I have included my dad in this project , and he is a perfectionist .. That has made things move along slower than I would like , but the results will be worth it .. He was a carpenter in his early years .. We both have an Aircraft structural back ground too , working for the Air Force .. Here are some pic's to show , so long as I can upload them .. I may need to shrink them , seeing that I'm using an Olympus C5050 to take them with ..

Front

Side

Back


This is all constructed from 1/2" Birch plywood .. I ( We ) wanted the box to be light , and not some heavy lead thing .. MDF is cheap , but REALLY heavy .. Notice the dato cuts , and vaneering .. All joints are glued , and finish nailed .. It's a strong box , and light .. You can lift this with out a single Grunt !! Hehehee

Progress

Back , with Mounted ballast Outside the Box ..

Preliminary wire , and Ops check - Good !! With the exception of my EYE Lamp blowing out .. I will post that pic too .. Pictured is a Phillips MH from HomeDe'Pot .. I will have to purchase a new lamp to replace it , and make this a emergency backup lamp .. Works for now . Brain said there has been a rash of defective EYE lamps out there .. Be careful when doing your first lighting of your EYE if you have one .. Make sure your top is on your box .. Mine had minor cracks in the outer glass after , from the wire melting and spattering on the outer glass , so use caution .. I would think it's possible that a fluke of chance one could shatter .. Think safety ..

Side with BenQ controls mounted . Notice the foward hole . That is where I will extend the monitor's VGA cable through .. This is all still in progress , and I'm excited to get it complete .. The wood will be stained to match my entertainment center , and coated with the Poly wolly stuff to finish the outside .. Open to ideas , and comments .. I hope these pic's may help others , in there plans .. As always , good luck to all ...

Congrats to you and your dad. This is a very good projector. I like the quality and simplicity of it, very inspiring for my own project.

I like the birch plywood idea; gotta be brave to cut into pricey wood like that, but the results will be very impressive!
I'm curious about the weight thing; I haven't seen anything on any of the boards.... has anybody stepped onto the scales holding their projector yet? Just curious what these really weigh in at, with either ballast. Can somebody post a few? These designs put a lot of thought into focusing mechanisms, cooling, etc.
Other than going w 1/2 mdf I haven't seen many ventures into weight reducing ideas for the cabinet.

Trooper,

I like your style~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nice and neat! Will be a great project. Ill be watching.Be Looking for aircraft safety on keystone adjustment.

edon

That's a very handsome box. I like the simple way you're mounting the fresnels and panel. I'm thinking of doing something similar - just making grooves that they'll slide in and out of rather than messing with channels and glue, except I'll probably have my front fresnel framed to allow for the top-swinging keystone-adjustment mechanism. Your design also makes me think that the "ballast-outside-the-box" method is the way to go. Gives more interior working room and seems a lot easier to cool the box.

So you sandwiched both fresnels between glass? It also looks like you have the tempered glass set back a little...

I'd like to see the box with the lcd in place. Looking good, though.

Thanks for all the compliments .. At this time I plan on not doing any keystone correction .. I do have a simple idea , and may incorperate it later on . I ordered the N6 yesterday , so that should be on it's way ..
junkmanDave , I would estimate my box weight at about 30 U.S. pounds .. I will try to scale when I have the oppertunity .. You're right though , I haven't seen anyone post a weight .. Just complaints of being heavy .. I have both ballasts , and I can tell you that the other ballst is at Least 2 Times the wieght of this one pictured in my post ..
Christopher , it's recommended ( the ballast outside ) to be away from the lamp .. My fresnels have glass on the grooved side only .. I did this for ease of cleaning , and protection .. I used metal tape around the edges to keep them together and seal them .. The tempered is back a distance , yes ,, I did that for radiant / conductive heat purposeses.. I haven't temped tested it with any thermal guage , but my first fresnel remained cool to the touch , which means it's below body temp .. Also , I ordered 3/16th thickness , which wasn't but pennies more for that size pane..
The plywood wasn't too pricey , at about $35.00 dollars for the full sheet .. It was more if I was to buy smaller pieces .. I will have about 1/3 the sheet left for something else ..
I will hopefully have this complete by this weekend .. Then I will have some screen shots .. For those who like the simple idea's , you may want to consider the BenQ monitors .. For grounding I left the boards attached to the metal , and all I will need is one wire to the LCD board to complete it .. The box is about 2 inches deeper than the plans to accomidate for the LCD boards in case .. I would talk more of my plans , but pics say it easier .. I'll be back with more soon .. Take care all !!

the wood looks nice, a lot better than mine.

Mind telling from where you bought the N6 and the price ? Thanks.

I bought the N6 at newegg . I do almost all my shopping there . Excellent sevice ! I should have it today , and I ordered it 3 days ago .. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-116-003&depa=0 This is the link , hope it works .. 179 bucks and 10 buck shippin' .. So that's $ 189.00 total ..

Tropper, Sorry I could save you couple bucks if I knew you have intention to buy a N6. Neweeg is a pretty good seller but buy.com has a better deal at N6.
But anyways, it can help someone else. I got my, for $150, free shipping. I used 10% discount (not available anymore) and this $10 coupon. http://www.buy.com/retail/coupon.asp?prid=...4947&dcaid=1688
Also I just found this limited time promotion:
http://www.buy.com/corp/promos/greatfun.as...070&dcaid=17070
$25 off cash back.
And free shipping.
Check it out guys; maybe this is a change to get a N6 a really good price.

Cheers

Sidney
Ps: BTW, Tropper congratulation for the excellet job, your father and you, made in your pj.

Discovered this in my wheel spinning exercise. Newegg don't ship internationally ! But at least they state so. Buy.com don't specifically state so, but you proceed through the rigmarole of registering only to find when you come to the "Zip Code" entry that it won't accept alpha numeric Postal Codes, and that's their way of telling you that you are a persona non grata. :angry:

Here is the blown EYE that I never got to see.. No joke intended ..

a persona non grata. Hmmm , sorry to hear that menuball .. That must be frustrating ..
It would have been nice to save a few bucks , but I was quick to buy and didn't shop .. Thanks for the info , I'll try to keep Buy.com in mind for later purchases ..
I only hope the PJ works as good as it looks , hopefully I will have some pic's this weekend to post .. I'm getting the itch to have it Done !!

good job... looks nice

Monster's INC. I finally have pic's !

I have light leaks and tweaking yet to be done , but Holy picture!

My son Nate , was nice enough to get in on some of the pic's .. He said " This is the best thing you could ever have ! " While he smiled like this -->

O.K. to answer JunkmanDave's question about weight , I did just that today before I brought my PJ home for some viewing pleasure ..

My PJ weight is 38 U.S. pounds , on the nose .. Now I don't know what that may be in kgm's , but I'm sure if needed , you'll find a way for converting the weight ..

I've had numerous questions , and I will try to do my best to get to as many as I can .. Thanks Again to all here , there's so much info , and helpful people !! This thing is Awsome !! The best thing is , if something goes wrong ,,, I can fix it !! That is something that Kicks Arse's in my book !

Awesome results !

This is great, thank also for all the help (PM and all). I hope that I'll get results somewhere close to yours (that'd make me very happy).

38 pouds = 17.24 Kg :-)

Well, I think you have quite an accomplishment. A very good looking cabinet with some nice touches and the "proof of the pudding" very good results when it comes to picture quality. You must be very pleased with both yourself and the contribution "the perfectionist" made. Bear that in mind next Father's Day !

[QUOTE]You must be very pleased with both yourself and the contribution "the perfectionist" made. Bear that in mind next Father's Day !

Indeed .. He is always willing to help us kids when he can . That's what dad's do , and being one myself I understand ...

Here is another pic , I couldn't resist Brother Bear and these guys .. I seem to get slightly dimmer around the outside of my projection .. Anyone have an idea of how to fix this and make it more even ? Moving the lamp back ?? Would that help ? Brain ??

It may not reflect it much in my pic's , and it's only slight .. I'd like to even it out if I can though ..

If you haven't cut into the FOV the most likely cause is the lamp to rear fresnel distance.

Thanks Brain I havn't cut into the FOV , so it must be the lamp to first fresnel .. My guess is to move the lamp back a little .. I will give that a shot later on , when I can find the time to adjust it .. I adjusted my monitor to a brighter setting , and it's like the problem dosen't exist .. Hmmm , Soo many things you can do to fine tune this thing ... It's all fun though .. I love my PJ , so thanks Brain for everything !!

Just make sure the lamp arc (dead center) to rear fresnel is 8.6". The lamp not being mounted in the reflector properly can also cause issues.

Thanks Brain !! I will make a templet exactly that length , and measure to the center of the arc . If that's fine , I will take a closer look at my Norpro depth .. Considering my request is not in the help section , I really appreciate you stepping out into the gallery to answer me Brain .. You're the man ! Take Care ...

Finding Nemo

Trooper,
Nice job on the case and beautiful results. I would like to know which monitor you used.
Thank
John

any chance of getting a look inside the finished pj? how hard was it to strip your monitor?

Norpro , and bulb from HomeDe'Pot still . This wire job is still temp.. I will attach teminal ends , and make it flow along the walls later when I have time .. I used red for ground , due to that was all I had at the time .. I will be adding flashing and spacer's to keep it just off the wood .. An extra fan too , for back up , and security .. That way if one sheit's out , I'll still have one running .. I don't need to be watchin' a movie and see my screen melt B4 my eyes .. Uuuuuh ,,,,,, No !

Stripping BenQ helpI used a BenQ 557 v2 like many people here . There is a post in the help section on stripping ..http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=545&st=0 It was pretty easy for me .. I cut the size of the back down so it would fit in the box .. Also , my box is about 2 inches deeper than in the guide , which helps clear everything .. I did that also for tweaking .. I had some light spilling on the top of my foc lens in the beginning .. I resolved this by dropping both fresnels about 1/4" .. Good to have the extra room to do it , otherwise I would have had to adjust the lamp like most peeps in that case..

This part is a little tough to get right .. The key to this in stripping , is using a sheetrock type blade and relieve the white plastic rivit heads on the back .. After takeing the little board off first that is .. You're home free to get out of it what you want .. I used superglue to retack the black to the face plate .. I could have avoided moding my box a little , if I located the plate and wire differently .. Oh well , no one looks inside right ?? Hehehee..

View of the front .. I hope this will do for now .. I'd rather post more later , when it's !00% Complete and tweaked , and in all it's glory .. Thanks for the compliments , and I hope these turn out to be helpful .. As always , Take care , and Good Luck in your PJ !! I know , that sounds dorky huh ??

Heheheeee

Nice setup Trooper

Thanks Joe !!

Wiring is very clean.

Awsome set-up Trooper! Really neat, good-looking job - going to use birch-plywood on my PJ now. Thanks for the inspiration man!!!

Cheers!

- Mugsy

johnm , Thanks for the compliment . I wish you luck I have made some long overdue progress , and will post pic's soon . Additional fan , staining , and poly.. I also have the UV protection that I will have to apply to my first frez , on the glass side with the metal tape I used .. I dunno' about a pic of that , but will see what I can do .. Take Care all ,

Trooper

from this picture, it looks like the contrast might be set a tick too high, but this may not be the case. correct me if i am wrong.

I am no expert but the picture quality looks really good to me, what would too much contrast look like anyway, wouldn't you want the highest contrast possible? I guess it depends.

[QUOTE]from this picture, it looks like the contrast might be set a tick too high, but this may not be the case. correct me if i am wrong.

Nick , The image in question is as follows . Default settings on the BenQ ,-- 122" Dia. Image--, Projected on my white wall . As I said , that shot had no adjustments done to the monitor . I would say you stand Corrected . I'm glad you could notice such detail in my pic .. I have a tough time telling much from your's contained in your gallery posts . Good Day ..


Trooper

Wiring is super nice

Hey Trooper, is that some sort of trim around the top that forms the rim of the box?