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I'm so old that my childhood home phone had a rotary dial. And our phone number was listed with letters and numbers. Ours was West 8 2560. You only dialed the first two letters, If you wanted to call another city you had to use an operator because area codes didn't exist. My grandmother lived in rural Illinois, I can remember my parents saying we can't call her after 10pm because you would have to wake the local operator who slept in the house with the switchboard. So it had to really be an emergency and of course you know she was listening.
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
Here's a another element of the theater that's different from what I've seen on the forum.


5 years ago after I had hired a contractor to build the basic theater, including columns, riser, soffit, etc., I then had to figure out how to hang my SMX acoustically-transparent screen.


Since I had few woodworking tools (or skills -- I'm an EE/computer science grad), and I didn't trust a screenwall constructed of 2x4s to stay straight over time, I decided to order and construct a screen wall built of T-slot aluminum extrusions ( http://www.automation4less.com/tslots1.htm ).


I figured out exactly which pieces were needed (in which lengths), and ordered them to size. After they arrived it was like building with a giant erector set, bolting everything together. The resulting frame is complete overkill from a structural perspective, but it worked very nicely -- the Z-clip that came with my SMX screen bolted perfectly into slots of one of the upper cross-beams, making it easy to hang and remove the screen. (Pardon the curves in the photos caused by the wide-angle lens; the aluminum beams are perfectly straight






The fact that the frame was bolted together came in handy when the amplifier of my Velodyne DD-18 subwoofer died and I was forced to remove the sub from the corner for repair. While a bit of work, I was able to unbolt parts of the frame to get the sub out and then put it back in. I obviously wouldn't have been able to do that if I had created the frame out of wooden 2x4s.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGmouthinDC /forum/post/22097457


I'm so old that my childhood home phone had a rotary dial. And our phone number was listed with letters and numbers. Ours was West 8 2560. You only dialed the first two letters, If you wanted to call another city you had to use an operator because area codes didn't exist. My grandmother lived in rural Illinois, I can remember my parents saying we can't call her after 10pm because you would have to wake the local operator who slept in the house with the switchboard. So it had to really be an emergency and of course you know she was listening.

I think we had a rotary phone until the early 80's, at which time we upgraded to a cordless. I shared the phone with my 3 siblings and found it extremely fun to listen in on their calls on one of the AM stations. My hometown was small enough where you only had to dial the last 4 digits of your friends number (no 3-digit prefix required).
 
Nice work on the false wall. Do you recall approximately much it cost for all the parts? I'm assuming it's rattle-proof as long as everything is bolted together tightly. How are your fabric frames attached (friction fit?)
 
Ah, interesting - so your false wall IS your screen frame (vs. having a screen frame that attaches to the false wall, like most have). I would have loved to make a frame out of the T slot material, but when I priced the parts out at 80/20, it worked out to about the same cost as a premade frame from Jamestown ($350). Granted the T-slot would have been more heavy duty for sure, but instant gratification won out.
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGmouthinDC /forum/post/22099310


UberA: you took the screen down AGAIN?

Sure, to stuff more rigid fiberglass into the front corners for more bass trapping in preparation for re-calibration with Anthem Room Correction (ARC) -- using the microphone and test tones. I hadn't re-run ARC since we totally changed the acoustics of the room.


BTW, ARC now shows the front speakers as flat +/- 3db between about 120 - 10,000 Hz *prior* to any equalization being applied -- so I'm really happy with the way the room now sounds.
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spaceman /forum/post/22099141


Nice work on the false wall. Do you recall approximately much it cost for all the parts? I'm assuming it's rattle-proof as long as everything is bolted together tightly. How are your fabric frames attached (friction fit?)

I don't recall exactly, but the T-slot parts probably cost $400 or so 5 years ago. The frame is solid and very rattle-proof, and the Fidelio fabric-stretched-over-wood frames above and below the SMX screen are friction-fit (thanks to BIG's superior measurement and carpentry skills :)
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Elill  /t/1413336/swizzle-stick-theater#post_22100541


Very nice job, clean lines - looks great!



Love the ceiling, haven't seen "Milano Blue" used in ages, I thought it'd been stopped for some reason - how does it look with the projector on?

Well, the blue ceiling was painted 5 years ago, so I guess that was "ages" ago.


With the projector on and all lights (including rope lights) turned off, the ceiling not surprisingly looks like a darker blue. But now with the relatively dark fabric up on the walls, the soffits wrapped in black GOM fabric, and the entire front wrapped in Fidelio black velvet, it's possible to watch many movies/videos/programs with the soffit rope lighting on -- without washing out the blacks on the screen very much. This is useful if viewers/guests want to actually be sociable and see each other. It's also possible to dim the rope lights.
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
One of the remaining items to complete the theater has been to install a new door "knob" for the much thicker door. The original 1.5" thick door has been augmented by a 1" thick framed fabric panel on the theater side of the door. When the door is closed, this permits the "Swizzle Stick" GOM fabric pattern from the wall to also extend across the door, making the closed door "disappear."


Since all the other doors in the house uses stainless steel levers instead of knobs (IMHO, levers are much more practical), it made sense to have a matching lever on the door to the home theater.


I ordered a "thick door" kit to try and extend the Schlage Elan lever originally installed in the door, but it didn't work -- the Schlage kit only extends a maximum of 2 1/4 inches, while my door w/fabric panel is now 2 1/2 inches thick.


So I was forced to order an entirely new lever set from Emtek -- a Poseidon model lever, built specifically for a 2 1/2 inch door.


After it arrived I discovered a problem. Emtek assumed the latch bolt assembly would be installed equidistant from each side of the thick door. However for my home theater door, the latch bolt needed to be installed off-set to the outside of the door, away from the 1" thick fabric-covered panel and centered in the original latch bolt hole. The internal shaft/spindle attached to one of the handles was too long.


Fortunately it was possible to hack-saw a 1/2" length off of one of the spindles to make the the new lever set fit:





Now the only remaining issue is that the privacy feature -- which makes it possible to lock the door to keep people out of the theater -- doesn't work since the threaded locking pin provided with the lever set is at least 1/2" too short. It needs to be longer to extend through the framed fabric panel side of the door. However, I think I can create my own solution (after a next trip to the hardware store) by cutting a long 6-32 bolt to size. This became an issue only because the latch bolt assembly is off-set rather than centered in the 2 1/2 inch wide door.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by uberanalyst  /t/1413336/swizzle-stick-theater/30#post_22125103


...........

Now the only remaining issue is that the privacy feature -- which makes it possible to lock the door to keep people out of the theater.................

I think this is the first time I've seen someone concerned about keeping people OUT of the theater. Everyone else is trying to get people INTO the theater
 
UberA,


First of all very nice work. Your HT looks great! I enjoyed reading this thread and seeing the photos. Second I wish Big lived with in four mile of me. My theater would have been that much better off had I been as fortunate as you!
I like the light pattern of the sconces. It really draws my eyes towards it. Also the room has a nice clean look to it...

I see we have similar taste in equipment, mine being D2V, Oppo 83, and I have 4 B&K amps in which I am now only using two of them to power the speakers through out the home the other two are in the closet collecting dust for now....


Cheers,


Jim
 
Some more of the construction details:

DOOR


As UberA has mentioned We decided to cover the inside of the door with the wall fabric.


So we built a frame:




Filled it in with Insulshield




Wrapped it in the fabric stapling on the back. Then mounted it to the door with 23 ga finish nails and some construction adhesive



BASEBOARDS


UberA wanted a minimalist contemporary feel so we found some 1/4 x 2 1/2 inch pine strips and simply painted and mounted on top of the bottom furring strip which we had secured with the top edge 2 1/2 inches from the floor.


Then there was those darn stairs which already had the carpet installed so I couldn't hide any slop behind the carpet edge. I made a cardboard template by directly transferring the dimensions to the cardboard. Then used that to cut out a piece of 1/4 inch thick MDF to fit. Luckily the template worked on both sides of the room.



 
Discussion starter · #36 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGmouthinDC  /t/1413336/swizzle-stick-theater/30#post_22131613


Some more of the construction details:
DOOR

As UberA has mentioned We decided to cover the inside of the door with the wall fabric.

So we built a frame:

After BIG built this frame, I told him I always wanted to have the first home theater with a screen door.
 
Uber -


Finally catching up with this thread. GREAT looking theater! Glad you're finally getting to finish it.
Quote:
the house uses stainless steel levers instead of knobs (IMHO, levers are much more practical)

Unless you have a dog that can figure out how to pull the lever down!
Quote:
I'm so old that my childhood home phone had a rotary dial. And our phone number was listed with letters and numbers. Ours was West 8 2560.

We not only had a rotary phone, we had a party line! And our number was Sterling 3 6937. My Mother was 6 months pregnant with me when they moved in to this brand new development in the mid 50s. They had to beg to get phone service. The guy across the street was a salesman and needed the phone for work, so they were the other party on the line. I must have been 6 or 7 when we finally got a private line because I clearly remember the party line.
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
Yeah, I'm old enough that our phone number growing up was UNiversity 4 6028, and yes, it was also a party line so my parents could save money.


Years ago when I came home on break from college and secretly hooked up an "illegal" extension to the line (remember, the phone company used to charge extra each month for each extension) it apparently screwed up operation of the party line so that long distance calls accidentally got charged to the other party.



Of course we wouldn't admit that we had an extension when the phone company called us on it, so they parked one of their trucks out front of the house as a form of intimidation.
My parents relented and ripped out the extension right after I went back to college.
 
I can top that -- I am so old that our phone number when I was a kid was 325. When you picked up the phone, the operator said "Number, please" This was in Visalia, CA, about 10,000 people at that time.

Later (about 1950) we got rotary dial phones, and the number was 44485. Then that became REdwood 4-4485.
 
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