Made a cheap portable screen for under $30.00

[diegs]

Thought I should share my amateur/crude screen project. The screen is 100" 16x9
I used:
1/2" PVC Pipe and connectors $11.00
54" Roc-Lon white fabric $15.00 (3 yards, happen to be on sale at fabric store!)
1/2" metal binder clips $free

Assembly was easy: cut and pushed the PVC peices together to make a frame, laid out the fabric on the floor, placed the frame on top of the fabric, stretched the frabric working from one corner to the next and used the binder clips to hold it in place on the pipe.

Actual Usage: Video looks many times better on the screen than the greyish beige painted wall. Structurally 1/2" PVC sags a little, but with fabric pulled tightly it worked well and wrinkle free. Disassembly was a snap and never had an issue with PVC parts popping when moving around or in use.

I may try out expanding foam inside the PVC pipe to improve rigidity.

When the wife goes out of town I set this up in the living room and we also use it outside for backyard movie watching.

 

[BMXTRIX]

That's pretty cool. My worry would definitely be the sagging.

I've done a couple of screens myself on the cheap.

I hit up Wal-Mart and buy one king size flat sheet in white.

I have one for my garage and I took a 2x4 and cut it so that it can be screwed into my garage door frame (on the inside) without problem. I then used a stable gun to staple the sheet to the 2x4 at the top and the bottom.

I can roll the 2x4 up/down to expose or hide more of the screen as I want to, and I screw the top 2x4 to the garage, then pull the sheet tight, and then screw it in at the bottom.

This is what I do at Halloween as I can do rear projection onto the sheet with good results.

I've also setup a portable unit using 2x2 lumber where I stapled the sheet to the 2x2s (top and bottom) and then built an A-frame to hold the pieces in place with legs front/back for support. The wind will blow it over pretty easily, but if I set something on the legs, it stays in place in a light breeze.

Still, not even close to the quality of a decent screen, most notably with the lack of a deep black frame to absorb any light spillover. Yet, these solutions are more than adequate for the casual projection setup and deliver suprisingly good results which are exciting for those who have not experienced front projection before.

 

[gmichael]

Very nice indeed. Sometimes, simple rules!