I need a rear projection screen - any ideas?

[carmangary]

I want to have a laser display for Halloween. I want to display from within my yard and have it projected above my 6ft privacy fence. I am thinking of getting some PVC pipe for poles and stretching a screen between them. I'm thinking maybe a 10 ft x 10ft screen. But, what would be a good material to use and where could I get it? I assume I need some kind of black or white mesh??

[mixedgas]

white muslin, from jo-anne fabrics.

[buffo]

Or just a cheap set of white sheets from Walmart... (That's what I'm going to use; got a set left over from a long time ago that I never use.)

Adam

[carmangary]

I'll try the white muslim. There is a fabric store on the way home from work.

But what about black? Wouldn't it give more of an illusion of being in space?

Would a sheet really work from the rear? Seems like it would really soften the laser lines a lot and not be very specatcular.

[Jem]

I'll try the white muslim.

I think the rest of the muslim community will be pretty pissed off if you start hanging their relations from poles and firing lasers at them

Or was it a slip of the finger and you meant Muslin with an 'N'

Jem

[buffo]

The bedsheet will stop most of the beam, but you'll see the trace on the other side quite clearly in the dark. It's a neat effect. True, the line will be a tad fuzzy, but it's not that bad at all. Try it in your living room at night with the lights off; you'll be impressed. White cloth works best. Note that the image won't be hanging or floating in air - it will just magically appear on the surface of an otherwise plain white sheet.

On the other hand, using screen or wire mesh *does* create the illusion that the scanned image is floating in mid air(because the screen is nearly invisible), but this will also allow a significant portion of the beam to pass right through. So now you have to worry about where your beam is terminating. (Hopefully not on your neighbor's window across the street, or worse, up into the sky where airplanes fly...) Even shooting down from your roof towards your front lawn could be an issue with passing cars and/or pedestrians walking on your grass.

I wouldn't use a screen for a laser display in my yard unless I had absolute control on who was allowed in my yard, and I was sure the beam would terminate on the ground or the fence. (Which pretty much means it would have to be in my BACK yard only.) Also, there's no way I'd send a beam up into the air - even after passing through a scrim. (Of course, I also live less than 5 miles from both the Charleston International Airport *AND* the Charleston Air Force Base, so perhaps I'm a bit more sensitive to the FAA regs with regard to lasers near airports.)

Adam

[mliptack]

Yeah I think he was looking for something that passed the beam but created the illusion of being in space...

Scrim is something that is used in the theatrical world that would create the effect that you are looking for.

or on a cheaper budget, you can use the plastic window screen (just use the plastic, since the metal will reflect the light)

[wes]

o.k.,it was mentioned in another thread how expensive theatrical scrim is,but you can get white mesh at the fabric store cheap.
someone said they were worried about it melting,but we use it with our three watt and have never had any problem at all.
it gives the exact effect you describe.