I’ll be taking a break from the basement makeover project, at least for a while.  I didn’t post about it, but last week I finished goal #3 (the speaker pedestals).  These were not a design revolution, but just something that I decided I wanted, but wasn’t going to pay the prices I was seeing in stores.  Two pieces of plywood, separated by a 4-foot post did the trick.  I drilled holes in the plywood bases and platforms for speaker wires to snake through, and stapled the wires to the backs to help keep them hidden.  At some point, I’ll paint them black to give them aesthetic boost.  Let’s be honest; they could use all the help they can get.

(Check back later for pictures)

I had some friends over last night for a guys’ movie night.  After enjoying a few Loony Tunes cartoons, we watched a number titled Outlander.  For what it was, we were happy: a mindless action movie.  How much complaining is justified about a movie that is essentially vikings vs. aliens?

I’ve decided to add one more phase to the project, for the time being.  I would like to hook up our Wii to the projector, but I don’t want the sensor bar to be stuck in the middle of the room.  Alternately, I didn’t want to pay $20 for a wireless one.

After doing a little bit of research, I figured out the Wii’s sensor bar is merely a couple of infra-red lamps that allow the Wii’s controllers to determine their position and direction.  Some people have even been able to substitute candles for the sensor bar.  With a quick search on instructables.com, I found the basic plans to make my own sensor bar.  The whole thing consists of two IR lamps, an on/off switch, a AA battery pack, and an LED lamp to show whether it’s turned on or off.  I’m going to do my best to incorporate this into the screen without ruining any of my existing work (I wish that I had thought of this when I built it.

This was the day I had been planning for: screen-building day.  I had my materials (I thought), I had my tools (I thought), and I was going to knock this one out in about four hours (I thought).

First, the dimensions.  The plans I was following were for a true movie proportion screen (2.35:1).  I altered them for a more common 16:9 format.  Of the three 1×4 8′ boards with which I had to work, I left two of them at 8′, then cut the remaining one into two 42″ lengths.  This gave me a screen that was approximately 96″x52″, or about a 109″ diagonal screen.  When I dug out my sanding block for the vertical boards, I realized that it had rotted too much to be useful.  I’ve resigned myself that I can expect at least one trip to the local Home Depot in the middle of any project.

This is the width--Eight feet of video goodness, coming up.

Yes, this was my work bench. Don't laugh, please.

While I was buying sandpaper there, I paused to look at the hanging apparatus.  I had purchased a couple of 100 lb. “Ooks” hooks, having had great success with them in the past.  I knew that there was no way that this thing was going to be anywhere close to that weight, but Ooks are cheap enough to wildly overcompensate.  But, I still wasn’t sure how I should hook the Ooks to the frame.  I saw a complete Ook heavy object hanging kit that seemed to fit the bill.

Also, a good friend had agreed to loan me his staple gun for the project…but I decided that I couldn’t wait, so I picked one of those up as well.  Another axiom: every successful project should involve buying at least one new tool.  Otherwise, our economy would crumb-…never mind.

Back at house, I sanded both of the 8′ boards down to the same length and put them aside.  Next, I took a 2′x2′ piece of plywood, and cut it diagonally both ways, forming four triangles.  These were going to be the corner braces that would hold the frame together.  After sanding the braces, I laid an 8′ and a 42″ board down at a right angle on the garage floor, and placed one of the braces over the corner, at 1/2 an inch from the edges.  I then marked off places to put screws in at 1 1/2-inch intervals down and across.  After marking all the places where I would put screws in, I laid all the braces down and drilled holes in all four braces at once.

It seems a bit much, but believe in "measure 10 times, drill once".

Next, it was time to move everything to the basement and assemble the pieces. I assembled the frame using 1-1/8″ wood screws.  I had decided earlier that it would be best to figure out how and where to hang the thing before I attach the screen material.  Looking at the Ook kit I purchased earlier, it was more complicated that what I had intended, primarily because there were no directions included inside the box.  There were a couple of screw-on hanging loops, which is what I was really after.  Those plus the 100-lb hooks I had already purchased were perfect together.  I attached one of the hanging loops (surely there is an actual term for these things; if so, someone please leave it in a comment) and nailed in an Ook to test it out.  On attempt #1, I realized that I had attached the loop too high on the frame, and the Ook was peeking out over the top of the frame.  I reattached the loop farther down on the frame, and that worked perfectly.  I C-clamped a level to the frame, and hung the other side.  Perfect!

It was much easier to to a "dress rehearsal" without the fabric.

Finally, I layed out the blackout material across the floor, white side down.  After being rolled up, there were now verticle fold lines all across the fabric.  If anyone decides to do this project, I would recommend using a large tube to roll fabric around.  However, in the end, it really didn’t matter, because it was stretched to the point where the folds weren’t visible.

I used my shiny new staple gun to attach the screen to the frame, gently pulling the fabric taut as I went.  The only tricky part was the corners, because I had to carefully fold the cloth so that there were no wrinkles on the other side.  Otherwise, it was surprisingly easy to work with, and in a few minutes I had my screen hung.

I'm rather proud of my corners.

The only other recommendation I would make would be to perhaps glue the cloth to the frame before stapling.  I ended up with some wrinkles at the bottom; gluing may have avoided that.

The finished product

Finally, I hung the finished product, and tested it, as well as the video extension cord.  I held my breath when I turned everything on.  I’m happy to say that there were no sparks, no smoke, just a huge grin on my face.

Success!

Yes, those are folding chairs holding the speakers on either side of the screen.  That will never do…

Playlist:

John Adams – Shaker Loops: A Final Shaking / Gustav Holst – Fugal Concerto: While making breakfast, I contemplated the act of creation, and how our joy in creating brings God’s joy.  There is a certain holiness in creating for our own pleasure and the pleasure of others, echoing God’s pleasure in creating the universe for His pleasure and ours, too.  These pieces were on at the time, and I don’t know if it sparked my thoughts or not; I just made a mental note to look up the titles.

Bluegrass Saturday Mornings: The local jazz station, KBEM, plays bluegrass music every Saturday morning.  I have fond memories of working around the house, with Ian running around, listening to this.  It’s been at least a year or two since I’ve worked outside with this music playing in the background.  Regardless of your opinion of bluegrass music, it felt good.

Vigilantes of Love-Live at the 40-Watt: This is a great rock album to work to, and Bill Malonee writes some wonderfully poignant lyrics.

Jars of Clay-Redemption Songs: I picked this one up only recently.  I love what they have done to some marvelous hymns.  We used their arrangement of “I’ll Fly Away” for Ian’s memorial service.

Bebo Norman-Between the Dreaming and the Coming True

City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia

Next Step: The speaker stands

Sometimes, God gives me a deep and wonderful spiritual insight.  When this occurs, I love to write a post about it to share with everyone, hoping that someone will be blessed and have a closer walk with Christ.

This isn’t one of those posts.

I’m starting a series that will chronicle my attempt to create the Henderson Cinema/Arcade/Presentation Center.  The goal is to utilize our basement so that it can be an enjoyable space for watching movies and playing games, as well as watching video presentations for small groups.  One condition of this is that I want to make as few modifications to the walls and ceiling of the basement as possible.  Given my track record for home improvements, that ‘s best for everyone involved.  Another is that the projector will be easily moveable, so that we can use it elsewhere.

The first stage of this project involves three tasks:

• Build a screen.  This will be a wall-mounted 16:9 screen, probably 7.5′ x 4.5′.
• Build speaker stands.  I’ve got a 2.1 sound system, which will be fine until I’m ready to install a surround-sound system.  However, I need some way to elevate the two bookshelf speakers I will be using.
• Create an extension cord for the projector.  I want the video sources off to the side of the room, but the projector will need to be centered in front of the screen.  This will require a 15-pin extension cord for the video signal.  I would like the cable to be about 20 feet long.

One more condition: I want to do this with as little expense as possible, within reason.

This could very well be a comedy of errors, considering that:

• I never took shop in high school.  Let’s just say that working with wood is always a fresh journey for me.
• The number of power tools I own can be counted on one hand.

However, I have some advantages:

• I have all five fingers on that hand used to count power tools, unlike this guy:
  
• I have the Internet. I have found two or three plans for the screen, and one for the extension cord.  The speaker pedestals will be something I dreamed up.
• Room.  We’re not using the basement for anything else (except storage), so I have a lot of flexibility in projector placement.  I hope to take this:
  

  The future site of the Henderson Cineplex.

  and turn it into…something else.

The Adventure Begins…

I started with the last item first, for some reason.  I think it was a confidence-building thing.

As I said, I want to locate the video sources at least ten feet away from the project, and have some extra length for maneuvering.  I found steps here to use a Cat5 cable to make a VGA cable.  I have a 100-foot Cat5 cable that I haven’t been using, so I sacrificed about 20 feet of it for the sake of the cause.  After slicing off the ends of the cable, I was left with this:

Man, that's a lot of wires.

Following the diagrams in the above link I soldered the colored wires into their appropriate sockets on the 15-pin connectors.  I deviated from the plans a bit; instead of using two male connectors, I used a male & female connector, essentially making an extension cable.  The reason for this is that I plan on having two video sources: my XBox 360 and a PC.  The XBox 360 will be for games and DVDs; the PC will be for other streaming media.  I’ll switch between the two using a KVM switch.

The soldering proved to less tricky that I imagined.  For the past 15 years or so, I would occasionally see a project that involved soldering, and I would get the itch to make something.  In high school, I made a guitar amplifier for a physics project, and loved the experience.  My last experience with soldering involved putting a larger speaker into a different amplifier.  Let’s just say that the end result included smoke, and a ruined amp.

After purchasing the necessary components from Radio Shack, I set to work soldering wires to connectors.  The first three or so took much longer than I expected.  Like a lot of small motor skill activities, it takes a little while to find the right pattern.  Using a C-clamp to hold the VGA connector helped dramatically, and I remembered that it’s easier to melt the solder into the wire, then melt it again to the connection.  A little while later, I behold my creation:

It's ugly, but it works...honest.

I tested the cable using an old computer and monitor, and was astounded that it worked.  I then added the hoods for the finishing touch:

20+ feet of VGA goodness

Next up: Building the screen!

While I was wrapping up the painting on the front of our house, Ian had a friend over. We love to have Ian’s little buddies over. Ian gets more peer interaction, we get to help out some fellow parents, and Deb & I are able to get something done. Win-win-win, right?

While on the ladder shown above, I was listening to the radio, but was able to catch this tail end of a conversation between Ian and a friend, both holding pretend lightsabers:

“…Dad up on a ladder!”
“Yeah! Let’s whack it!”

Wrong.

I’m not scared of ladders; I just have a greater respect for gravity (and its consequences) while I’m on one. That bright idea got shut down, right away.