glass bead paint?

[swamidog]

kind of thinking out loud..

i built a little RGV lumia projector (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG7O9HRL9Ts) for a little shindig we're having in a few weeks and i'm thinking about projection surfaces and mounts to make things stable and eye safe.

the projection surface will be painted white, and probably with a top coat of glow in the dark paint for the bluray diodes. then, an idea hit me... what about using reflective glass bead paint much like what is used in projector screens or highway warning signs?

the stuff is pretty much dirt cheap: http://colesafety.com/product.sc?productId=39 and i think it could really make the lasers shine (pun intended).

any thoughts?

[ElektroFreak]

I can almost guarantee it wouldn't detract from the experience.. I'd say go for it.

[swamidog]

I can almost guarantee it wouldn't detract from the experience.. I'd say go for it.

fair enough. i'll post if it turns out to have been worthwhile.

[swamidog]

an update for anyone following this thread: the glass bead coated projection surface worked like a champ.

i built a 6'x6' screen out of dry erase board, painted in mod-podge, dusted it with blue glow powder, painted on another coat of mod-podge, then dusted it with glass beads.

i used a mixture of "airport grade" .84-1.68mm beads "spraypaint grade" .037-.088mm beads. they were relatively inexpensive, and i purchased them from here: http://www.liquidreflector.com/Refle...lassbeads.html

i lost quite a few of the larger beads. i think that's mostly due to the smaller beads (they are like flour dust) covering the adhesive so the large beads had nothing to stick to.

they were pretty fun to work with and everything around me turned very brightly reflective in the bright new mexico sun. hard to look at, like blinding snow that appeared and disappeared as you changed angles. the larger beads are very slippery to walk on, so be careful.

and, lastly, to keep things eye safe, i masked the projector aperture, so none of the laser projection went off the edges of the screen. the projector was on the roof and the lowest edge of the projection was about 8 feet off the ground.

here are a few thousand words...

The first image is the completed lumia projector.

The second is an early test of a small scale screen. The left side of the screen has been painted with my glass bead mixture and you can see how much brighter it is than the right.

The third photo is a blurry night shot of me with the screen.

And here are a couple video links:

Constructing the screen (sorry for the lack of tripod) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZZNvCCgnF8

Some additional footage of the projector in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF55r...eature=related

[mixedgas]

Very nice...


Steve

[sugeek]

That looked really good!

-Adam

[ElektroFreak]

Well I see it didn't detract.. Nice work!