DIY Privacy Display - Recycle your monitors in a badass way
DIY Privacy Display - Recycle your monitors in a badass way
2015-11-25
so there's this really cool kind of
trick effect that you can do with an LCD
or LED monitor where you remove the
polarizing filter and then mount a
polarizing filter into a pair of glasses
very easy to do with some 3d glasses
that results in a monitor that looks
like it just emits white and nothing
else but if you're wearing the right
glasses you actually see what's on
screen let's check it out
ozone gaming strike battle keyboard is a
10 keyless compact keyboard with
multiple Cherry MX switch variants as
well as 30 macro keys with five profiles
check out the link in the video
description to learn more so this isn't
an original Linus tech tips idea this
was posted by two different people about
two years ago on YouTube it was posted
by BrussPup and on Instructables it was
posted by de movi and there's also two
different methods of doing this they
both start with taking off the bezel of
the monitor and then using a knife to
cut a perimeter around the screen it's
very sketchy but oh well
and then by chiseling off the polarizing
filter getting rid of the glue somehow
with a solvent of some sort and then
mounting a polarizing filter in a pair
of glasses sounds pretty straightforward
so far the differentiating part is
whether or not you buy some polarizing
filters or reuse the polarizing filter
off of your screen buying them sounds
like more of a sure shot so I made sure
that I had some before we started this
but we're going to see which one works
best and we're going to go through the
whole process on camera okay so first
things first I need to clear this area I
need to get my eye fix it kit ready and
my screwdriver because I have to tear
the bezel off of this guy I'm going to
remove the stand one interesting tidbit
I've already kind of done this I used a
different monitor and it's super didn't
work and you might be wondering why I
would release this video if it like
super failed once already the problem
there was there was a pre-existing crack
on the monitor so when I'm trying to
pull off the polarizing filter this glue
under there the pre-existing crack
spreads and I just ripped the whole
thing in half so hopefully it doesn't
happen again and if not we'll probably
be good removing bezels on monitors kind
of super sucks I'm going to do something
that's not super visually appealing and
use just a flathead to pry it off
realistically you're supposed to use a
spudger but I just bent the whole head
off of one of mine because it wasn't
really working properly the problem with
this guy and the reason why it's going
to be pretty ugly is it's metal and it
doesn't give it all might be night
if you have something plastic so we can
give a little bit I might end up messing
up some of the plastic here so what I'm
going to do is start on the bottom that
way it's hopefully going to be the least
viewed part of the monitor
and see look at this my proper prying
tools don't really seem to be surviving
I just torqued the whole end off of that
one so rip I guess I'll go back to using
my probably not going to be as pretty
but screwdriver trick I ended up
starting on the top because the bottom
was giving me too much troubles you can
see the starting point is pretty rough
actually that's why I suggest maybe
taking a little bit more time with it
using a more proper tool and then from
there on it's not too bad they'll just
see little bumps here in there from the
flathead but it's not really the end of
the world I know people will care and it
will bug me so whatever
okay bezel is hopefully off what is
going on down here
oh dear hey some cables go to the
buttons I was kind of hoping that these
were just going to be button plates and
the actual button was going to be under
them and not on the bezel that is not
true as you can see the whole mechanism
is in here and then it goes through a
wire into the thing so I'm not actually
gonna be able to get this out which
super sucks
oh no yeah I'm not gonna really get it
out so I'm gonna have to get a support
for it and then I'll be able to work
around it one little tidbit that I
recommend I learned from the last
monitor that your initial perimeter cut
is actually pretty important I would
recommend a sturdier hopefully bit
sharper knife for the actual perimeter
because you want a nice clean cut
if that part makes it in the video
everyone's going to spear me for cutting
towards myself so right now I'm just
trying to connect the corners so I cut
for perimeter lines but they don't
necessarily completely match up so I'm
just trying to bridge them okay so our
perimeter lines have been cut we're
mostly done with the nice big knife now
what we need to do is try to get under
those lines that we cut and start
actually pulling up the polarizing
filter now remember there is glue under
this entire thing so while you can pull
it up sometimes you do really need to
chisel under there and separate the
polarizing filter from the actual panel
so the reason why you want a nice clean
cut with probably a nicer knife around
the perimeter is once you kind of get
started with your chisel as you go along
the side where you cut should just kind
of clump oh that bird shouldn't go in
the video that's bad I was just
commenting about how I shouldn't be
cutting towards myself
so the reason why you want a nice clean
cut with your probably sharper knife
around the perimeter is so that when
you're moving along with the chisel the
perimeter actually comes up so as you
can see here I'm pushing in and then
sliding out angling a little bit pushing
in again and just moving along and the
perimeter should just kind of come up
with my knife which is actually quite
helpful so that it keeps a clean edge
when you enter the first time with your
chisel it's probably going to be a
little bit messy but once you start
going everything does get easier another
helpful trick is to not necessarily pull
the polarizing filter all the time and
time to kind of rip it off but hold it
up so you get your chisel under there
more easily once you have some room like
I do now it's much easier to do this at
the beginning obviously that's not
really going to work so I've got this
whole side off and I've got a bit of the
top and a bit of the bottom off it
starts to go a lot faster now I will
note this might not be the experience
with every monitor I do believe the
amount of glue used on each monitor is
definitely different
but with this one it is going quite a
bit faster another thing that's helping
me is the clean sharp cut that I got all
the way around the monitor which will
feel super sketchy while you're doing it
but is actually totally fine so don't
worry about it so up here it started to
break a few times yeah I don't really
know what's going on with that probably
something's wrong with the cut I do
notice there's some strand of something
here so what I might do is grab the
knife that I originally did the
perimeter with and kind of rerun this
area a little bit just to make sure that
it's actually okay so this top bit for
me is pretty rough I keep getting cracks
constantly going down from the top but
my bottom line is super clean so
hopefully I'll have a lot of usable
filter and kind of this area and I'll
just have to ignore the top left I guess
almost let go come on there we go okay
so there's our polarizing filter we've
got kind of an ugly entry here where I
started and then some big cuts up here
which are pretty unfortunate but I have
a lot of usable space to cut out lenses
to replace on here or there the other
method which I'm also going to do which
is where we have purchased polarizing
filters for like I don't know not that
much off of Amazon and we'll try each
method see which one's better so just a
note is that this stuff on the screen
isn't actually slashes or cuts into the
screen this is all just glue residue so
I need to clean it up somehow hopefully
I can use isopropyl alcohol because
that's all I really have on hand but I
know people have been using goo begone
so we'll see what has happened there
hey do we have goo be gone do we have
goo be gone but I have been using a
shirt because the paper towel was
leaving a whole bunch of crap behind and
I wouldn't recommend that if you
actually ever want to wear the shirt
again so just a note Wow okay so yeah
using a proper thing that is designed
for removing glue probably a good idea
this is so much easier so one thing I
would recommend is making sure that you
let your whatever goo removal stuff you
use to sit for probably a while and then
kind of pad it off and take it off
nicely and then do it again and let it
sit and do it again and let it sit and
just keep on doing that to the point
where you can fairly easily just wipe
the glue off I as you guys saw use the
chisel blade which was recommended on a
few guides online saying that the blade
definitely wouldn't scratch the monitor
but there are lines going along the
monitor that you can see from just the
edge of the knife so a little bit just
point in that and yeah try to make sure
that your solvent solution does more of
the work than you do and I think we'll
be fine we're going to call it quits
there in terms of trying to touch up the
panel I'm going to try to get this
monitor back together I knew those wires
were going to be a problem all right
one thing again to take note of is you
can do this with pretty much whatever
panel you want but I recommend going my
route and buying some kind of cheap
panel off some dude who's moving on
Craigslist because it's not a perfect
method but we'll talk about that more
later now what we need to do is plug
this guy in make sure it's all white
which I'm sure it will be and then check
out the alignment for these filters so I
can cut them into some glasses can you
even see that right you want to plug the
lan show computer
okay so it works a kind of frustrating
thing happened while we were going
though nothing went wrong with the
actual removal of the polarizing filter
or anything but it seems like the
inverter on the monitor has ripp died at
some point in time so if I shove this
guy on here and change the source you'll
see it works but then goes away almost
immediately so we're going to go through
the rest of it I'm going to make some
glasses I'm going to test some things
but pretty disappointed at the monitor
died so I'm going to have to kind of
rotate trying to turn this thing on and
then try to figure out what orientation
these things need to go before I cut
them oh that's really close yeah
yeah that's good so now I know from does
not letting go of it that this part
needs to be going up use my lens that I
popped out of my glasses earlier squish
that kind of against the polarizing
filter and I'm going to use a thin
sharpie to outline it and then I'm just
going to cut on the inside of the
outline and then it should work
okay so I've cut my filter now it's time
to actually fit it into my pair of
glasses I think that works so far feel
like a hipster not having one of my
lenses there but now I just need to fit
one more of them and I think we'll be
good all right so my glasses are set up
and ready to go let's see if they
actually work
there we go all right so the glasses do
work sorry that the inverter is worked
so you can't really see it all that well
but something I'm going to do is
actually pass these to Brandon and then
hold those over the lens I'm going to do
this live and then I'm going to change
the source and hopefully you guys will
be able to see it better with that over
the lens give me a moment I'm going to
have no idea when this works because I'm
not actually gonna be able to see it
that good okay there we go so the
project worked the monitor didn't but
the inverter dying had nothing to do
with what we did for the project so poor
old like 10-year old flat Ron is is
gonna have to be retired and recycled
after this but oh well I would still
recommend getting an old monitor
I just wouldn't necessarily recommend
getting a very old monitor or one that
you don't trust I bought this one off
Craigslist's for 30 bucks or something
and I only tested it for about two
minutes two weeks ago and now fast
forward two weeks the inverters dead
things are bad another little bit that I
have to say is while being able to
remove the polarizing filter that was on
the monitor and using it again is cool
you also need to remove the anti glare
filter off of here and while it's
possible by soaking it in hot water and
then trying to peel it off like a
sticker and stuff it's really annoying
and the polarizing filters from Amazon
are super cheap and work really well one
thing to note on here is that they also
have a film on it a sticker like
substance which is just supposed to
protect them but it's super easy to take
off so not nearly the same problem that
we have with the anti glare filter
another thing is the goof off or goobie
gun or whatever the heck paint thinner
you end up using to remove your glue let
it sit on there for a while dry it off
let it sit again dry it off let it sit
again do that a few times so that you
don't have to scrape the glue off it
should come off much more evenly and
you'll have a better time I probably
should have done that but honestly it
wasn't that hard
it was scat
she it feels very weird bringing a knife
to a monitor screen it doesn't feel
natural but yeah if you guys do it
please post it on the forum I'd like to
see your projects Mack welding gear
ranging from underwear to undershirts
t-shirts socks sweats and they're really
easy to order and honestly they're
really easy to wear too I mean they're
boxers are literally cradling my man
parts as we speak and I do a great job
of it something that's pretty great is
that their products are naturally
antimicrobial but especially the pima
cotton with silver xt2 ones so I swear
to my girlfriend if you're watching this
these were cleaned before I put them on
but you in the audience should run an
experiment where you get the silver ones
and see how long you can wear them until
they you know like actually smell for
science anyways by the way if you hit up
the Mac Weldon comm website and use the
promo code Linus you get 20% off so I
don't know check it out thanks for
watching guys if you disliked the video
cuz you're like wow the project didn't
really fully work because the inverter
died be sure to press the dislike button
if you liked the project because it kind
of sort of worked at the same time press
the like button get subscribe favorite
share all that fun stuff go on Amazon
use our amazon affiliate code by some of
our shirts and the link of the video
description down below or become a
contributor on the forum you want to see
other crazy projects there's the
conclusion to my fallout build which
definitely falls under the category of
crazy project so click up here to watch
that
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.