A couple of months ago, I built my own screen frame from ideas on this forum. The screen frame is 120" 4:3 and weighs about 15 lbs. All the parts for it came from
http://www.outwater.com/aluminumframing.htm
I used the economy AT-1 aluminum along with the plastic connectors. The square aluminum tubes come in various sizes. A hacksaw, rubber hammer, metal shears and some small sheetmetal screws were all that was needed to assemble the frame. My frame consists of 4 smaller frames (each 60" diagonal) connected together. I had to add some cross bracing inside each frame for rigidity since the plasic connectors only go in about 1.5-2 inches into each tube. The shears, hacksaw, and screws were used to cut and attach the cross bracing.
Once the frame was finished I mounted a 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick strip of wood to the front of the frame using some small sheet metal screws. My screen ( a Home Depot drop cloth) was stapled to this wooden strip.
The total cost was about $75 for all materials and about 3 hours of labor to assemble everything and attach the screen. The aluminum framing system works very well and can be used to make a fixed lightweight screen of any size. It can easily be taken apart and modified to make a screen bigger or smaller.
I'll take some pictures and try to post them in the next few days.
-- John
http://www.outwater.com/aluminumframing.htm
I used the economy AT-1 aluminum along with the plastic connectors. The square aluminum tubes come in various sizes. A hacksaw, rubber hammer, metal shears and some small sheetmetal screws were all that was needed to assemble the frame. My frame consists of 4 smaller frames (each 60" diagonal) connected together. I had to add some cross bracing inside each frame for rigidity since the plasic connectors only go in about 1.5-2 inches into each tube. The shears, hacksaw, and screws were used to cut and attach the cross bracing.
Once the frame was finished I mounted a 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick strip of wood to the front of the frame using some small sheet metal screws. My screen ( a Home Depot drop cloth) was stapled to this wooden strip.
The total cost was about $75 for all materials and about 3 hours of labor to assemble everything and attach the screen. The aluminum framing system works very well and can be used to make a fixed lightweight screen of any size. It can easily be taken apart and modified to make a screen bigger or smaller.
I'll take some pictures and try to post them in the next few days.
-- John