LEVEL 4: Center for Entertainment build - Page 8

Now that I've started on my columns, I've had to learn about edge banding - the magical process in which mere plywood is transformed into Ikea furniture boards.  I wanted to share my methods with you, if you're interested, of course.  Before we begin, I'd like to restate that I am IT person, with little (but growing) woodworking skills. So, this is new to me, and I'm probably doing some of this wrong. :)

Here's a sheet of plywood with an unfinished edge, resting on a stack of finished edges.  This is what they in the biz refer to as the "before" shot, eh?

The tools I used in the process.

Set your iron to Cotton and warm it up.

First, I take my board and lay it between the two cans, so it's held up.

Pull a strip of edge banding (3/4" birch in this case) to length and cut it with a scissors.

I use painters tape to keep the roll from unraveling.  It does a nice job not wrecking the wood.

Starting at one edge, heat the edge of the strip, leaving a little over the edge.  Then, work your way down while guiding the strip to be centered with your free hand.  This pass was about getting the strip mostly attached.  There's no need to overwork it.

Come back the other way very slowly, about an inch per second.  Trail the iron with a block and apply a lot of pressure to make sure the strip is nicely set onto the sheet of plywood. Usually, one pass is enough.

I always looked under the edge to see if there were any gaps before I moved to the next step.

Flip the board over, place a chisel at a sharp angle on the exact corner, and strike the chisel with a hammer to remove the surplus at the end.  The harder you hit it, the further it goes.  My record was about 11'.

Set the board down on the table, and clamp one end of it.  This way, it won't slide around during the next steps.  Where do you think you're going, board?

Using a sharp chisel, like the 1" I just bought, guide it along the board and shave off the excess.  On the side that's not showing, I ran it pretty close.  On the showing side, I was more cautious and left at least some to shear off at the next pass.

Here you see there's not much on this board that needs to be cleaned up.

This was my favorite part.  The second and third passes were almost therapeutic.  MMMmmmm, chisel-ly...with your little curly fries looking pieces of wood that curl up and the smooth finish, shaving shaving...  mmm.  What was I saying? Oh right...

Here's the nice cleaned edge.

Finally, I gave it a little sanding.  If you have roughness or the edges are a little bit off, this is where you could sand away your problems.

On the showing side, you can see there's more left over after my initial pass with the chisel.

b'aaawwwww, look at that perty edge.

As promised, we're ready to build our Ikea bookshelves!  Errrr, I mean, my columns.  The this is the "after" shot, I guess

Each board took about 45 minutes to complete.  I have to admit that I have a new found desire to buy an edge banding machine, if I did this more than just occasionally.

That's it!

Here are a few bonus shots of my garage.  I just cleaned it up!

I had a bunch of wood on pallets, so that van couldn't pull in.  I just stacked them between the two garage door rails.  There's not a lot of horizontal pressure there, and it works very well to get to different pieces of wood.

I put all of my tools on hooks!  They were all over the house, mostly in the HT, so gathered them all up, grouped them, and hung them up.  Man, it's so much nicer to know where everything is!

Until I build a work bench, I'm just using these two sawhorses.  I spanned the bottom level for a shelf, where I put my hand power tools.

And you can see where my dog sleeps when we're gone during the day. :)

That's it!  I hope you liked the pics.

I have two questions regarding layout and bass nulls.

First, I have this open space behind my sectional in my theater.  I have considered a riser with seating, but it's off center and just doesn't seem to fit well in my mind.  I think the total width, if I added a riser, would be about 90".  I have considered bar seating, but that would be done at a later date, and I'm just not super excited about the idea.  Does anyone have any ideas?  The current plan is to just leave it open for whatever.  I may just it as space to exercise with a workout video.  Here's a mostly updated layout of the room (that side room will be a kitchenette in the future).  What would you do if this was your space?

My second question is regarding bass.  Below, you'll see a diagram of the bass volume in different parts of the room.  The red is loud, the blue is quiet.  Fortunately, you see that my seating is in a great spot, coincidentally.  However, if I want to move my couch/sectionals back, or if I want to add another row behind me, I'm going to have issues.  The bass in the blue areas is very quiet, I'm assuming due to the bass being nulled.

I haven't yet added my 4" broadband panels in the back of the room.  I also have 2" panels the will added between each column.  All panels are 3pfc rigid insulation like oc703.  I do currently have 32" triangular bass traps in both front corners, and they helped.

How do I fix this problem?  Is it as simple as adding another sub (in the diagram at the front)?  If not, how much of the problem is helped by an additional sub, and what are my other options?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis Erskine 

You have some fundamental issues here. First, your seating is not in an ideal location ... if you haven't addressed the peaks/nulls you want to be seating in a moderate area. Next, that diagram cannot be correct since it appears to ignore width modes in the room AND that would appear to diagram one modal frequency not all of them. And, while a second sub can be used to address modal response, the placement you have suggested would be a poor location for that purpose.

Thanks for your time, Dennis.  As you may have guessed, my diagram is not measured with equipment, but just my observations from listening/walking around the room.  My seating is slightly back from center of the room, but pretty close to it.  I know it's not ideal.  Because the room tapers, I don't have a lot of options when it come to having a decent amount of seating. If I move my sectional back too much, I lose width (and the bass falls out).

Would you recommend I get some measuring equipment before I move forward with the purchase of a sub?  If so, where do you suspect a better location would be?  I'm sure you know I chose that location because it's behind my screen wall...

Quote:

Originally Posted by HopefulFred 

I think I would put a small table in the back, either for cards/games/laptop, or a high-top and bar stools - something movable.
The bass nulls you're looking at correspond to the secondary length mode of the room. If you played various pure-tone sounds, you'd find that around 60Hz (based on the length of your room) this problem is most pronounced. At other frequencies the pattern will be different, but 60Hz is probably a very common frequency in the material you're testing with (kick drums or similar, I imagine). This is a very common situation, and can be quite troublesome. The 4" absorption you have planned for the rear may help some, but don't expect a large change - a 60Hz wave is very large and contains a terrific amount of energy at SPLs of interest. A second sub is probably the most direct path to a solution; however, it should not be placed along the front wall - from there it will only make things worse. Similarly, the rear wall is probably a poor choice as well. The theoretical best choice is along the mid-line of the room - in the high SPL area near the sofa. The high SPL zone in the center of the room for this (secondary) mode is out of phase relative to the source, so driving it with the same signal as the front sub should work against the mode at that frequency. It's not likely to be that simple, so having some flexibility in position as well as phase and level, independent of the first sub, will be important.
If you're going to get into that, make sure you're up to the challenge of making good measurements - being meticulous in approach and documentation. This is my favorite resource on the topic: http://www.hunecke.de/en/calculators/room-eigenmodes.html and you should read about some other experiences with room modes, like the ongoing problems Digital_Chris has been having with his IB sub, starting approximately here (hopefully your situation is simplified by having free-standing subs).
Hope that helps...

I dub thee HelpfulFred. ;)  Thanks!

I'm going to finish the room: columns, doors, carpet, trim, furniture, etc.  After that, but before I make my treatments, I'll get some testing gear, and work on the acoustics in the room.  I may have been putting the cart before the horse a bit... (as I tend to do on occasion!)

As to the back of the room, I'll just leave it open and leave it to a future project should some great idea dawn on me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BllDo 

I think adding a bar at the back similiar to what MN_Hokie did here would work.
I can't remember, did you add bass traps behind your screen?

That looks really sharp.  It's a nice analog because his is offset like mine would be, too. I think I'd do the same after my side area is done, but maybe make the counter wood and deeper.  And yes, I have the typical 24x24x32 triangle traps in both front corners.

Work continues on the columns.  I think I am little over half way, so I thought I'd post some progress for y'all.

On the long wall, I have four columns.  Two of them have "stuff" in them as pictured below.

Special Column 1 has my left surround, av jacks (2 usb, headphone, component, composite, and 2 cat6 rj45), and an outlet.

Special Column 2 happened to land in front of an existing outlet, so I decided to take advantage of that power source.  Since the two spaces between the last three columns did not have can lights in them because that soffit was pre-existing, I added two outlets at the top of the middle column.  Those two each have one switched outlet and one constant outlet.  Then, of course, I added the switch, and another outlet at the bottom.  In this picture, seating is way too forward.  In the end, the bar will be where that outlet stands, so i'll be able to plug a power strip in for the bar if I want to add task light in the bar itself.

The short wall on the other side of the room has one empty column, and one that's already built out with sheetrock.  This one has the right surround and my 4 gang light dimmers in it.  I just have to face it with wood to match the other columns.

And to the pictures!

The plywood is only 1/2" so I had to be careful building the columns.  I used this type of joinery to minimize the holes in visible areas. By the way, the frame clamps are so nice (thanks M&D for them at Christmas).

The nails into the top and bottom cross supports will be hidden by the trim, with only two nails showing up in the middle support.

When I glued, I had to use about 8 clamps, and make sure the edges were nice and tidy!  I did the same for the other side, completing the columns.  Or at least, the three columns that were empty inside.  You can see the edge banding from my previous post here.

So, let's take a look at special column #1 with the speaker, av jacks, and power.

First, I needed to make a hole for the speaker.  I did it to wall mount specs.

And there you have it.  BUT, one problem, the speaker is proud against the surface of the column, which is ok, if you're looking at it like this, but that's not my plan. I'm going to have black cloth flush over part of the face of the column, so it can't protrude.

So I went back and cut it out further, so the speaker just falls right through it.

Now, I took and glued on some scrap wood up to the edges.

Tops and bottoms!

Which left me with this kind of opening.  I can now mount the speaker just shy of flush with front face!

I placed some weather seal along the inside of the lip so my speaker wouldn't fart. 

Then, at the bottom, I measured out where my holes should go and cut for the AV jacks and outlet.

Here ya go.  The final cuts on that puppy.

So now, I've attached the sides and moved my mid cross support as low as I could to give my speaker as much room as possible.  I did this to try to reach the volume (roughly) of a standard wall cavity between studs.  Then, I filled in some insulation on the speakers half.

View from the top.

I then cut and screwed on a piece of 5/8 sheetrock, pulling a speaker through the opening.

I sealed off the holes and sides with silicone.

That's it for that one, now I'd like to show you the special column #2.

Here's the spot where the outlet was.  James and I made holes and pulled the slack up through the wall.  This way, I could feed the electrical for the column at the top of the column and not worry about not having enough length!

Here's where I put the remodel boxes.  You can see the two top oulet, switch in the middle, and front facing outlet at the bottom.

Peek!

Today, at lunch, I was able finish wiring the electrical for both columns.

I've been watching movies with the surround speaker on the left finally attached.  It has made a big difference, of course!  Finally, the opening surround sound sequence in the Art of Flight is complete.  Man, I love that movie.

Next up!

-Mount the columns to the walls

-Stain and cut the trim for the face  (the crown and base trim come later with the rest of the room)

-Get the right surround wood facing mounted for the drywall based column

-And then.... Doors!

Here's what I have planned for the design on the columns, btw.  The wood's all the same color, but I changed it so you could see the trim.  The black in the middle is black speaker cloth.

Work continues on the columns.  To the pictures!

Now that the cabinets are done, I have to mount them to the wall.  I inserted some screwable drywall anchors to the wall and attached a blocker at the top and bottom where each column was going.

Instead of using a level to set the top and bottom properly, I just used string with a weight attached.  It was much easier and very accurate.

Then, I filled each column with delicious insulation.  You can see the blockers here and how the column slide into them.  After the column is slid into place, I put a few nails into the top and bottom on each side.  This is more than enough to hold the column steady, and the holes are hidden by the trim work that comes later.

This wall jack was white.  Since it's going to be in front of black cloth, I decided to paint it black!  I found some old cables I don't need anymore, cut those bad boys up, and plugged the holes to protect the connections from the spray paint.

Here's my new Painting Box of Protection (+13 to side height).

And it turned out better than I had hoped!  Now I don't feel badly I couldn't find inset black keystone plugs. I just need to buy a black outlet cover now.

As I was installing the columns, I stumbled upon this effect.  Brett looks totally at home on the finished wood.

And finally, a few pictures of the columns mounted.

Still have to face this column with wood (the one with the speaker).

Right now, I'm polying all of my trim, including the trim for the columns.  I'm excited to see how that all turns out once mounted!

Stain > Poly > Poly.  Arghhh!  I've gotten my fill of these two things!  I'm glad to be done with it for now, at least until I do my doors.

Now, I get to chop all of this up!

I started making the faces for the columns.  I just took trim work, made a frame, and stapled black speaker cloth to the back.

I just wanted to show you the panel here is fairly see-through.  You can also see the outlet and jack box I need to deal with.

After I had the panels mounted, I stapled around the outlet, but inside where the cover plate goes.

Then, I cut the hole out of the fabric.

I made sure to cut away as much as possible and left no strands.  Here's the finished look.  (I realize the cover plate is brown, I need to run to the store and pick up black outlets!)

And couple of pictures of the three I've done so far!

Thanks, BllDo!  I contemplated using a more typical design with a chair rail a third of the way up, but decided to to use the long height to help counter the short height of my room.  I still have crown and base trim to add, which will help them pop even more.  I have Thursday off to work on that!

I went on to Gliffy and re-did my layout to reflect the current construction and plans.  I'm excited to be where I am in this process!  I'm still working on trim, but man, the room is starting to look cool.  I'll have finished trim pictures soon.  Right now I'm working on getting an MDF flap on hinges to cover that window.  Anyway, here's the layout.  If anyone sees anything odd or "duh", please let me know!  Danka!

Though I could have left a white sheet stuffed into the only window in my theater, I thought it was about time I put into place a more permanent solution.  I could have covered it up, but I really like the option to open 'er up and let the fresh air in once in a while.

Here's the window.

I started with idea that I would screw a brace in behind the soffit, then, with hinges, hang a flap that would swing up and down.  This proved to be a complete and utter @&^$&! PAIN THE @&#&!!  Hinges + minimal working room in that window well + my lack of skill/patience = disaster

So, I opted to do an easier, and, as it turns out, better solution.

First, I cut a board down, that I could attach my crown to as a blocker.  I'll span across the window opening.

Then I added magnets because, well, magnets are cool. (more on that in a minute)

Using my snazzy table saw, I cut a piece of MDF to fit the opening.  I cut the corners out on the back to make space to put some weather stripping.

Oh, I added magnet to the front of the MDF plate, too! I used super glue and then put electrical tape over it.

Then I added the weather strips and I think I'm done out in the garage! Down to LEVEL4...

Now I nailed the blocker and put down weather strip to block light and, more importantly, provide a stopping point for the bottom of my block.

I did a test fit and learned that I needed to remove the weather stripping from the bottom so the piece would sit better along the bottom.  You can see the pencil marks where the magnets are?  If I didn't have those, the piece would simply fall back.

Add a little paint...

And I'm done!

The columns and most of the trim work are done!  As you'll see below, I finished all but one because I wanted to get the doors in before trimming out that last column.  I also left the skirtboard undone on the steps until the doors were done.

One thing I suspected and confirmed during this process is that crown and trim can be hard.  I am definitely looking forward to doing the spot-checking and fixing little seams when I'm done and the carpet is in!

Here are the pics!

This was taken from the very back of the room.

You can see the dimmer switch and outlet where I may add lights later on in between the columns.  The base trim is 5 1/4 inches.  The crown is 3 1/4.

Here's my special column that'll run into the door frame.  I think the light switches turned out nicely, but I'm still considering using a wooden plate like I did in the last picture...

Doors 1, 2, and 3 are going in next!  You can see the opening's here.

You can see here that the crown on the back two columns is proud on the soffit.  I was worried it'd look odd, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

And this is view I have when I'm watching a movie.

I also added the crown to the uplight soffit.  The rope light was a little harsh, so I added strips of parchment paper, placed over the lights, to soften them.  It works really well!  I will eventually go get some diffusing plastic, but if you're in a pinch, give it a try.

I've been looking around at carpets for the room. Here are a few of the ones I'm considering.

Cascade

Heat Wave

Illusion of Space

Road Test

I'm mostly sticking with dark brown.  I tried matching the green or going with a lighter color, but it just doesn't suit the room.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for your opinions guys! I agree with all of you that #4 is the best option.  It's a little bit of details for interest, but not enough to detract from the room.  Also, the squares match the angular designs in my room.  

Anyone have thoughts on whether I should put black carpet on the stage or keep it the same as the rest of the room?

You can kind of see the two surfaces here:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte 

I used the same carpet on the floor and the stage - if I was doing it again, I'd probably do the stage all black for contrast.

I think I agree with you Brad.  I know that I'm eager to get the dark brown panels up the walls at the first reflection points.  The glow on those walls really does bounce some light in the room.  My stage is no exception to that!  Black it is then.  Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by J_P_A 

I think I like 3 the best. The color looks like it goes with the room a little more to me, but it could be my display playing tricks on me

#3 was my wife's favorite and my second choice.  She didn't like the hint of red in #4... We're going to hire a sitter this weekend and go get some samples.  I was also thinking about building a small sample of my room with some leftover trim and sheetrock painted in the colors of my room to take along with us.

In other news...

I've been shopping for seating, too.  After working with Roman at rtheaters.com, I've landed on the Fusion Tribute seats.   I've only ever read glowing reviews of them, and they're taller for me (I'm 6'2").  I have room for either a 3 seat |OVOVO| configuration or a 4 seat couch config, |OOOO| with removable armrests.