[ckolchak]

ironing? steaming? soaking?


TIA

 

[darth maul]

When we got our blackout material, we picked out a brand new roll, and my wife said, "we are making a movie screen out of this, SO please no folds!". Besides the slightly odd look, they said "ok, sounds like a cool idea". And rolled our few yards up on a empty tube. When we got it home, we noticed a few wrinkles. We hoped they would go away, and they did once the tension was applied by stapling and pulling the fabric tight. Our fabric was a 55" wide bolt, I would imagine after pulling, its closer to 56"-57".


If its real bad wrinkles, I suppose you could try hanging it up in a humid eviroment for a week, or try low heat ironing. With a iron, I would worry about the vinyl side melting, and since its so thick, I not sure how long you would be there ironing. But you may be suprised how much of a stretch you will get out of it, and how easy those wrinkles disapear under tension, we were!

 

[adnix]

I had to travel with my blackout material (moving) and had it folded into a small square... When I unpacked and stretched it out, it was wrinkled to the point where I thought it would be unuseable, even after I had stretched it out over the wall...


I had nothing to lose, so I grabbed an iron and started ironing the wall. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif It worked! It's a bit slow going and I had to go over parts quite a few times, but almost all the wrinkles and folds were eliminated completely. I used a fairly high setting on the iron, but didn't stay in any place long enough for stuff to melt.


Good luck!

 

[kenh]

take the blackout fabric but it in the dryer on delicate cycle with a large damp towell for about 10 to 15 min. don't let it get to hot and the wrinkles should be almost gone then stretch it over your frame, it worked for me.

 

[Randy D]

Darren Rogers (luvmytivo) offered this tip in another thread:


...."If it's mounted, try Downy wrinkle remover"


Randy D

 

[ckolchak]

some good suggestions..thanks.

i tried ironing out a small section and it was a bad idea. the fabric kind of distorted under the heat. good thing it didn't cost alot. i'll try the downy once its up. if this mates well enough with the LT150, i may just buy some more, and have them roll it up this time.

looks like i'll need to build a more extensive frame system to acommodate the curtains and mattes also. this is going to take a bit more planning than i expected.

 

[Jeff J]

Has anyone noticed any impact on the noticability of pixels after applying tension to the blackout material?


I seem to be able to notice the pixel structure a little more on the blackout material now that it is on the frame compared to when I had the fabric hanging free on the wall. I was totally successful in removing all wrinkles, but like darth said, the material has the ability to really stretch a lot…. Could I have too much tension on the material?


jeff

 

[darth maul]

Jeff which side of the material are you using?


I am using the vinyl side and a 832x624 LCD projector, and I would guess seeing the pixels more easily is a good thing. "WHAT!" you say? "Darth, you on something?" No, its just that, I don't think the screen should contribute to any lack of focus. Or in other words, the screen should give you as sharp an image as you can give it. Maybe I miss understood what you where saying "by seeing the pixels more easily", but thats how I see it.

 

[JP]

Don't worry about wrinkles AT ALL. I have made two diy screens. One where I was very careful with b/o material and had it in a tube. No creases at all. The other was folded into 1'x1' square. I left it for about two days completed wrinkled and crumpled up. As soon as I applied the tension it turned out perfect. Not a wrinkle in sight and it looks identical to the other screen.