[DIY] Silver screen!

[sharky]

Hi guys!


Silverscreens are really expansive!

this solution could be good for those of you who would like to project the image on the wall and don't plan to change position.

i made some tests with two polarized filters and a superbright white 5W prolight ledlamp. one filter was in front of the led, the other one on my eye.
I found out that sanded metals do not depolarize the light IF they are FINE sanded. The best material was sanded aluminium. with thatone the light vanished to 99 %.. that means nearly no ghosting. or at least that less that you won't even notice it.

so if you like to build your own silversceen just buy a 2 x 3 meter alloy plate (or some smalle and put them toghether) and screw it on the wall! aluminium is pretty expensive. a plate like that, 2 mm thick, already sanded, will cost around 50 euro (65 $) so to be shure that it works also for you with your filters and sour setup buy a little peace of 5x5 cm for testing! if it works you speared 4935 $ (price of a good quality screen of the same size minus the cost of the alloy plate) for me the sanded aluminium worked PERFECTLY. and i am going to build this one when i am at home at christmas time!

just in case you build it, let me know..


bye

sharky

[Jahun]

Ok you got me interested.. My pc case is finely sanded aluminium and I put it in front of my projector. Since I had all sorts of samples lying about anyway, i compared it to Stewart, Silverfabric and Harkness Hall :p wewt

Ok it is late here so nothing super elaborate, main point: it was very hard to see the difference. Polarization wise, in low angles, it was just as the other top screens! Normal viewing was a bit brighter and there was no structure visible (as is the case with the silverfabric for instance), it was nice and smooth and colorfull, like the Stewart.

Also, it wasn't highly reflective and it has a pretty good viewing angle (sort of like the Silverfabric)..

There is just one downside I could spot, in this quick and dirty test. It does lose polarization quickly if looking at it from an angle. Way faster than the other screens. It may not be an issue (and if it can be had for 50 euro who cares anyway!) if the screen is not too big, or you sit a bit further away.

All in all, Sharky, I am extremely interested to hear how a full size screen works out! (and I can't find anyone else who tried it on the net, can you? zillions of people, paint, spray and take odd materials.. but no one did this one???)

Good idea!

[sharky]

Thank you yahon!

i can test it fullscale but not now.. i mean maybe in six months.

i do not have a projector right now..

but with the led it worked from any angle.. not only from the front!that may be caused by the sanding. it depends wrom the sanding directions! if they sand it from many angles the surface is irregular and gives out a polarized image in many directions. if it is sanded only from top the surface is creaner, and better (userd for you computer they probably needed a clean surface, not a non depolarizing one... )

about the cans: they work as well.. but not all.. the best ones are "aluminium real".. they have aluminium particles inside and no color. just particles and glue. but they are VERY expensive... maybe twice as the normal ones. i have one at work... i am going to paint a little peace of paper and test it just to be shure...

now.. about the cost of aluminium:
it is one of the most expensive metals of daily use. it is sold by wheight and if it is sanded it can cost up to 50% more.

so a plate 3 m x 2 m 2 mm thick sanded can cost:

V = 30*20*0,02=12 dm?
Weight= V x specific weigth = 12 x 2,72 = 32.64 Kg

aluminium costs approx 4 times steel. here in italy steel costs 1 euro/kg

so for aluminium the costi will be 32 x 4 =around 135 euro.

sanded around 200 euro (240 $)

ok my guess about the price was wrong.. but these are the prices in italy which is a very expansive place. and 240 $ is STILL less then 5000 $

and if it is too expansive you can use sanded inox wich will cost around a third. (around 80 $) but loose 4-5% polarization.

let me know.. bye

[sharky]

so here i am.

i have talked to a friend of mine yesterday wich works a lot with metal and he said that inox actually costs much more then i thought because in the alst year the request of inox grow and so the price double. and inox wheights more so the same size of pannel would at the end cost much more than aluminium. but there are 2 solutions now.. one is great, the other is still not tested but could be the best:

1) buy a 1mm aluminium plate instead of 2 mm and screw it onto the wall paying attention not to damage it. 1 mm is REALLY thin especially for aluminium wich you can bend with two fingers.so you have to pay MUCH attention with it. so back to numbers: 1 mm aluminium foil of the same size will cost around 120$ instead of 240$


2) and now the good one: have you ever taken you bread to school? in that ALUMINIUM FOIL? one side is polished and one side is opaque.



this one should work fine. if you can test it i can create the tutorial on how to put it on the surface perfectly without bubbles...

bye

[Jahun]

Ok now here I disagree. Aluminium foil sucks if used as silverscreen. it is highly reflective, has supersmall viewing angles, wrinkles when even just looking at it, doesn't come in big sizes etc etc.


All in all, I would never reside to DIY projects unless they give equivalent quality compared to "pro" screens. It just makes no sense to spend alot of $$ on projectors and lenses, and skip the price for a decent silverscreen.

Unless someone finds a good DIY way (and I honestly have never seen one yet), just buy the screen. They are definately not 5000$. My Silverfabric Silverscreen is for material: 300E (that is for 2meter x 1.125 meter and for a few person cinema, that is quite enough, bigger than that for small cinemas and you will see !major! hotspotting with any material). For that you save alot of hassle and get a good screenmaterial in return. So I am all for trying the DIY way, but try things a bit more before selling them as well working ideas.

DIY is interesting, but there is nu point in paying 200E for a sloppy job if 300E is a "pro" screen.

[sharky]

well, yahun

i didnt say that i tested it the whole day, i didnt say that it is a professional and the 5000 are not an inventios. if you want i can pm you the mail i got from a company in england. the price was around 5000 euro for a 3 m silverscreen. they said that the material is a good one and that that is a normal price for screens like that one.

obviously if you got a GOOD one for 300 i am the first who says that it is better to spend 300 euro. i am trying to find with the help of you, and other members a valid solution. sense is to spend less, and get much. (still keeping in mind the pricing i got). and also the aluminium foil was just a test. as i said i personally didnt test it and it was just an idea.

just read it with the spirit of your first post. the spirit was "wow! my computer is made of sanded aluminium! lets try it!"

that way we can grow in this section. else it is made from 4 or 5 user wich write and hundreds wich read.

but thank you anyway for the hints you gave me..

havea nice day and i hope to see you in this section soon again..

byee

sharky

[sharky]

ok i have tested 3 different paintings now:


1) zink spray

2) zink effect

3) aluminium spray


----

the third was the only one wich gave me some results.i would say that almost 90% of the light vanished so 10% was depolarized. the alloy worked definetly better.

if somebody tested other materials or hase some solutions/ideas please post it here!

[Jahun]

Well I didn't want to bash the good ideas. Just toning down the bad assumptions.. I like your sanded metal idea quite much.. and aluminium foil is an idea that would come to mind too, but just testing it for 1 minute will already show that it is a bad material..

So I am all for crazy cool new ideas, but it is key to keep a focus on good ideas and to rule out bad ones quickly.



I hope someone tests the metal soon

[sharky]

hopefully...

you seem to me a perfect "do it yourself"-guy... maybe you should take a look at my other tutorials and writhe your own! we need people like you

[Jahun]

If my passive stereo setup is done, I'll write a lengthy explanation of all things considered...
And I will try this aluminium plate thing in a few weeks too, if I can find to the time to do it..

ps: and I like this DIY section here at MTBS.., hopefully many will contribute

[sharky]

any news?

[sharky]

hi jahun! any news after one and a half months?

[Jahun]

Nope sorry, in seriously short supply of time. And alot of other semi diy things to worry about...

sorry...

[StereoGaming4Me]

It would be great to find a cheaper display solution for a passive projection setup - it will be my next project and the cost of the screen was a concern.

[The_Nephilim]

Hi All,

Screen Goo maybe a solution for some. It is a Paint like Acrylic substance and they make a special 3D Paint for Passive Projectors fairly Cheap Probally Cheaper then a Real Polarized Screen.

I used Screen Goo for my Single DLP Projector and made a 45" Screen in 3D it is Way better than just ordinary paint as the Pigment Reflect the light vs Absorbing it..

But they also make the 3D Paint for Polarizesd Projectors. here is the link:


http://www.goosystems.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I used about 500ml to make a 76" 4:3 Screen so you really dont need much unless you are doing a theater sized Screen. They have a Calculator on that website that you can specify what type of Projector and all. Check them Out I am Happy with the Results on Both Screens

[jeremymcmurray]

I had some GREAT success with some 2X4's, a few L-brackets, Painters canvas, sray primer, and a gallon of silver metallic spraying paint. All together cost me less than $60 USD.

I doubt I will ever pay $600+ a screen, because I get really close to professional results with this one. My screen is 72X96 inches. I got a few quotes and the average cost was $610. So I saved beyond enough money to justify making my own.

[Croccy22]

I've not tried any of this so I may be on completely the wrong track but when I first started messing wih DIY projectors many years ago I found a good screen was as follows: Get a sheet of clear perspex and spray the back of it with a silver paint, this way you end up with a completely flat silver surface when looking at it from the front.

Not sure how well it would work with polarised light as I don't have any filters or anything yer to experiment with.

Any thoughts?

Matt.

[Tril]

I've not tried any of this so I may be on completely the wrong track but when I first started messing wih DIY projectors many years ago I found a good screen was as follows: Get a sheet of clear perspex and spray the back of it with a silver paint, this way you end up with a completely flat silver surface when looking at it from the front.

Not sure how well it would work with polarised light as I don't have any filters or anything yer to experiment with.

Any thoughts?

Matt.

Regulars mirrors are back surface mirrors. They look blurry because you look through the glass. That's why you can also get front surface mirrors. It's less scratch free but there's less distortion. I think such a screen would look blurry because you look through the perspex. It might be best to spray paint the front but I think it requires more skill for the paint to look uniform.

There are companies selling that type of screen. I know there's a company called Screen-Tech that makes one. I tried a sample a few years ago and it worked well. It was too expensive for my budget at the time so I did not buy it.

[ProjectIn3D]

Hi guys I have been reading this thread looking for DIY solutions to silver screen. I have found so many ideas so far and have decided to do some experimenting with lots of different materials to put some of the ides to rest. I liked the sanded aluminum idea and will be trying in the next few days with a small simple piece. Check out my website where im posting all my results at http://www.projectin3d.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks and i will let you know how it goes.

[mAchiNE]

Hi there, on this racing forum they have been experimenting with using aluminum sheets as silver screens:
http://www.x-simulator.de/forum/polariz ... 6-130.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They have had good results from a thin sheet of anodized aluminum, its a long thread so the link I put goes straight to the page with the info about the anodized aluminum sheet he is currently using.

[AntiCatalyst]

Wow, that seems great! Will probably try that out sometime.



EDIT: I've done some looking around, and the only price i could find is 1600 crowns(~$255 USD) for a 3x1250x2500mm piece. that's a lot for a 100" DIY screen, but if PQ really is as good as it sounds, it's probably worth it.

pros/cons i can think of:

+ should be somewhat flexible so it could work for a curved screen, and its rigidity would eliminate the need for a complicated fabric spanning frame
+ no fabric to come loose
+ locally available, so no shipping time from Germany or something
+ "slippery", insensitive surface, easily cleanable

- heavy (100" = 25Kg)
- one solid piece, difficult to ship or move
- difficult cutting to size(but they do come in 2.0 aspect ratio, so they're ready for CIA - constant image area projection )