My "Out of Africa" theater is "FINISHED" - Page 5

Ha Ha, a Bobbejaan with a Dingaling!

Hi RT,

I also don't like the blue-white light that LEDs usually give off, so I ordered the warm-white lights. They look very simmilar in colour to the 12v 50w halogen lights that I had in there before, but I think they are a tad darker in brightness. They only use 3w of power so it's unbelievable to think that all 15 downlights that I'll have in the HT and entrance to HT together will use LESS power than ONE of the regular 50w halogen lights.

To get back to your question, yes, so far I'm very happy with them.

Will, the tame baboon

Hi calimark. I figured, do it now and get it over with - they should last a very very long time.

Another big plus of the LEDs (and that's my main reason for getting them in the first place) is that they are MUCH cooler than the regular stuff. Heat is a problem in the HTs so I want to avoid any extra heat producing things in the HT as far as possible.

My steplights is the cool white kind and I'm not fond of them but they will only be on while everybody is getting to their seats and when someone wants to get up during the movie (if I allow it btw. ), otherwise they'll be off.

Thanx Youg, I'm trying.

This afternoon I'll be painting the undersides and frames of the soffits black. I hope I'll finish before comming to work again at 17h00. Come on 13h00!!!

Yes RT, unfortunately with me it's the case of "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." My work hours SUCK to say the least, but "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!" It's difficult to get enough time for the HT with the job, the wife and a busy 4,5 y/o but I manage (so far!)

I managed to put on the the first coat of black paint. I'm back at work now and will continue after I get home after 19h00. I hope to finish tonight still
Will post pics when I'm done.

Good Morning Everybody, (it's morning here, anyway). A little update should be in order I think.

I've finished painting the underside of the soffits as well as the downlight holders that will be covered with velvet.






Another thing I did was covering the first column with fabric. I was a little nervous to start this job because I don't have alot of extra material (fabric) to waste if I make a mistake. Well, I thought, if I don't start somewere it won't get done, so lets jump in!

First I put down a clean plastic sheet and got all the tools ready:




Here's one of the black fabric roll and the compressor.


Measuring and cutting



When I started cutting and nailing and glueing and stretching and ... you get the picture, I didn't take any pictures till I was done. Sorry.

Here is my first column covered - I'm so chuffed!



Here's some close-up pics of the material itself. It is a very nice black with a subtle shimmer. The room is gonna be VERY dark, but isn't that the idea?



Here is the square insert. You don't see the seams in real life without the flash.



One down - 9 to go!

Thanx Greg, I hope they'll look nice when the "speaker grill" part is added to the columns for the final look. It took about one hour to wrap just the one column, so I'll try to do one every night or second night as "life-duty" permits!

Hi RT,

Thanx for the compliment. I'm thinking of Monitor Audio speakers, but it's not set in stone yet. I want something that goes well with the Yammy 3010 but not to expen$ive - I'm already over my budget!!

I'm Back!!

I've decided last year to "further my horizons...." and enrolled for a two year course at my old university, beginning this year. What have I done!? To go back to studying after 15 years is no joke, worst of all, it's influencing my HT build! Sooooo...... I'm trying to do my assignments, research and studies AND do a little Theater-building (to take a break form the books) so progress is going to be a little slower than I would like. Eish, what have I done?????

Anyway, lets get back to some "pitcher postin"

I've received a parcel some days ago:



Looks much more interesting than what it is. Wanna guess?



It's my grille for the aircon box! Yes! at! long! last! I've ordered (and paid) for this thing on the 14th of November last year and the guy told me I should have it " in about two weeks time". Nearly 3 months and a lot of phonecalls later......WORST service I got from any company since I've started this build. Let's just leave it at that, at least I got it in one piece!



After some cutting and painting and screwing (not the nice kind ) the cover panel is finished and in place

With the first column I covered with the fabric I didn't take enough pics to make it clear how I did it. I thought I'll take more and give a better explination of how it's done. Maybe someone will find something helpfull in the process.

Firstly, I lay the column on the fabric and cut it about 5cm or 2" longer on both the top and bottom sides.


Next step is to line up the one side of the column to the one edge of the fabric, again with a 2" extra for folding over the MDF.


After this I cut the fabric where it'll meet the upright part of the MDF - see pic for 1000 words.


Next I pull the fabric tight over the edge of the MDF and staple it in the middle only with my trusty (or not so trusty staple gun, as you'll see later on) staple gun.


I then staple it in the left and right corners while pulling the fabric thight.


Next step involves pulling and stapling and pulling and stapling till the one halve is done and repeats the process on the other half.




Look very carefull now! - remember, the closer you watch, the less you'll see! It's not magic folks, it's just the sleight of hand..... or just the other side of the column

This is taken form the other side. The column is flipped over once onto the side that's just been stapled.


I now spray the one side of the column with spray-glue and the part of the fabric that will come into contact with it.


Next step is to tip over the column onto the other side, so that the glue part is facing upwards.


Again perspectives switched so that we are looking from the other side again.


Now pull the fabric over. The glue is not SO tacky that it'll stick right away. Lay it nice and evenly over the column.

Next step is pulling the fabric tight and even and laying it down onto the glue. First wipe with the hand from the stapled edge outwards to smooth out any "bubbles" or wrinkles and to make sure it's flat and tightly streched and the roll the fabric hard onto the column with a rubber roller.


Now tip the column onto it's back again and spray the top parts and fabric with the spray-glue.


And repeat the pulling tight and rubbing and rolling and caressing....


Again, tip over and repeat, making sure to PULL tight everytime before rolling onto the wood to get sharp edges and nice, flat surfaces.


Flip the column over again so that the last glued part is on the bottom again


Trim off the extra fabric and again leave 2" to fold over and staple on the inside again as in the beginning - this time you have to pull very thight before stapeling.


Let me catch my breath for a while - phew!

Cut the corner flaps off and fold in, pull tight and staple.


Fold in all the edges, pull tight and staple, and staple, and staple, and staple some more.





And now, if you turn the column on its back, and it looks like Dracula's covered coffin, the you know you did it right!


Now boys and girls, the tricky parts begin:

To ensure I have a continuous piece of fabric going from the front of the column over the edge onwards onto flat part, the fabric must be cut just right so that there is enough fabric to cover the flat top part and also enough left to go around the upright parts, if you know what I mean. (I hope the pics will explain better)

Gotta run now, working day is over so I'll post the rest of the story later tonight.

I cut along the edge of the MDF with a sharp box-cutting knife (or whatever you call this kinda knife thing) from top to bottom and does the same on the other side.


The column is flipped over once more (is someone keeping score of the times this thing has been turned over)
I then laid a piece of MDF on the inside of the fabric, making a sharp 90 deg corner.


The next step involves pushing the strip of MDF on the inside down and out at the same time while cutting from the other side.


When finished it looks like this:


Repeat on the other side:


and you end up with someting looking like this after the the top flat part is measured and the fabric is cut accordingly on both sides:


Stand the column upright and spray the MDF as well as the fabric with glue. I use an old piece of corrugated cardboard to protect the rest of the fabric form getting sprayed.


After fabric and column is sprayed:


and now lay the fabric down, roll hard with the roller, put a steel ruler in the corners and cut the excess fabric to make a nice, clean corner with no visible seams.


Repeat on other side of the column as well.

The final step is to use sharp scissors to trim the side edges.


Ta-daaaaaa!!

Hi Jon_B,

Thank you. Like I've said before, I hope in the end that the picture before my eyes will match the picture in my head. I am thinking of just giving the old ceiling fan a good clean and maybe a coat of paint. (just kidding - that thing must be outta there soon. I do like the bright light it gives off now while I'm still building though, but that's the only reason that keeps it hanging there for now.)

RT, my friend, you are right, it's very exhausting doing this, so I'll just do one every now and then when I can gather enough courage. The worst part was me getting a terrible headache and a little high from inhaling all that glue fumes!

So far I really like the outcome of the columns.

I finished another part of the HT that I was actually looking forward to. The panels that houses the downlights is now covered with velvet and already changed the whole look of the soffits.

I went to the fabric store without my wife. Walked to the velvet section and started "feeling" the stuff. I wanted velvet with a little texture, but not as bold as crushed velvet - more subtle. The owner of the shop came to me and asked "What do you actually want to do with the material?" I should have told her "I'm a drag-queen and want something flashy for an evening gown" but decided against it. Rather than going through the whole shebang of trying to explain to her what a fabric panel is and what exactly I'm building is just told her "I want to cover something with this dark material and this will do just fine thank you, How much is it?"

"Yes," she said. "That's marked down to R100-00 per meter (about $12-50) and work very nice for an overcoat."

Yea, whatever, just cut the damn thing and get it over with, I thought, "Give me 3 meters thank you"

Eventually I got home and laid out the fabric on our dining room table like my mother used to do when I was still a little boy, and she was making clothes for people.

I laughed at myself thinking of that song: "Man, I feel like a woman!"



I laid the frames onto the fabric and cut all the pieces for the panels, leaving enough to fold over the edges to staple.



While I was busy cutting the fabric, my wife came home and asked me if I knew what I was doing. "Of course yes!" I told her, hoping that I don't screw it up.

After all the fabric was cut up, I took it all to the HT to do some seriuos stapling! I first laid down some plastic sheets on the riser to work on.


I tried my skill on the one little "mini-me".




Easy-peasy, not looking to cheesy! (I hope)

It was straight sailing with the next 8 panels 'till: "pheeeup, pheeeup" (soft farting sounds) came form the stapelgun and no more "Ka-du!!, ka-du!!" as before! I tried everything and eventually screwed the back open and took out the piston, plastic round thingy and everything - all seemed ok. By the way, this is a brand new gun, only fired the few staples (1900) in the 4 columns i've covered so far.

Put everything back and then the magazine won't close properly. After dismanteling the rest of the bloody thing I found the culprit


This little piece of staple got stuck somewhere in the works. I whacked the gun to the floor and it jumped out form wherever it was doing its evil job.
(the pencil is for reference - look at the little piece in front of it!)


Put everything back together and: Ka-du! ka-du!



Eventually all the panels were finished, the downlights installed and put into place inside the soffits. Once again, .....I'm happy