Transform Your TV

The TV Pixelator

I originally stumbled on this idea a few years back in an issue of Ready Made magazine. Their plans included wax paper and toilet paper tubes, but I wanted something sturdier. After trying a few different combinations, this is what I came up with.

A TV pixelator is great for parties. Turn on a bright and colorful channel with fast edits and lots of colors (music videos or cartoons work best, but ANYTHING looks neat!) and hit the mute button. Place the pixelator in front of your television and put on your own music for an instant light show.

Supplies will vary slightly, because you’ll need to measure your television and adjust measurements accordingly.

Here’s what I used for my 20” set:

Three 2” x 36” craft boards, cut into five 16” long pieces.
16” x 3” panel
39 1½” PVC couplers
12” x 14” picture frame
13” x 15” of white knit fabric

You’ll also need:

black spray paint
hammer & nails
staple gun
saw
wood glue
strong craft glue (I like E-6000.)

To build the outside box and the front panel, you can use whatever scrap wood you have lying around, or can salvage from another project. Pine craft boards were only $1.50 each. The PVC couplers (the hard plastic straight pieces that are meant to connect two pieces of PVC pipe) run about 40 cents a piece. You can use any type of white fabric, as long as light will shine through it. Even an old white T-shirt would work.

Get to Work!

1. Before you buy anything else, measure your television and estimate the number of PVC couplers you will need. I used 39 couplers for my 17” set. Buy these first. Use plenty of craft glue to stick them together, making a big piece that will cover the majority of your screen, without overlapping it. Once it’s dry, measure the finished coupler piece.

2. Use this measurement to determine how big your box will be and the amount of wood you’ll need to make it. It will also tell you what size picture frame you’ll need. If you’re not familiar with standard frame sizes, you may want to trace the shape of your coupler piece onto a large sheet of paper, which you can bring with you to the frame store. My coupler piece measured 12” x 16”, which is a standard frame size.

3. After buying the rest of your supplies, measure and cut your wood to the correct sizes. Build the outside box that the coupler will fit into, and use wood glue to adhere the corners together. Clamp these, or use pieces of painters’ tape to hold them together while they dry. Check your wood glue’s instructions to see how long they’ll need to set (mine said 30 minutes) and then hammer nails through the spots you just glued.

4. Place your coupler piece into the frame (it should fit snugly) and turn the whole piece upside down. Finish the frame by gluing, and then nailing the inside board. Measure and cut the bass wood to fit the space below the coupler piece.

6. Use a thin line of epoxy glue to adhere the glass to the picture frame. (There will be some space between the glass and the fabric. This will ensure that the glass doesn’t slide around.) Use a staple gun to stretch the fabric over the back of the frame. Trim fabric to fit, and cover the edges of the fabric with clear tape, to keep them from fraying.

7. Place the coupler piece back into the wood frame. Finally, use the epoxy glue to glue the back of the picture frame to the front of your wood frame, centering the frame on the couplers.

8. Place your Pixelator in front of your television and enjoy your own personal light show!

The Hipster’s Guide, US

PROFILE

The Hipster’s Guide to Conquering Domestica was a blog by Corey Marie.

Towards the end of 2008, she was offered an opportunity to write it as a weekly column for Brick Weekly in Richmond, VA and this blog contains those articles, as well as other tutorials, reviews, lists of links and posts about her own personal projects.

Main Research Source

Transform your TV - The Hipster's Guide (archived)(05/03/09)