[aschnare]

Hello,


I'm looking at getting a projector soon, and the only place I can have the screen is in front of a television mounted above a fireplace. Which is unfortunate, but what can you do. So I figured, I'd get a manual pull down screen, mount it to the ceiling a few inches in front of the tv/fireplace and all would be well. But I've read that those screens are wavy and sag over time. That's not something I'm looking forward to. And of course, tab tensioned screens are expensive, and I'm quite cheap.


So I figured I could build my own, as I would if I had a clear, solid wall to project against, only, I'd hang this screen a few inches in front of the tv/fireplace and put it away when not in use. But I'm wondering if anyone has a good way to do this making sure of course, that the screen doesn't sway, and more importantly, hangs vertically.


I thought about building brackets on the ceiling and suspending the screen from those, but then there are two ugly brackets hanging there when the screen is put away. My ceiling is quite low too, roughly 7' so they would definitely be noticable. I had an idea of brackets on the wall next to the tv, that could swing up and be fixed in a position perpendicular to the wall that I could attach to the back of the screen when it was in use, and swing back down when away..


I'm just looking to see if anyone else has any ideas before I decide on something.


Thanks.

 

[gjgbarclay]


I'm going for the same fixed screen hanging from ceiling shortly, beginning of next month.

 

My plan is to hang it from 2 or 3 hooks in the ceiling. Swaying won;t be an issue as I've been doing this with just blackout cloth and a piece of stripwood top and bottom and swaying is minimal. It'll be less of an issue with the additional weight (hopefully. When I'm not using I'm planning on swinging it up parallel to the roof and hook it at the 'bottom side'.

 

This is all speculative until I pull it off.

 

[aschnare]

Sounds like we're doing the same thing. I just thought that with hooks it might not hang perfectly straight.


I was thinking about a couple hinges that are lockable at 90 degrees. But I'm sure hooks would be fine. I'll probably go with hooks and if I don't like it, source some hinges later on down the road.

 

[Polypusher]

In the same boat myself.

I can only mount a screen in the bay window space in my living room, so obviously have to go the pull down route.

I have been thinking about ways to flatten out the viewing area of the screen and thought that I could make a small wooden frame and attach it to the viewing area by some strong Velcro.

I could then slightly stretch the screen ridding it of any curls/ripple and chuck it behind/under my sofa when not in use.

Just an idea as I haven't actually started my HT build yet, just after ways of flattening out a pull down screen.

Cheers