Well, what with kitchen madness and all, I didnt get a whole lot of time to work on the covers. I tried a little bonding agent, but it really doesnt stick like I want it to. It says its a fabric adhesive, but its kind of wimpy. Going to try a little more this afternoon while I wait for another appliance to be delivered.

PS. Many thanks for all the well wishes!

Hey, anyone can have an off day....

Heart attacks? Yeah. It was a huge surprise to me to have my first one just around 30. Turns out my family collects cholesterol like some collect stamps...

Medication, diet and red wine every night....Im gonna try and stick around for a while.

Happy birthday! Embarking upon a 5th decade already! (Somehow I figured you were a bit younger than that.)

Glad to hear that your enclosure won't interfere with the light cone. It does look very close though. Actually, it's a nice curve. For bonding, I'd probably use contact cement, but you gotta be real careful with that stuff...

I like to stay playful. Thats probably where the younger impression comes in. Im kind of a carefree spirit until something happens to my friends, then Im deadly serious. My friends call me a "foul weather friend"


Actually I decided NOT to bond the curves. You will see why later.....

( Cue ominious music / theramin soundtrack...)

EEEEEEKKKK!!!!

My wife got me present before she goes away for the week!
( Is there any wonder why I love this woman?)

Click to view attachment

Oddly enough the first thing I did was take it out of the box and go "Gee, I wonder what the optics look like?"

Oh man that's nice. Those things are like 5k!

ooooo very nice... strip if down and build a bigger box!

happy b-day btw

If I'm correct in what you thought, could you imagine the size of your screen!
Awesome wife you got there SJ. So, what might you be getting for Xmas? A DLP projector? hehehehe
sim

Hey I have the exact same T.V. You're gonna love it . It has one of the best and brightest pics I have EVER seen.

My wife gave it to me for our bedroom.

Gotta love a good woman.

Hey,SJ.Wanna swap?(And I am not talkin TV's!!)
Very nice.

you guys are killing me today.......hehehehe
sim

Only if she is a firery tempered red-head who looks as good as Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man
( and who will let me build crazy things, loves electronics and dolby sound and thinks highly of my ever growing forehead...)

My first heartbreak...

K, now I'm really jealous.

Mathematics cannot express the likelihood of my wife even permitting me to buy one of those, let alone the chance of her doing it. Probabilities of less than zero do not exist...

Now you will have multiple big screen options. Big 'n bigger. Awesome!

Okay, time to coat some things with black velvet....

By the way, this is one of the hardest things in the world to photograph...

Using DUCO fabric bond, I wrapped the inserts in black velvet and let it dry...

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After the bond, you need to take a very sharp knife and trim the INSIDE of your piece. Leav a 1 inch border on the outside so you can fold it over...

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Once you have folded over the inside rim, you should have a piece that looks like this...

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Tips for folding...
The interior curve is hard to cover well. What you want to do is spray on the cement and wait for it to become tacky, about 4 minutes. Then start at the outside edge and pinch it onto the innner curve. Go from the middle and work your way out and you should get a good bond. The trim the edges with your sharp knife.

The rear pieces installed between the Lightgate and the fresnel array. Sorry these are so dark. This stuff absorbs ALL light.

Looks great!

And in the back of my head, there's a little voice saying "The next step is to paint on fibreglass resin" -- that's the kind of construction technique commonly used to get some outstanding structures built with fibreglass.

Im thinkin back to that tv.. you know the size of the projection you would get with that thing... man o man..

would be bulky tho lmao

nice woman. cant even get my woman to let me bring home Free stuff let alown her bringin home a new tv


wow


red

I might save the resin for the next time and try to make a mechwarrior PJ... gotta study up on resin constructs first...

So it was a long night of research into materials from the ArtDeco period and I have yet to find what I need.

I need amber Mica sheet.

My plan is to take about 10% of the light from the back of the PJ and allow it through patterns in the curve of the insert cover. The problem is that this mica sheet is expensive.

A few years ago there was a resurgence in Art Deco lamps and they used some sort of artificial mica "stuff" but I cant seem to find any to source out. I did find a sheet of the real thing in town. They want 300$ for a 2x3 sheet.

Time to go to my thoughtful spot and think for a bit...

You might check a stained glass supplier. They might have something that looks like mica.

Heya SJ

Been skulking around your PJ, effing sweet design.

Is this the same mica stuff you were looking to use? It's $33 bucks a sheet.

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=941-273

thanks for the ispiration... I can see the event horizon of this project, and it's only a matter of time before I get pulled into making my own

cheers

Yep, thats the stuff. I was going to try to find it locally, but I may have to take a slight design detour for now.

Thanks for the compliment, by the way. I like it too.

I've got a question about your lightgate, or rather lightgates in general. I've searched for info a couple of times but, appearantly, I'm crap at finding the info I want. So if this has been covered elsewhere, sorry

I guess what I'm wondering, in a nutshell, what's the point of them? is it to controll the heat, or light spillage? I've seen Pun15her mention that they are hard to do propperly, what about them is so tricky?

Again, sorry if this is remedial, but these forums are so chock full of exciting content, it's kindof difficult to be an abject newbie. There are so many new words/ideas flying around it's a little hard to wrap my head around them all... I'm not even going to attempt to tackle the mathematics of it all yet.

thanks again

Thats okay.
The main purpose of the light gate is to seperate the large amounts of stray light from the lens assemblies. The more stray light you can cut off, the more your contrast should improve. Eventually I hope to create a way to even out dark corners as well. My main purpose in the gate was light control, hence the name. It also filters UV and IR, so no cooling should be needed for the fresnels/LCD. Since its seperate, all the heat stays to the back
The most difficult thing about them is the heat and carefully controlling the temperature. I had a devil of a time tuning the cooling so others could reproduce it.
So in the end, the tight confines of the gate are worth it to me. It was also designed to be modular, so If I develop a new one, I just slide out the old one and slip in the new.

Currently I am playing with a design that will be easily reproduced by anyone with a pair of tinsnips and a drill. Might be a while though. Took me 9 months to get this far... ( of couse, I was in no big hurry...)

I like to design, so its not bad for me. I just wish I knew CAD or something so I could publish the plans.

Yeah so umm.. I thought I'd put my 2 cents in and say umm.. wow..

Hey SJ,

Just wanted to say thanks for adding another addiction to my already optically crowded basement. Ever since my wife said "that sounds cool!" about a diy projector, I've been rushing to finish the 13" newtonian telescope so I can start on a PJ. That's ok though, the collimation practice will do me good.

looking forward to a new project...er

Dont say I didnt warn you......
Tell your wife I tried to talk you into a smaller project....kinda...sort of...well.....not really....

Okay, I survived the week with the kids and I barely left any marks...

Absolutely no time for PJ work...except for sketches and a little conceptual work. I think I may have to bag the Mica sheet this time around. I dont have time to wait for it and Im getting pressure from the Wife about finishing before her Mom gets here...Friday...

But its time...so Im committing to it:
"Serenity" will be finished to stage 2 by Saturday evening...

Unless any of the following occur:

1. I suddenly become insanely rich.
2. My wife suddenly morphs into Elle McPhearson.
3. The Swedish Bikini Team shows up needing lodging.
4. All of the above....

Keep praying for number four guys!
At least I will die happy!

Hmmm. Calculations say I should have enough to do the job without buying more velvet. I seriously thing the only way I am going to get a good shot of this PJ is on top of a white sheet. The BV just sucks up all the light and makes it look SOOO dark...

But thats what I was shooting for...

Click to view attachment

Sometimes Negative ( space ) can be a good thing...

Interesting SJ, you planning on mounting this below your ceiling cause it would make a great conversation peice during gatherings. Without seeing the velvet part the view point from it's side kinda looks like a symbol from 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'
sim

Thanks (?) Sim,
(kidding)
Actually this one is going on the coffee table, a mission style 2x5 unit. It should go with the house well, but I will have to build a rear support and maybe a DOB mount....heheheheheee...More Shop Time!

SJ

So, Im not really cutting corners, Im just going back to my original design. I settled on some cheap flashing. I was actually going to cut a copper table I had, but I just could not bring myself to do it...Seemed wrong...

So the flashing will do for now, but I figured I might as well use it to its best. The principle behind the curves is actually pretty easy. As you can see I have marked out corner divots in a section that will fit inside of the curve...

Click to view attachment

After that its a fairly simple bend, just to make sure the section would fit...

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Next I distresssed the piece to see how it would look...here's a shot of the piece next to its twin. I have to redo it.

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More to come....

distress
Function: transitive verb
1 : to subject to great strain or difficulties
2 archaic : to force or overcome by inflicting pain
3 : to cause to worry or be troubled : UPSET
4 : to artistically beat the crap out of

Distressed ( or distressed ALA PagerCam...)
This time I used the distressing to put a natural curve in the metal.

Click to view attachment

Now to cover the inside with nice black velvet ( see my little boy smile?)

The goldish brass will go on the outside. The inside will have the BV.

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This is a picture of the Covers with the BV on and covering the outer 3/4 of an inch. Uhmmm 3/4 inch straps...sexy!

Well...for a PJ anyway....

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And the final verdict? Well... I like it. I wish the bends were a little more straight, but I can do those later.
Picture this but with three small brass round head screws holding it down...

and some of the fuzzy on the ends trimmed...Hey! Stop that!

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The hammered/mangled brass is the "20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea" Influence that Im trying to meld with a "Diamond Age" tone...

I think MAYBE it might be working...

Open mouth, insert foot...

Last night after I finished posting, I got a call from my folks who have decided they would be coming over on Saturday...I mentioned the PJ and Dad thought that was really cool...
This is the man who taught me most of my woodworking and a lot of my electronics.
He's the kind of guy who built his own Heathkit HIFI and Speakers "because he could"...
Hmmm slight pressure...
Saturday is my wifes birthday as well...and they want me to make a "Special Lunch"
A little more pressure...

Plus the inevitable pressure of my wife's frantic last minute cleaning/nesting...

Can you see the meltdown coming?

Hehehe..
Slight mods being done. I took the hinge out of the circuit board holders and attached it as rigid. I used thick spring steel to attach them so they could flex a little, but not much...

I was originally going to contain the inputs, but I thought better of it last night and decided to use the direct inputs and leave them outside of the PJ. It will mean a little doctoring on the bottom front curve, but it shouldnt be too hard. The attachment is pretty rigid.

Click to view attachment


Added a rail below to keep the light off the traces and then coated it with...what else? Black Velvet!

Click to view attachment


Aslo did the same to the cap rail just above the LCD. When I tightened it in it seemed kind of stiff, Im hoping the velvet will crush down a little an give me an overlap of a mm or two.

Click to view attachment

I keep hearing the little voice in my head going "Hey Samurai....you should strip that AG while its out..."

I should take a photo of my 17", there is a small triangle of antiglare in the upper 4:3 area I didnt want to risk removing (sucker wouldnt budge). it is pretty remarkable how bad it makes the whites.


just pushing you off the edge bro, thats all

SJ

You should definitely do the AG removal. The mod is easy and way worth it.

S4K

Well, I did it. last night I got some pure water and some paper towels and started the process of stripping my AG layer. The towels have been on for ten hours now and the layer isnt coming off very easily at all. So Im going to let it soak while I am at work. this should give me a total soak time of nearly 19 hours.

Wish me Luck!

hehehehehehehehehehehhe,,,,

couldnt resist it,,, could ya Sam.........

Curiosity Killed the Cat...
Satisfaction brought it back...


Im probably out 150 bucks, but I just had to do it...

I wish you luck with that...

Lots of people reported the cast iron AG with the CMV panel, so here's hoping that you have better luck!

I DID IT!

Based on some hunches and a few leads, I used a marine based stripper and it came off in about 45 minutes! Shoot! I did more damage to it by trying the water method!

Will post some pics tomorrow!

its like high school all over again

You mean grade school dont you?
(j/k)

Whoa SJ, are you saying that you stopped the soaking and went straight into the Paint Stripper Method without drying?
sim

Yes, I reasoned that the attack on the TAC that was cited by sonicwonder2000 would be buffered by the possibility of water being introduced to the substrate. IE the water would act as a shield for the Methyline Chloride, and prevent damage to the polarbear...

I also figured out a way to buff out the accidental damage to the rear tac by contact with MC from my shirt sleeve...

But time will tell...

Im kind of excited. My theory on overflow production proved to be ( probably) correct..!

That rocks sj! Can't wait to see the pics (of the projection!)
That was pretty slick using the ol' polar / non-polar difference to sheild the delicate bits. I wonder if you weren't just really lucky though!

I expect an invite to the public premiere!

My luck has no true bounds...
Yes, of course your invited!