Hello all. I am going to rebuild my sloppy joe projector, and I was wondering what could I get to build it out of instead of mdf. I am looking for some aluminum for the job or a metal that is cheap and highly manipulative.

Some of the more beautiful projector housings I've seen have been done with fiber glass molds I believe? pun15her has some awesome stuff you could look for.

you mentioned fiberglass molds, then you mention pun15her. just to clarify, pun15her used MDF and a lot of craftsmanship and finish work to make his PJ look like it was some sort of fiberglass mold. not sure if you were implying that or not. most people around here use MDF and Plywood, but I know of an aluminum haas design... sorry can't think of the members name... hmmm...


edit: ahh.. searching found it right away. http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=261806

I wouldn't think an all metal enclosure would be that good of an idea (unless it was well insulated). Especially not aluminum because it's such a good conductor of heat. After a short time the outside of the box around the bulb would be the same temp as the inside around the bulb (very hot!).

Also, questions such as this belong in the Beginner's Forum.

I thought about that after I posted. You're right, I wasn't combining the two together, it was more of a ramble of consciousness. I just remember he made some pretty cool stuff and I was posting to quick to find any examples of cool fiber glass stuff.

Actually, Aluminium has been used with success. There was another fellow who did one, actually lives very close to me.

Yes, it gets hot, but with Aluminium being a good condictor of heat this simply means that there is a lot more surface area for it to dissipate the heat with. (Personally, I'd probably incorporate fins to dissipate heat even better.)

yeah, one of the major draws of aluminium for me s that it is such a good conductor. More heat in the aluminium means less heat inside the box where your LCD is, you just have to make sure you have somewhere to grab hold of which isn't made of aluminium

Like any metal,aluminum is also a good conductor of electricity.Don't plug anything in until its adequately insulated,especially careful with circuit boards.One little tiny line on a PCB touches metal and ZAP,even static will ruin a integrated circuit.Be sure your physically grounded for static electricity.