more light would make sense.

So I used one of my left over LED strips to line the inside perimeter of the cabinet. It is much easier now to see.

I'm also planning to put put some OC703 in the back of the cabinet since it's in the corner. I can tell the bass is really boomy back there. Just wish I had room for 4" instead of just 2".

I've also noticed my electric bills rising so I'm always trying to find ways to reduce the energy usage.

I know the theater uses quite a bit but all the equipment gets powered down.

But since I have motion detectors in all the rooms and touch screens in quite a few, I've set up the screens to power down after 60 minutes of inactivity. Then whenever, someone walks in the room, the phone rings or pulls in/out of the driveway, the touch screens power back on. I'll be able to apply this to at least 3 of my touch screens around the house. The one in our great room I'll leave on all the time.

I also received some battery powered water leak alarms that I'll be placing around the house mainly because of the theater.

I'm putting one by the water heater, one by the well blader and one in the bathroom above the theater. I'll eventually add auto shutoff's too, but I just wanted something I could pop in there without a plumber involved. Just a bit more peace of mind.

Hey Wes,

I have roughly a 3" depth, by 31" wide by 48" tall behind all the wiring.

Are you thinking of using a thin 1/4" board, oc703 and then an air gap?

The challenge would be that unless I want to pull everything out, I may need to assemble it in sections behind the rack. I'll have to see how much work it would be though.

Maybe we can get together next week sometime. I've got a pretty full weekend though.
Edited by mcascio - 1/11/13 at 3:38pm

I think that's the information I was using but it's been a while. I remember the 1/3 rule though.

I think by me adding the extra 2x4's to create that lip, it bought me that extra 3" plus the 3/4" plywood face. The one thing I would have done differently though is put a more polished looking black backer board that the cabinet doors on the face sit on. While there isn't much showing, I should have at least sanded the face of it smooth. You can see the roughness during the day. At night, it's no biggie though.

The red is FR701 GOM Fabric - Claret Accent.

Cool. I've been slammed this week but may try to get ahold of you before it's over if I can.

I'd have to come up with a way to air seal it if that's required.

I ended up not doing any brad nails to attach the frames..

I did use velcro in some places where needed. Mostly at the tops. I found rather than putting the velcro on the wall (my first attempt), it worked better by cutting a 3/4" strip x 2" long and putting it on the columns. So it grabbed the sides of the frame and keeps them from pulling out, rather than trying to grab the back of the frame.

I was pretty thorough when I picked through the lumber to find the straightest I could. And I used the "select" wood. There were still some scenarios where it seemed the top would push out just a little. I didn't see any problems on the sides or bottom after a quick pass through the room. (been a while).
So I only really needed the velcro on the tops of mostly the larger pieces or wherever I noticed it pulling off the wall. It most likely happened there since it was a little tighter on the sides and the top was where there would be a little more space since gravity kicked in.

I think you'll be OK without the brad nails if you do it like mine.

I remember going through all sorts of strategies on the frames. The only downside of my install was that I have to remove some of the moulding on the sides of one column in order to take the frames out in some areas.

Sounds good. That is one large fabric panel. 3 supporting members might help to keep it straight over time too. The other obstacle is the walls...they can move in/out too.