Since money is tight and I'm a cheapskate by nature, I set out to see just how inexpensively I could arrive at decent results. Like many, I found LL by way of Tom's OHP guide (and several other circuitous routes) so I decided to go that route first, to get a handle on how the whole thing works and then adapt my design from there. There are likely to be huge gaps in my narrative, as most of my time is dominated by raising two-year-old twins and squeezing some work in here and there. Moreover, I'm just not that detail oriented. With that being said, here beginneth the PLOG...

A little while back I snagged a 15" Detel (rebadged Tatung L5CES) for a good deal. Decent specs: 1024 x 786, 350:1, 30ms response; stripped fairly easily but it had a FFC issue, so I picked up an extension from LL ($12).

I also scored a Dukane 670 "Light Source 2" on ebay for $29.99, plus about $20 shipping. This OHP has the 575 HMI bulb a few members (Yoshuaspawn, Hirudin, etc.) have mentioned in the past, as well as a nice triplet and fs mirror. Unfortunately, my bulb showed up broken, so the seller kindly knocked $10 off the price, which I quickly put towards a new bulb (~$40) from 18Wheeler/YWH.

At this point, those parts constitute my projector. The glass stage of the OHP is too small for my LCD, so I'm downscaling and offsetting with Zoom Player (a GREAT piece of software that, surprisingly, doesn't get much press around LL). I do have 2 larger, 330mm fresnels and a condenser lens from Surplus Shed but I'm still deciding which tack to take. In all likelihood, I'll go split, folded vertical, essentially reorganizing the OHP inside a more attractive case.

Anyway, here's what I have so far. Projected on a gray basement wall, about 80" diagonal, during the day with shades drawn.

Congrats on one of the most INexpensive builds I've yet to see!!!

very nice.

Brilliant, Sensibull!!!

Very descent, congratz, I also thought, I will do this on a budget..ah well, $500 later and counting.. should be worth it though..aaarrghh..Lumenlab, Lumenlab I too caught the bug.(note to self, stop making bad jokes and start building )

You got a great deal on the OHP they sell for around $90.00 most of the time

The surplus shed condenser is a bad idea with the 575 HMI lamp, they will crack. You will want to look for a high heat one.

You might want to look at the pre condenser lens thread.

Pictures look good.

Thanks for the feedback, AV. Ah well, I'm sure I'll come up with a use for it sooner or later

nice results for a budget PJ.

Nice results on a inexspensive PJ,just think what you can do if you put some more money and time into it.

RR

Baby steps, my friend. I'm not done, not by a long shot, but I was able to save a lot of $$ simply by being patient and waiting for the good deals to come around.

I asked on another thread how to compute size of needed fs mirror, and got no response Is the answer simply to do a scaled ray trace? Or is there some handy dandy computational tool I can use?

ray trace, easiest way. thats what I did.