Well I was looking at this site for all of two days before I decided I wanted to make one of these projectors. I always enjoy building things and I was looking for a project and I guess I found one. I decided to go with the Haas style because that one had the most appeal to me.

I have the projector most of the way done and only need a weekend or 2 more to finish it. I held off on starting a plog cause I was affraid I was going to mess something up and not be able to fix it.

Anyway I guess I will start from the beginning.

The specs for my projector are
Standard haas box built by me
Standard lumenlab lens kit
400w metal halide with ballast
nec 1560m 15" lcd 450:1 (got it on ebay it had a bad backlight)

The nec does have an ffc issue as it says on the compatible monitor list but i'm hoping it won't be too bad to extend.

I'll start getting the pictures up soon along with the description of the build.

I cut the side panels based off the measurements in haasman's plans.
projector side panels

Cool cool, post the pics soo that you dont have to click a link though.

Yeah I was wondering how to do that. My picture files are all around 800kb and the max that it lets me upload is 110k

...anyway when i figure this out I will add some more pics.

just use a an editing program and lower the rez if needed, or if it allows you to select jpg quality you can lower that as well.



edited for gimpyness

When you add in pictures, use this code [img][/img]. In between those two tags insert your picture url. If you plan on using ImageShack from now on, use the "direct" link on the bottom.

Here's your picture:

Alright thanks for the help.

Here is the box put together. I have the fan hole cut out in the back haven't cut the front yet in this pic.


This is the front with the focusing mechanism. I found a black shower drain at lowe's, I think, so I went with that.


Pic of the projector with the bottom in and the fan in. I also have the powerswitch and the power entry in the back

Awesome. I'm currently redesigning my pj. Its going to be a bit closer to Haas, with some "me" touches

Awesome job man.

Nice job so far. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

here is a view from the back

any updates?

you just had to throw that done by a 15 year old in ther didnt you

I am going with the threaded railing system to make my projector adjustable. With the threaded rods I can move the fresnels and lcd back and forth and up and down to get it perfectly aligned. I will post pictures of that later, I don't have it on my camera.

Keeping with the adjustable theme I came up with this


I didn't want to route into the side panel of the projector (I knew I wouldn't be able to make a straight line) so I took a couple pieces of wood and routed the corner off of them The top side of the boards you see in the picture will be down to make a keyhole groove.

Next I needed the light bulb to slide

I routed a space for the two other boards to fit in there and still letting it slide.

With the boards attached to the side


With the slider on

Nice, nice

is that an 80mm fan or a 120??

looks good so far

It's a 120mm fan.

I painted the inside of the box.


I painted the whole thing black. Here's the outside.


You can see all the "junk" I have piled in the background.

I decided not to put the ballast in the box. I am going to make a base for my projector and have it so I can put a dvd player on it and I can just work the ballast into that. After I get that built I will work on wiring it and stripping the lcd.

anymore updates?

I have more that I will post soon I haven't been on much the last few weeks because my cousins and uncle are visiting us from Montana. I only get to see them one every 4 or 5 years so I haven't really spent any time with my plog. I got the base done and the entire thing put together and wired. I have a little bit of painting left to do but it is in working condition and I have watched several movies on it already.

I ran into a problem with my monitor not being hdcp compliant so I couldn't hook up my upconverting dvd player to it until I got a vga transcoder, but I have that now and everything is working great. Now all I have to do is get off my lazy butt and finish posting the pictures.

I also need to get a projector screen because the wall I am projecting onto is a dark green. The picture is still very good and I really don't even notice it being projected onto the dark wall until I hold up a white poster board for the image to project onto and then it amazes me how bright it is. I am not sure what I am going to use for the projector screen yet. I haven't found anything yet that is a 120" diagnal 4:3 ratio without seams.

Anyway I just turned 16 this week and got my drivers license(first try) so I have to go job hunting now, but I will try and post more pictures of the projector this weekend.

Ok so the next thing I worked on was the base. I wanted a design that allowed my to hide the ballast and still be able to put a dvd player on it. I was limited on wood and didn't want to buy any more so I used a bunch of crappy pine that we had laying around in an old barn. Most of the boards were split down the middle so I just cut them in strips about 5 inches wide and routered into the sides of them and used a wooden biscuit and glue to hold them together. The base is around 23" long and 17" wide, and the whole thing is made out of 13 boards that were glued together. I didn't get a picture of it without the projector attached to it so here it is with the projector mounted.


(This picture didn't turn out so well its kind of on the yellow side)


Here's one more from the front


Next thing that's comming is wiring and stripping the lcd. Then I have to finish putting the box together and then I am ready for some screen shots!

nice!