[BroncoSport]

Well, since I took a 6-7 year break from the theater build, I thought I would start up a new thread since the original thread has long since been moved to the archives.


HISTORY: My Theater is approximately 12' 3" wide and 21' long, with a small room behind the theater for the A/V rack, closet and movie storage. I have 9' ceilings in my basement so I was lucky to have extra height. There are two permanent soffits on the long walls. The left on has the HVAC for the house and the wiring for the theater. The right one has 2 - 6" flex ducts that will be connected to an inline hydroponics fan for fresh air into the theater and for rack cooling.


The room is completely decoupled from the framing of the house with clips. Walls are a combination of stagger stud and wall inside of another wall. Can lights have boxes and all penetrations are wire only with the boxes cut down to 1" and mounted on top of the drywall. I used acoustic "tape" on the stud surfaces and double 1/2" drywall on every wall and the ceiling (clips and track on ceiling).


Wired for 7.1, sand filled stage, 14 1/2" riser planning for 2 rows of 3. I designed and built the columns to make use of a narrow encroachment into the width of the room and tapering out enough to hold my M & K SS-150THXs. I thought about not cutting the panels out in the front for columns since they won’t have speakers, but after I thought about it I thought it would look stupid not to match the columns.


The screen will be a Seymour AT DIY. 122" wide 2.37:1. If my IS300 gets here and gets installed I will get the screen built!


Anyway, just a little background and I guess a little showing off since my Mom volunteered to help upholster the wall panels over the last 2 days! I almost went through 10,000 staples and I haven't started the front wall frames. The lower is Chocolate GOM 702 and the upper portion is a fancy upholstery fabric I bought on eBay 8 years ago!

 

[BroncoSport]

I might add that the "wall" in the rear of the riser will have a flip up bar for eating. I didn't have the room for a permanent bar so I am engineering a flip up one to save space.

 

[flyjpilot]

Great use of a small space. I like the wall coverings. Your columns are really cool, I like the way you made them narrow on the bottom, but wider on top to accommodate the speakers. Well done.

 

[BroncoSport]

Thanks. Hopefully I will never have a need for different surrounds! The space was designed specifically for those speakers.


My Johns Manfield IS300 is "supposed" to be delivered today. I have had a heck of a time finding and getting rigid fiberglasss. Owens Corning couldn't be sourced around here and I finally found a Johns Mainfield distributor but they have given me the 4 week run around. Wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't for the fact that the Johns Manfield plant is only an hour from the distributor! I even offered to drive to the plant and pick it up myself. On a positive note, Joanne's had quilt batting on sale for 40% a week ago so I saved a little.


Looking over my crappy cell phone photos, I was reminded of the fun of the 27 bags of play sand from Wal-Mart. Sealed in plastic and WET! It took two full days with a heater and fan to dry it out, before filling in the stage. There is just something strange about having to go down into the basement every few hours and raking sand across the floor!

 

[dRwOOD73]

Looks great so far.. I love the flip-up bar idea, that is a fantastic use of limited space. Subcribed


Question.. in one of the pics of the stage it looks like you only lined one cavity with plastic for the sand.. or were the other cavities plastic already trimmed down??

 

[BroncoSport]

Yes, my ADD made be trim the plastic down as I went (or was it the voice in my head?)!

The biggest slow down on my flip up bar is engineering the vision in my head. When complete and when the "bar" is in the down position, I want it flush with the rear of the riser/bar wall. I also had a time finding just the right hind of hinge/support. I ended up with 2 RV folding shelf brackets. The will work very well and have a sprind loaded lock.

 

[tbraden32]

Great use of space. Like the color choices too!

 

[BroncoSport]

Thanks. The tapestry fabric that I bought on eBay several years ago had my nerves going while installing. I bought all of this patteren that the seller had and hoped I had enough. Well as time went by I had forgot that some of the remnants had inking flaws in them. As we rolled it out I really thought I might have to "touch up" the pannels with a marker! But I was lucky to have more than enough fabric that didn't have any problems. Now I have to make frames to outline around the door jams and upholster them. Looking forward to being done with the matching a pattern aspect of the fabric!


I was pleased to not have any flaws in the Chocolate GOM. When I saw what Mario found, I was a bit concerned that I would be unrolling my GOM and seeing those plastic tags.


I also FINALLY got my Johns Manfield IS300, today. So I should be working on wall treatments this week, but we will see.

 

[BroncoSport]

I don't know why this excites me, but I needed more wood to make into frames for the screen wall and the rear sofit face so I went to the local lumber yard and could believe what I found. The 2x4x10s were almost knot free and very very straight! Before I had to search through 100 darn boards to get a dozen "decent" ones.


I made all of the wall frames (and will do the same for the rest) by ripping 2x4s to about 1 1/8" strips and running them through the planner to make them 1". That gave me 1 1/2" wide x 1" thick stock and it worked very well with the Kreg pocket jig. The cool thing about making the frames this way was that each 2x4 yields 3 strips!

 

[BroncoSport]

Thanks.


I started slicing up the IS300 today. For the screen wall I am using spray adhesive , but realized that I am going to need more because I am having to spray the wall and the 2x4 panels. Seems to work well doing that though. I also will have to look at Wal-Mart tomorrow for some cheap black cloth to cover up the new wall of YELLOW!


On a positive note, I have cut and installed all the IS300 into the panels below the chair rail. YEAH!!! The top panels will probably take longer due to the poly batting . I could only find 1/2" thick batting so I am going to double it up. I guess the easiest way is going to be to staple the batting to the wall and fit the panels over it.

 

[BroncoSport]

IS 300 cut and installed!! Batting as installed as well.

I learned a few things that I probably should have read on other peoples threads. 1st, the IS300 is able to be glued onto the screen wall with spray adhesive IF you spray both sides. 2nd, the IS300 was a dream to cut and fit into the frames. The 1/2 poly batting was a pain in the ____! I even used a rotary cutter and it was just a pain. I was going to tack it onto the wall but instead I found that a very light coating of spray on the back side of the fabric will hold the poly batting in place.


Note to self, cutting the holes for the sconces AFTER its doubled up and glued into the frames, with scissors.....is another pain!


I needed to make the front wall black again ater installing the yellow IS300 and ound a relative cheap way. I bought a $15 king sized lat bed sheet! it is held in place with 1" narrow crown staples . The sheet didn't want to stick with the spray glue so I broke out the stapler! Straight in the staples aren't all that sturdy to hold the sheet, but angled worked well.


And or the irst time in 8 years, my M&K S150's were brought out off the closet and installed in the theater!!! I even had to quickly hook up the receiver and crank up some Van Halen to celebrate.

PIctures soon.....

 

[Venomnusss]

Really love the work you are doing. Very classy looking theater. Now that my theater has been done for four years, I have to admit..... I miss the building process. I look forward to seeing more photos. Good Work!

 

[BroncoSport]

Some progress photos. Mostly better shots of the completed wall panels, but also to show the installed sconces and the front wall with the covered IS300 and speakers in place and HOOKED UP!! I still have to install a small riser board under the center M&K s150 since I bought an angled one thinking it was going to be above a non AT screen. But since all that has changed, I am going to add a 1" board underneath the front of the center to make the face plumb.

 

[Spaceman]



Quote:
Originally Posted by BroncoSport  /t/1417359/procrastination-theater#post_22225263

Your colors work well together.

 

[BroncoSport]

Spent some time last night wiring things up and lacing cables up in the rack. I almost had a complete melt down when I thought (through testing) that my rear surrounds were either dead or that someone (me) screwed through the speakers wires somewhere and killed them. I literally worked on sorting it out for 2 hours before realizing that the two speaker wires I WAS testing was really the set of unused speaker wires going to the middle columns on the side walls!

Either way, it was very stressfull and I sure am glad I didn't have the wires maked correctly. I had already started trying to figure out how to get new wires run!


For the rack lacing activities, I am routing all power cabling to the right side and everything else to the left. I sure dont like the "extra" lengths of the power cords but bundling them up with velcro ties and having the extra hang on the outside of the rack, seems to keep things clean looking.


Mike from AVS Sales caused me to buy the projector way early. I just couldn't pass up the deal on a b-stock JVC RS45. Should have that Monday.


PROGRESS!!!!


Now to stain and seal baseboard and doors, before installation.

 

[BroncoSport]

Just a note:


I don't think that the theater newbie understands the amount of work involved in wiring up a rack full of gear, tracing (and ohming out in some cases) badly or mis-marked lines and lacing up everything to be neat ond orderly. I have spent two evenings now and am still not done. Going to be nice when done, but I would like to shoot the idot (see me) that didn't mark speaker wires correctly or mark the massive amount of RG6 and Cat5e coming into the rack!

 

[BroncoSport]

I posted this same question in the SVS owners thread but not much help there.


For those of you that have a sub or multiple subs placed behind the screen wall, are you concerned with leaving the power on all the time? Currently the SVS PC13 Ultra is switched on and off for movie watching (upstairs living room), but touching the power button is going to be problematic after the frames and screen are up. I didn't run the AC from the sub locations to the rack, but instead they are on their own breaker.....in the other side of the basement. I could shut off power there...I guess... but didn't know how nessasary it is to shut off the sub inbetween uses.

 

[BroncoSport]

Today was a monumental day. The SVS PC13 Ultra got moved into the basement theater! I spent about an hour trying to troubleshoot why I had NO bass. As it turns out, I was too stupid to turn the power on at the sub! Doh!


I played with it for a while and after adjusting the phase of the sub, it was rumbling hard. I put in a Linkin Park CD and turned it up to "concert level" using 7 channel stereo and went upstairs and into the opposite end of my house (bedroom). I couldn't hear the music at all and could barely hear the sub. Now while that should be all that surprising for most dedicated theaters... I STILL DON'T HAVE A DOOR ON THE THEATER!! I guess all that decoupling, green glue, light can boxes, double drywall..ect...really does work. I have the utmost confidence that when the door is installed it will be almost dead quiet outside the theater. Yippee!


I also ordered the mount for the RS45 today and will (hopefully) have the screen built and installed within the week.

 

[Holiday121]

Question about your front stage:


See how you have the curve in the front... I am no handy man and never really messed with wood so me and my dad are going to try to build something like that..... How did u get the measurements for the 2x4 coming off to make that curve. It looks like it goes a short 2 inch then a 3 inch then a 4 inch then back to a 3 inch then to a 2 inch.... And what kind of board did you use so you can bend it like that? Sorry not a handy man at all and im doing my basement and want to try to do it all myself to have that feeling of greatness when I walk down there and know I did it.


Do you plan on carpet or something else?

 

[BroncoSport]

The curved portion of the stage is a 2x4 (10' to start with, I think). I took a sliding miter saw, set a depth stop and made relief cuts about every 1/2" along the back side of the board. Seems like I had the depth set at 1 1/4". That left 1/4 of solid wood left on the face of the stage. Next I measured out how far away from the walls I wanted the curved portion to stop and screwed down a wood clamp on each side as a stop. Now I don't have a magic formula as to how long the cut 2x4 needed to be cut so with a circular saw next to me, I nibbled off a little at a time (of the length) until the board could be bent and rest in between the two wood clamp stops. Another concideration was how far out the center of the curved portion protruded into the room. Once I established that distance the trimming of the bent board was done to hit the center cross brace (and the wood clamp stops). Once I was at that point, I "scribed" the ends to the existing stage framing adn cut the ends of the bent board to those angles so they would mate flat against the existing framing of the stage. A couple screws in the ends and the middle bracing and all that was left was to measure a couple more braces and install them evenly so the curve was even.


The part of the stage in front of the screen wall and the rest of the floor wil be carpeted.


Hope that makes sense.


Add 27, 50 pound bags of play sand in plastic liners and capped off with 2 layers of 3/4" OSB with Green Glue in between (oh and a ton of screws!)