CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Mr. Green · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:20 am Post subject: Screen materials on E-bay

I did find this and for $40 including shipping to Canada that doesn't sound bad. The only complaints he's had is that he folds the material to ship it not roll it, so you have to iron the creases out of it. Confused

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110171791659&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching

Does that sound like the right kind of screen? It should give me a 106" screen as I won't be losing length to wrapping it around a frame. I will be rolling it up as I can't use a fixed screen.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 1:36 am Post subject:

Ha you are a step ahead of me it seams ( pun<--- just iron it out )

Mr. Green · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:27 am Post subject:

Yeah, it'd be nice to to the Wilsonart Designer white, but I need a roll up screen. I grabbed a sample of it and yeah, it looks like it would work quite nicely.

My projector will be in my family room and the screen will block a window (don't worry, I can black it out easily), but that does make me need a roll up type.

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:08 am Post subject:

Most of the ebay sellers selling "screen material" that cheaply are simply reselling blackout cloth. You can pick it up at a fabric/sewing store for around half the price on that auction item. It will also come off a roll and will have no creases.

I'm not certain what the seller is selling in this particular case, but until you buy it, there's no way to know. I'd put money on that he's reselling blackout cloth. The "3-layer" and "1.1-1.3" gain and size limitation are dead giveaways in my opinion.

SC

Mr. Green · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:13 pm Post subject:

DRAT! That's what I was worried about. I was hoping it was the "real deal", but usually cheap stuff on e-bay is just cheap stuff.

It is nice to know for a few bucks I can buy it locally. I think I'll try getting some local blackout cloth to tide me over until I can buy a real pull down screen. Smile

Thanks for the replies.

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

I went with the BOC too and built a frame. Although there aren't any creases because it came off a roll, there are some weird hard to see wrinkles. They can be seen without lighting it up with an image, but not while lit. I used a handheld steamer to get rid of them....finally. At first I thought it was my stretching job but it's taut all over. I picked up a fabric stretching tool and there's a staple every inch all the way around so I'm confident it wasn't the build process.

I've YET to take it back down and paint it with a mix of UPW and pearlescent paint. Embarassed

When I'm down there in the HT all I want to do is watch a movie or play a game so it truly is like crack once that image is being thrown up there. Laughing

Note:The pearlescent paint isn't required. Thank you Kal for that information a while back. Pearlescent is also pretty damn expensive but I wanted to play around with different ratios of UPW to pearlescent. I have quite a bit of BOC left over and built a couple frames or mini screens to use to get it the ratio where I think it's best before I apply it to the biggun'.

Also, if you use the cloth stretcher (I got mine at Hobby Lobby) don't go crazy pulling. You can actually "shred" the top white layer and reveal the grayish substrate material it's bonded to. Not a big deal if you plan on painting.

Greg