i just tried the stripper method and it did not go well. the AG just doesn't want to come off. the PVA started to come up on the corner so i just figured id remove it and just get a new polarizer. it would have worked had i not cracked the screen trying to remove it. oh well. live and learn. well since i have a scrap screen, im going to leave the stripper on there for a while longer and see if the AG comes off easily after soaking for about 2 hours. cant guarantee that wont hurt the PVA though, but from what i understand it wont be dissolved by methylene chloride.

well after letting the stripper sit on there for about 2 hours, the AG came off rather easily. after looking at someone else's pictures, i think i didnt sand it well enough before i put the stripper on it. i was worried about sanding too deep. if i hadnt stupidly tried to take off the PVA, this would have worked perfectly, provided there would have been no damage to the PVA. im going to try it again with the new panel i just ordered. hopefully everything will work alright.

I tried paint stripper on my WUXGA as well, not good! I pretty much applied 20 coats in some areas.

I did manage to get the AG off, but it left many (~20) little tears in the polorizer. These are not "grain" like I susptected. They do show up in the projection, but it's possible they'll all but disapear with proper alignment.
I don't think I sanded hard enough either.

I also suspect my paint stripper was weak. I knew I should have shopped around. Next time I'm going to use the hard core stuff...
Sand as roughly as I can stand, mask the edges twice, apply liberal amount of stripper, remove top mask layer, let soak for... at least an hour and a half, and scrape the AG off in one try. If it doesn't look like it wants to strip off, I'll let it soak another hour.

There's a longer description in my blog (top of pg 3).

Ok well I got my second panel in and I tried to strip it. Everything went great, or so I thought. When I turned on the lcd to see if the screen still works, only the top half works. The bottom half has dark lines. I messed with the little things sticking out the sidem the ones that look like the cables connected to the circuit board. When I move one of them around, the picture comes in sometimes. So Im pretty sure that at least one of them is damaged. Also when I turned the screen off, The bottom half stayed dark until I fiddled with that thing on the side again. Then most of the lines went away. What are those things on the side? Can they possibly be fixed? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It's next to impossible to fix broken ffc's. Sorry.

I lost a Wuxga that way also. That's why I don't recommend stripping the antiglare on Wuxga panels. They are to darned sensitive. :angry:

next to impossible? so it is possible. well i have nothing to lose. how can it be fixed?

Well the only way is to make a clamp that will clamp the ffc tight to the Lcd again. Some have used binder clips to do it. The only way to tell if this will work is to squeeze the ffc tight to the Lcd . If you can get the Entire Lcd working then a clamp might work. If no matter how hard you squeeze you can't get the entire Lcd to work, then it's a lost cause.

Good luck.

Actually, that sounds pretty darn possible...

The problem is that many times you can't get the whole Lcd working again no matter how much pressure you apply.

I just removed the reflective polarizer from the back of the panel, it still looks silver, is OK or is there one more layer?

The reflective layer is actually two layers glued together. Check and see if the layer you pulled off can be split in half, if it can't then you have one more layer still on the Lcd.

yes, there was another layer, was confused by glue layer between polarizers.

Thanks for the help.

I happen to have a 3 year old Inspiron8500 but with a WSXGA+ Widescreen LCD (1680x1050) and was wondering if stripping its AG would follow the same steps as the WUXGA panel and also if it would improve in it's daily use as a Portable.

nevermind, just reassembled the panel sans antiglare film to my laptop. Was expecting a sharp LCD but it turned out to be samsung with a really stiff AG film. It came of in like 2.5 hours w/rag method.

Here is the comparison of AG polish and rear of LCD with reflective polarizer removed.
Too bad I don't have a picture of before polish reflection.

Can someone with a AG removed WUXGA, post a pic of reflection of front and rear, for comparison between amount of difference between removal and polishing.

Well with removal it looks like every other LCD pic here with the Antiglare removed.

do you think this level of polish is enough against the high risks of removal attempt?

Hard to tell, but it looks a lot better than the A/G. Did you watch the PJ before the polish so you can "eyeball" the difference ?

unfortunately, no projector, in design stage

Well I would leave it as is and give it a go. A/G removal on the Wuxga is a risky proposition and A/G polishing should work "almost" as good.

No problems with the Samsung panel? I'm in the very early stages of my design (basically just parts acquisitions so I can have accurate measurements to begin a box design) but I've already got a USED Samsung LTN154U1L01 WUXGA panel that I'm planning to use. I got it cheap, and I thought that I would probably screw up my first AG removal anyways. However, it would be nice to try to utilize beginners' luck with some other builders' experience with this panel if possible I haven't had any luck finding any details on anyone using this panel, but if anyone has successfully used it I would love to hear how the AG stripping and PJ quality afterwards went. I hope it's as easy to strip as your panel sounded to be.

I just received my panel the other day, and noticed it must have been damaged slightly in shipment as there a number of dead pixels, and the plastic backlight frame was cracked around the lower left-hand screwhole. I wasn't originally going to attempt to remove the anti-glare, but since it was already damaged and I figured I would be ordering a new one anyways, I gave it a shot.

On with the pictures (click the image for a much larger one):
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/tau...as/f596afa8.jpg
I used 2 paper towels, cutting them and overlapping where appropriate. Not pictured is the plastic sheet I layed over the thing to slow evaporation.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/tau...as/76a43e99.jpg
After 11 hours I decided to give the edge a test. After a few tries, I seemed to get it, and started peeling it back little by little...

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/tau...as/2b28bd79.jpg
This is how far I managed to pull up the AG before it started tearing on the sides. It wasn't coming up easy at first, and I had to go very slowly. As I got more and more of it up, it went even slower. Attempts to start up the sides again after they tore just resulted in my cutting under the polarizer, and sometimes taking bits of it off.


And this is as far as I got before it tore off completely. Really, it's just another example of how worthwhile it can be to take the AG off. Unfortunately, further attempts at geting it started again only resulted in more tearing of the polarizer off.


Here's the AG I removed, and a speck of polarizer with it to boot.

As I had scratched the hell out of this corner of the screen in this process, I felt it was going nowhere and thought that I would just cut my losses, order a new (and hopefully non-damaged) panel and not remove anything until a fool-proof method had been developed. However, after a bit of back and forth PMing with jonjandran about my results, I decided to try another test.


Here I'm soaking a corner of the panel, this time using a mixture of acetone and distilled water (10% acetone). I also used two layers of paper towels, as acetone tends to evaporate quickly and I also wanted the added weight to make air bubbles a non-factor. Yes, that is a sandwhich bag covering the paper towels.


After a 3 hour soak, I couldn't stand waiting any longer so I started trying to peel the AG up. It came up much easier, and with no tearing at the edges -- that is, until it reached the point I hadn't soaked.


Here's the panel again, with as much of the AG as I could remove. Compare the size of the removed patch to where I soaked it with the acetone solution.

I'm quite certain that the acetone mixture made the AG layer come off much easier. I'm also pretty certain that another 3 hour soak with just water would not have produced the much better results I got with peeling the AG this time. What I'm not certain of is to what extent the 11 hour before-soak influenced the 3 hour acetone-soak; if I were to do this again, I might need to have it soak longer then 3 hours for it to have the same effect.

Also, I don't know what effect, if any, the acetone might have on the polarizer. For what it's worth, there seemed to be less of the "grain" pattern on the polarizer after this soak then my first, where I noticed it quite a bit.

And now, one last question. How are you supposed to clean off the polarizer during normal operation? It's certain to get dusty, and you might get fingerprints on it. Since water is apparently a bad thing for it, what do you use?

Now, I don't mean to brag, but I did this while almost drunk (I think otherwise I wouldn't have had the guts, or persistence) but the downside being that I was too excited as the results were coming along that I forgot to write down/take a picture of the model number label on it's back, and don't know if we are talking about the same panel (which I wish they are )

Also I didn't remove the AG with PJ Picture Quality improvement purposes, but just as a very stubborn "practice" for when the real PJ project comes along and the rewad of giving a "brand new" look to my notebook.

It was incredible to see no FFC issues as the stripping came along, and the panel circuit components seemed very tough built. Also the AG film was very stiff, but not brittle. I still find myself amazed often when I open and boot up my notebook.

I'll do what I can to find some info on the panel itself, Good Luck with your project!

I tried 10% Acetone with the rest being distilled water like Trantz. I did not water soak at all before this. After an hour I checked it and to my surprise the Anti-glare peeled up fairly easily. I was able to remove 95% of it in once peice. There were two places along the edges that started taking up the polarizer. I stoped those places as soon as I saw it happen and allowed the anti-glare to tear around them. I now how little spots of towel on them and are letting them soak a bit more. Also... some of the glue is still suck in one of the corners. Other than that, it went very well. Given this, I was say that a 2hr to 3hr soak with the acetone works very well. I think I may have a few very small (about pixel size) points of ruined polarizer along the edges, but otherwise I'm very happy with it. I turned the LCD back on and checked it out... man it really does make a difference.

So... is it recommended at all to remove any of the other layers? Or should I just stick with the anti-glare removed?

Well... the removal went well... but somehow I killed one of the FCCs on the side :*(. It came back on for a second but I could never get it to stay and I only made it worse. So now I only have 2/3 of a screen :/ Man those LCD manufactuerers must love us.

Edit: Man I just don't know how I managed to break this thing. I have looked at every FCC and haven't found any physical damage. In my quest to find what was wrong I've been wiggling the FCCs and been down right rough with them... with nothing else breaking. They don't even seem all that fragile. Sigh :*(

You mean like me

I'm glad this worked out for somebody else, despite your later FFC problem. Did you use tape on the edges? I didn't on the patch I removed, and had no problems with tearing. Also, was this the Sharp panel?

Once the AG was peeled up, did you notice any kind of grain or other pattern on the polarizer? Or was it nice and smooth? I'm still unsure whether the acetone could possibly hurt the polarizer due to the soaking, and I'm not sure how you'd tell if it did.

Doh sorry I confused you with TranzT. I didn't use any tape. I used a razor blade to start the edge and then just pulled up slowly. Except in the one place where the glue stuck, everything was a perfectly smooth mirror finish. I think the small problems I did have could be resolved by letting it soak a bit longer, and perhaps paying more attention to the towels and making sure every place is well soaked. As far as polarizer damage goes... I would think any damage done would be evident immediatly, and that there shouldn't be any "latent" damage because the acetone is no longer present. I am positve there was no damage afterwards... the picture looked very good.

The places where the polarizer came up was either due to me accidentally digging into it with the razor blade, or because it was stuck too well to the anti-glare. I think the most important thing is to be sure the outer areas of the LCD are well soaked because those are the areas that are the most strongly bonded. I think an important rule of thumb for pulling up the polarizer is that as soon as you see signs of a section not comming up easily (the anti-glare is brittle and breaks when pulling up, or you notice glue stuck to the panel) then it is best to put the anti-glare back down and soak that area some more. The places that came up poorly were the ones that I was too impatient with and had to sort of chip away at with the razor blade. I'll know better next time =P

Edit: Yes this was the 12 version of the sharp panel.

Well this is good to know. I've been considering getting a panel with the anti-reflective coating instead so that I wouldn't have to mess with this AG stuff anymore, but if that doesn't pan out at least I know that the acetone solution should work out pretty well.

How close to the edges did you soak the panel? I had cut that corner of paper towel such that it was completely square with the edge, and it was placed so that it was almost right to edge of the AG/Polarizer. It certainly is difficult to seperate the AG from the polarizer with the blade. It seemed like when the blade was underneath the polarizer, it was moving through a very viscous fluid, and a streaky pattern could be seen above the razor blade. When the blade was between the polarizer and AG, there was no viscous feeling, and no streaky pattern to be seen.

I never had any trouble finding the AG. I just went for the smallest layer I could get and that was the AG. For me it was very easy to tell if I had hit polarizer, because instead of being clear the layer was gray. I pushed my wet paper towels right out to the very edges of the panel. I felt this was important since getting the AG off the edge is the first thing that has to be done in order to get anything else off. Also, the edges are pretty safe, because there is a small border around the edge that is not actually part of the viewable part of the LCD, and so you can afford to make mistakes there.

Anyone have any WUXGA panels, where the AG removal messed up the polarizer, that they would be willing to sell cheap?

I am only 1/10th of the way into the "LL projector lumens theory" thread, but I think it might be neat experimenting with external polarizers.

(FFC's would have to be all intact though!)

Thanks!

Hello,

Well a couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and bought the 1st part of my projector, the WUXGA panel.

I stripped it last sunday and I noticed thas some how I chipped the corner, I range of emotions was amazing, well anyway I talk myself to believing that it would be ok that the worst it would be was the that the tip of the corner would be cut off.

Well last night I looked at the panel and it look like some black substance has bleed into the panel

Here are some pictures

would like to hear from Jonjandran and other on how humped i am

Mystic

next

for some reason I cannot post my last pic, will try later

Mystic

last one

Yea your Lcd glass is looking the fluid that is in between the 2 layers of glass.

Most likely it will continue to leak and you will need a new Lcd.

Sorry. I gues Wuxga Lcd A/G removal should be in the Super Extreme Forum.

LOL, I hav'nt even got that far yet this happend with just the strip, no idea how it happend. you said it will continue to spread? what do you think happend. so when I try this again I won't be a repeat affender?

Jerry

try sealing the leak, maybe it is salvageable. Epoxy maybe, nothing to lose.

I'm here to report that I got my 2nd WUXGA screen and successfully removed the anti-glare with the 10% acetone method (again). It works great!. It came off in 1 sheet. No tears at all, and the surface is 100% perfect. I couldn't be happier. I even managed not to break any FCCs this time =P. I'm typing this on my new projector right now. MAN it is nice. I still have a little bit a tweaking to do hear and there, but already I am very happy with the results.

Also, although this was the same model screen, it wasn't constructed in the same way as far as the packaging goes. I let it soak for about 1hr 45min this time. I was very careful in making sure every part of the screen was well soaked. Man this is great =P.

You don't have any pictures of before and after, do you?

No. I don't really think they're necessary at this point, as the benifits of anti-glare removal isn't really being debated anymore. My results look very much like the "good" portion of your screen in your pictures. The surface is mirror-like, with no marring of the surface in any way.

Actually, I meant of the projection

After breaking my last LCD I have adopted the philosophy of touching my LCD as little as possible. I personally didn't want to risk all the handling involved in installing it twice in my projector. It is tempting to test the LCD at every step of the way to see if it is still in good shape, but this is how I broke my last LCD and IMHO every time you handle your LCD there's a chance you'll screw it up.

I'm sure you're wondering just how much of a difference does the AG removal make in the projection, and is it worth doing. There are a few shots floating around where some of the AG was removed, some where it was polished, etc, and the brightness increase is quite noticable. For a darkened room, I wouldn't want my projector to be any brighter. With my Dalite HighPower it has the look of a CRT, any brighter and I think dark to light screen transitions would start to hurt the eyes.

Well since I Boke me Panel (I think my problem was that the bottom of the frame has a lip and it caught the corner when I was removing it), I wanted to see what it was like removing the AG on the front and the reflective backing on the back.

I used the 10% accatone/distilled water (sp?) solution it took about 4 hours I beleive because the house was cool, and removed the front AG I then wiped off any residue and got a nice shiny panel. Then I turned it over and after about 2.5 hours rmoved the clear film and after another hour was able to peel off the reflective backing.

The big thing is that each panel will take different amounts of time to do this, don't fall into the trap and think to yourself and say will its 1 hour it should come off because it came off with so and so, take your time and you will be rewarded with a nice shiny serface

Mysitc

P.S.

I know some pple were unable to take off the AG on some of the panels, this is the supplyer I got the panel from and I was able to take off everything

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Latitude-D800-M60...1QQcmdZViewItem

Good luck

did the 10% acetone method work for the 02 panel?

Yes my panel was a 02 it worked for mine, just take your time and don't force it, these panels are really fragle

I soaked the paper towels and rung them out, then placed them on the panel, I then used a katsup bottle to saturate the towels mindfull of the edges

Mystic

ok nice,
when will I know if it is time to pull it off?
and does it almost come off by itself?

there all different, Check it in a couple of hours, fight to temptation to rush, if you pull on the AG and it takes anytype of effort, back off and wait some more, when you get to the center make sure you don't bear down on the panel you can crack it down the middle, but then its not taking a lot of effort, so you should not have to worry about that .

also when you try to start the AG in the corner, make sure you don't grab the polorizer it will be stiff.

The back AG came off easyer than the front and then I went after the reflective layer buy soaking it as well it took a little more effort than the Ag so be carefull.

good luck

Mystic

I did'nt know until I tryed to pull it up if it was ready, if it take effort just wait some more

Mystic

but your corner doesn't look very good,what happened?