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How do you lower a 60 foot by 90 foot movie theater screen?

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Fischstabchen

Fischstabchen

Electrical
Joined
Feb 17, 2021
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US
How do you lower a 60 foot by 90 foot movie theater screen? The screen itself can be folded up but how do you lower it without destroying it. The whole thing weighs only 400 lbs but when I talked with the manufacture, he said people just buy a new screen because it is very easy to damage.
 
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carefully... [lol]

You need a fairly rigid spreader bar that securely 'holds' the screen at the top. I don't know how you attach it. you likely need ropes for steading the screen at each end and from both sides... connected to the bottom of the screen. You need a skilful hoist operator... you need people out of the way... not much more.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik
 
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Fischstabchen:
How was it handled and installed in the first place? You uninstall it in exactly the opposite way or order of steps and equipment. Keep in mind that after years of hanging there, it will have suffered some environmental degradation, so it might be more fragile, less elastic and compliant than new material would be. As you lower it, you fold it in 4’ wide pleats on the floor directly below it, I suppose. How is it supported now? I imagine it is held up almost continuously by some strongback at the top which takes the weight of the mat’l. and keeps it stretched over the 90’ width, so there are no wrinkles. Then this strongback system is tied up every 2, 3 or 4 feet to some roof structure. The sides and bot. of the screen mat’l. are supported in some way to prevent it from blowing around from the A/C breeze. Study that top support system and tie it off (clamp it, whatever) to some new lowering strongbacks and lower these new strongacks incrementally and in unison, with some light blocks and tackles. I’ve never done this, so this is my best guess. Ask they guy you were talking with how they install them, can you rent the equipment for a couple weeks?
 
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dhengr,

The videos look like they have roll and place it vertical and unwind it some and put the hooks in and then move it along a little and repeat. It just feels very adhoc for working with something so fragile. I guess you could do it that way but then you couldn't fold it to fit in a 14 foot crate. I am not sure how confident I am of a crew doing this for all 90 feet with a screen roll sticking close to 70 feet in the air. The scaffolding itself is high enough up to make my balls tingle. I am taking a look at it on Thursday. I am passed thinking my ragtag crew of knuckle draggers could maybe do it. I think I have to find pros. A lady I talked to said that when they switched from IMAX, there was a crew that came out and rolled the IMAX screen up and put it on the dock.

I bought out the gear on a huge theater that is closing due to COVID-19. I think I can flip the gear and get my money back but I would like to open a theater. If I am not seen or heard from ever again after this weekend, tell law enforcement my wife killed me over this purchase and it had nothing to due with any argument I had with Dik over renewables. :0
 
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Fischstabchen:
With 5400 sq.ft. of whatever, I’d figure out a special use for that screen material, and sell it for $50 or $100/sq.ft., so treat it very gently. With scaffolding already in place, could you just roll it up from the bottom, up to the top, and unhook it? Could you cut it into 30’ widths and do it a third at a time? I suspect that a 95’ long piece of pipe would be pretty limber, but here goes. You fix the pipe to the bottom edge of the screen matr’l., maybe just duct tape so you can get 6 or 8 wraps to start with; you need some sort of a climbing device at each end of the pipe, which climbs and attaches to a scaffolding leg near the end of the pipe, outside the width of the screen matr’l.; you need a cranking mechanism (rolling the pipe) at each end of the pipe; and you start cranking, climbing and rollin it up. The climbing and cranking mechanism is supported, guided and stabilized by the scaffolding legs, which also take some of its weight. Except for the weight of the pipe maybe 3 or 4lbs./ft. of pipe length, the support at the top of the screen matr’l. sees no other new weight. You need a number of people on the scaffolding to keep the wrinkles out of the matr’l. mid-span, as it is rolled up on the pipe.
 
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Dik,

Can you have a 90 foot long pipe held up by a cherry picker? Will 90 feet or I guess 45 feet of pipe if you hold it in the middle hold up? How much pipe can hold its own weight?

I was brainstorming with my brother and we thought we could disconnect each top connection and tie or attach the fishing line to something on the ground and then go back and forth down the line, lower one line a little at a time so that none of the connections hold too much weight.
 
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The widest that I have done is 45' wide. We were able to buy (had it made) a 50' length of fiberglass pipe (6") That we rolled the screen on. We started at the bottom and rolled up to the top.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed
 
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If you can accommodate the balance, I suspect the next issue would be deflection. I would have thought that you would need 4 or 5 pickup locations. Is the screne serviceable?

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik
 
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Dik,

I am going to look at it on Thursday. It is only 5 years old so probably in good shape. It is a special silver screen for 3d. If it was just a white screen, I probably wouldn't bother.
 
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