My "Out of Africa" theater is "FINISHED" - Page 6

Many thanks, BBDrums

Progress is SLOOOWWWW...... I've finished covering 5 columns now.

Hi RT,

Always nice to "talk" to you! I don't think there's another "manly hobby" that takes guys into fabric stores more (or ever) than HT builders.

I've just finished another column this afternoon. Slowly but surely we are getting there. I must get some speaker wire to lay to the columns and stuff the back of the columns with pink stuff before I can fix them to the walls. After that's done I can start on the skirtings and then the big panels between the columns - can't wait for that! Once they are done it will really start to look like something.

Have a great day.

Will

I've managed to cover two more columns in fabric as well as spray painting the bottom grilles of my fresh air inlet system satin black. I've installed the electrical socket in the one column (also painted black). Another big accomplishment for me is that I've cleaned out the foyer of the HT Hopefully something can now start to take shape there as well - we'll see.

Will post pics soon.

Will

Ha, ha, RT that's sooo funny, you made my day! It's been HECKTIC around here the last couple of weeks, but yes, that's no excuse! I've finished covering all the columns and laid the speaker wire. I'll try to put up pics ASAP.

Thanks for the interest, I thought you guys forgot about me here at the southern-most tip of Africa.

Will

You ask for it, you got it........pictures!!!!

http://youtu.be/GhD-oKJI69o

I've bought 100m of 12g speaker cable and built a reel contraption to prevent the wire from coiling. Drilled a hole in the ceiling above the equipment rack and pulled the wire to all the speaker locations in the columns and behind the screen wall.





The Pink Carpet is rolled out for the VIP - The Solitary HT Builder - Me!


This time round I got clever - brought a few pairs of latex exam gloves home.
This worked well for my hands, but the rest of my body were itching afterwards


I first cut the whole roll into smaller lengths (46cm) with scissors. The smooth garage floor worked great for the scissors to slide on. I don't want any itchy fibers and dirt to fly around in the relative clean HT now so that's why I moved the Aerolite preparation to the garage.


Here's a pic of the whole roll cut up into smaller batts.


This is how I easily and quickly cut up the batts into still smaller batts. Every big batt is cut up into 4 smaller ones. Doing it by hand with the scissors would have taken the whole day and a hand full of blisters, so I devised this setup: Two plywood boards forming a slit between them and the packing crate that housed the aircon grille on top of the pink stuff. I used a woodsaw to saw them qiuckly and neatly, taking less time than it took to cut the original roll into pieces.


And after a while:


I stuffed the pink shi.. STUFF into the colums to fill the hollow...hollo...holl..... echoing boxes. Hopefully this will make a difference to the overall sound of the room.






I stuffed all the columns' tops and bottoms. I used this brackets to fasten them to the walls onto the strips of MDF that I previously stuck to the walls. Worked great!


Here's the pics of all the columns covered, stuffed and fixed to the walls - hurray eventually this part is done.


And the front:


This one is with the flash off and LED downlights on.


Now that this is done the next step I think will be the skirting around the room and columns and then the fabric panels between the columns.

Hi guys, thanx for the kind words.

TheSly, yes, I'm thinking of using a remote system that'll dim and switch the different zones with a RF remote from my seat and also from switches on the wall as you enter the room. At this stage there is 2 different companies in SA that got simmilar stuff, so I have to decide between them -weigh up the pros and cons.

I've just ordered the ridgid fibreglass panels from a company in Johannesburg. Hopefully they'll come soon.

Will

RT, the downlights look very nice in person. They are a bit dimmer than the 50W halogens but I suppose its because of their low placement (
not in the ceiling) and all the black stuff in the room that sucks up all the light. Isn't that the main idea, to have nice accent lighting, but not too overpowering, and when the movie starts - TOTAL DARKNESS!!

Another thing I did was to put in the electric outlet into the PJ box. I chose this one that features both normal plug and two-prong plug.


I also painted the PJ box's inside black - looks much better now.


The underside of the procenium also got a fresh coat of matt black paint.

Awwh c'mon RT, you US of A'ers should appreciate our TEXAN size plugs

This is how most plugs in South Africa look like. These ones are used for about all appliances that draws alot of current or needs to be earthed (grounded).


These ones are used on smaller appliances, lamps, chargers (like in this pic) and stuff that does'nt need to be earthed.


Our stuff here works with 220V (Texan style again) and 50Hz not your puny 110V dry cell juice

This is why this forums are so great, you meet all kind of nice folks from around the world (ok, mostly the US) and it's very interesting to see the different ways we all do stuff and how wierd some things are.

Flyjpilot, thank you for dropping by in my thread. Welcome to the wonderfull, crazy and sometimes EXPENSIVE hobby of Home Theater!!

I hear you on the budget thing. Everything doesn't need to be the latest and greatest. You can build a very nice HT without spending millions. These forums are the best place to learn and see what's possible, and find alternatives to big bucks stuff - like the way I built my masking system, wayyyy cheaper than the commercial systems available.

Enjoy ever step of your build, and remember - start a thread and post LOTS of pics.

Will

(High)Time for an UPDATE

I can't believe it has been 13 days since my last post Sorry but with the swottings and a 5 y/o and a wife and a business to run HT building ran a little slow but it's on track again - here's proof

I got the skirtings and painted them ....... yes?......BLACK!



Here's one of the profile:


All painted and busy drying ... and I'm a little high from the fumes.

And a close-up:


The steps also got closed-up. I stuffed them with the Itchy stuff and sealed and screwed them tight.








The skirting needs to be away from the wall because the fabric panels will be 2" thick and rest on wood strips just behind the skirtings, so that it looks like a normal wall. To accomplish that I had to make a kind of backer-box thingy to keep the skirting from the wall and from the floor in order for the carpet to be tucked under it. This is how I made it:

First I glued and nailed two strips of 2" broad MDF toghether:




And then I glued and nailed on shorter strips like this:


And it ends up looking just so:


Here it is just put in place to see if it'll fit

And the skirting put against it:


"This is the way we stick the glue,.. stick the glue,.. stick the glue! Early in the morrrrnniiigggg!"


If you look again in the picture above, (in case you've missed it), I've used 2 floortiles as spacers under the skirting to leave the gap for the carpet - (as instructed by the guy that'll lay the carpet)

For the skirting at the stairs, I've stuck the skirting together first, and then made the backer-box to match.










The next step came because of my own stupidity. I thought I'll save time and effort by just letting the carpet butt against the skirting where it will go over and under the steps, but the ANAL-ist in me drove me to just do it propperly and cut out the gap for the carpet to go under it as well. So, after the whole skirting-backerbox contraption was stuck and nailed toghether, I had to wangle it under the big standing drill and use a hole-drill to cut a hole and the use a box-knife to cut away the rest to get it to look like this:


The staples is just to keep the seams together while the glue dries and will be taken out. Lot of liquid nails to keep it stuck forever hopefully.



And stuck to the wall:


And the other side as well:


The little piece at the stage by the door:


This is the opposite side to the door at the stage. I used a rubber mallet to lightly tap the skriting so that the glue will stick propperly to the wall.


All the skirtings will receive a final paint layer after the gaps are filled and edges smoothed.

Sorry for the out of focus pics, I must check each one after I take them, but as you'll know, that rarely happen in the heat of the moment!

Thats all for now. The rest of the pics are still on my camera. I'm gonna upload them now and will try to post more pics later - PROGRESS!!

Here's the beginning of the skirting that will go on the stage:




Pardon all the stuff lying around the place. It's starting to look like a rats nest again



I made the skirting in one long piece (4.2m) and put it on the stage.
I used hex-screws (I think that's what they are called) and screwed the whole thing tight to the stage.





Here are some pics of the skirting finished and painted around the room:









And on the stage:

I got the cornice (crown moulding) as well. After looking at alot of samples and asking the wife's input, we decided on this pattern:


I think it will look nice together with the square shape of the columns and the little blocks on the cornice.
I got 14m - hope it's enough.



The cornice all lined up , waiting to be blackend.


Those little squares sure do look nice, but boy, what a pain in the sphincter to paint. The paint collects in the little pockets and must me brushed out with the paintbrush. I managed to put one coat - lets call it the undercoat - on and let it dry. I'll do the rest of the 58 coats later when I'm in the mood for painting again.





I hope I can cover these things with 3 coats at the most. We'll see.....

First coat on and busy drying.

Thank you BIG! I actually feel that I'm making progress now. I just wish I could spend more time at home building my HT than being at work everyday

Thank you very much guys. Like Hannibal in the A-team said: "I love it when a plan comes together..."

Will

Some more progress! There is a saying in one of the local african languages that says: A little at a time makes a lot

I've made the spacers that will go above the fabric panels against the underside of the soffits. I'm gonna make a small panel with MDF and cover it with the same black material as the columns for the top, like a the skirting on the bottom, but just to keep the big fabric panels in place. To do that I took a strip of MDF the same width as the piece behind the skirting and just added extra blocks of wood to it to make a bigger place for the nails to go into and keep the strip in place. Sounds confusing right yeah, I think I confused myself as well. Better look at the pics - the 1000 words thingy ect...



Here they are all ready to be put up:


And here one is put up in its place:


And from afar...


Just when I thought the end was in sight ....... Oh noooo ...... another BIG woodpile:



Here's a shot of me standing next to it for scale!!



It's the MDF strips for the fabric panels.