Ok, first a list of what I'm using:

Benq 557s v2 $179.99
LL EBallast $99.99
LL Lens kit $64.98
LL UV Filter $7.99
LL Mogul $ 9.99
Atlanta Light Bulbs
UHI-S400DD USHIO $37.95
Ikea Napkin Reflector $7.95
Wood $35.00

Total $443.84

Not to bad so far. Now I have no tools but I picked up a jig saw and a sander from HD, when I'm done I'll return them for a refund so I'm not counting that in the cost. But let me explain, I used to work there so they let me get buy with little things like that. Didn't know if I would be able to build one of these but I thought I'd give it a try. Now I figured if I crashed and burned I really wanted to go down big so I thought instead of the standard box I'd give hass's projector design a try. Well I finished the initial build today with tremendous success. Could not believe it conidering the tools I had. Wish I could show some pics but my camera's out, soon as it's fixed I'll post some. I'm starting the inner setup tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Good luck duck! If I had connections at HD, I would have come home w/ a really nice table saw, dremmel, belt sander, miter saw...

Looking forward to some pics!

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like you have got all the good stuff! Dont forget the PICS!

Ok need some help. I got teh hass box built with top and bottom on and put in my focus box today. Istarted goofing around to see how much room I would have to play with after installing the ushio S400DD, well there aint much. my box is 14" and the center of the bulb is perfectly centered when the mogul is flush against the interior wall. If I were to mount the mogul on another piece of wood for adjusting, the bulb center would be off to the left by the thickness of the mountin wood used. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated...

I had the same problem so I routed out a 1/4" groove in the side of the 3/4" plywood. Routers sure come in handy! I don't know if this would work for what you have but it's an idea.

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That may be what I have to do. Only problem is I don't have a router, I've done all my work with a rotozip, hopefully I can do something like that with it. Don't know if I can but gotta try. I just noticed that hass has a much smaller bulb on his so it works a little different for him but evidently tmprof must have made his a little wider. Hopefully I can get some other ideas that might work as well.

The rotozip has a router plunge router attachment that canbe bought for it. I used the craftsman all in on e cutting tool, which the sears version of the rotozip, but it comes with the plunge router attachment. Worked pretty well for me.

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Ok just an update. I did a wiring test tonight following the diagram above and just hooked up the fans with the LL switch, the barriers and jumpers and the LL breaker and held my breath and WHOOOOPPIIIIEEEEEEEE, success. The fans came on just a purring. Flipped the switch and they went off. Flipped it again and they came back on. Let em run for about 5 minutes and no smoke. I'm taking that as a good sign. I know it don't sound like much, but the fact that I didn't burn the house down, gives me the feeling that I may just be able to do this. Will keep you posted, tomorrow I'm going for the ballast hookup. Just one question, how long of a break in do I need to give the bulb? I mean do I need to let it burn for a little while? Thanks all for the help...

or you can do like one guy did and he cut a hole for the base, then sorta mounted it inwards from the outside. cant remember who it was, but its the same idea just w/o the routing.

what is the inside measure of your case? if the I.D. (inside dimension) of your case is 14" you should have plenty room for bulb and mogul base and spacer, however if your case is 14" O.D. (outside dimension) you are cutting your I.D. by 1.5 inches to 12.5" I.D. which is why your lamp arc is dead center with your mogul base flush against the case. thats what it sounds like to me, can you post a few pics?

The ID is 14" on the dot. I have no room for a spacer att all. I mean I can put one in but it will throw the center off completely. I think what I'm going to do is what I've seen done here before and that is to mount the mogul to a thin piece of metal sheeting and mount the sheeting to the inside wall and make it adjustable at that connection. Camera's down soon as I get it working I will post pics...

Tescorp, Im working with a 14 inch ID and I had to shave about a CM off the mogul base I got to get it to center. Im wondering if there isnt a variation in size between some of the mogul shipments.

DuckTV, dont worry, you can use the rotozip to do holes to, just take your time. If you need a guide, get a washer from the local hardware store that has an internal diameter equal to the hole you need to zip out. Clamp it on and go to town...

Hey Samuri,

I got my mogul base from a local electric supply house, it measures about 65mm or 2.5". is that what yours measures? I am also using the ED28 style bulb. might make a difference. hope this helps Duck! (Nice idea about the washer for a cutting guide!)

Ok just an update, cameras still broken so no pics yet, will post some soon. Did all the wiring tonight just to see if I could actually do it. And Hell yeah it works... no smoke no fire not even a spark. Of course I only had it on for about 10 minutes to check for any problems. Now I just have to tighten everything up and do some painting and staining then to the hard part. The LCD strip. That really makes me nervous. But I was saving it for last just to see if I could do the rest. Now I just have to make sure its all lined up correctly. I do want to say thanks to all that have helped get me to this stage. I know I'm not finished but I feel a huge relief just knowing that the wiring and box is, for the most part, completed. Again, thanks to all that have answered my many newbie questions. And don't rest yet, I'm sure there will be many, many more...

<Begin Chant>
duckie...duckie..duckie!!!!

Woohoo!

I cant be certain, but I have the feeling Im avoiding my wiring too...

Hi ducktv,

Nice going with the wiring, and I hope all goes well with the monitor strip. Use this stripdown guide to help you, it's very detailed.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=545&hl=

I wanna know where you got your BenQ 557s V2 from? That's a good price for that monitor, and I can't find one anywhere.

Rizzo, sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Here's the link

http://store.yahoo.com/benqshopper/15relcdmo.html

Now this link is to the 567s v2, these prices are on the refurbished monitors, but the one I got (557s v2) is like brans new. They were out of the 567s v2's when I ordered. Make sure you call them BEFORE you order or you may run into problems like I did trying to get reimbursed for the 567, not really problems but it took a few days to get straightend out. I will email you the guys name you want to speak with along with a copy of this in case you don't visit this post. Just make sure you tell them you want the refurbished. Hope this helps...

Ok finally got some pictures to show. After trying and failing with the true Hass design I tried the mod Hass and it came out alot better. Came up with an easy focus design after spending hours at the depot...
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My focus mechanism just screws in and out and basically its just that simple. After attempting to make grooves in the wood on the sides for the tops and bottom panels to slide in I found some railing in the screen dept and just cut them tro size and it works perfectly, the top and bottoms slide right in.
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Now in the next couple of days I'll start the inside work. Hopefully it will go as smoothly as this did...

looks nice i like the idea of the lid

where you don't have to groov it out

Thanks, It works alot better, for me anyway. The focus was the best part. I tried the drawer slides but was afraid they weren't going to be straight and just couldn't get them to work to my satisfaction. The way it is now I didn't have to do anything at all but drill the holes and screw in the pvc into the conduit connector, it fit perfectly and cost me less than 5 bucks...

Its been awile since your last post. Did you get it all finished. If you did I would like to see some screen pictures.

Not quite finished yet. Still a bit left to do. Will post screen shots upon completion.

I wanted to come up with something simple for the keystone and this is what I got. It works easy enough, to move the lens left or right I just tighten or loosen the screws...

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Ok this pic shows the adjustable projector connected to the box below. The box stores all wiring and ballast so to keep very little in the actual projector.

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Fans finally in...

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Will stain the rest of projector tomorrow...

Ok new pics of the projector stained. Not great pics because I had to take them inside the house so not a whole lot of lighting but it looks good. Now all thats left to do is put everything together. I havent stripped the monitor yet because I wanted to wait to see if I failed horribly on making the box itself. Looks like I'll be doing that in the next day or so.

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the pic below shows one of the fans in and the plug on the bottom right is for the main power, all other wiring is inside the box.

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Looking good, dude. Very nice color. Let me know what you think of those evercools, I cant decided between them and these 120mm fans.

Cheers,
Nick

Ok, This will be the last post done using this monitor "FOR I AM ABOUT TO EMBARK WHERE FEW HAVE GONE BEFORE... fore... fore... fore...fore..." (echoing for effect).... Ok many have gone here before from this site but other than that I don't know. I'm getting ready to strip my benq 557s v2. Just got back from Radio Hack with the anti static mat and bracelet, and it's about 3:45pm. Hopefully I will be back on here in a couple hours with good news and, if all goes well, some pictures of some new screen shots... Wish me luck all...

ok took a little break and took some pics. First one is of the monitor with back off:

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and second and third are the most important. A nice big meatball sub, notice the carefull stripping of the cover. Don't want to screw anything up. You only get one chance to open these things.

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AAHHH Success, no spillage or breaks. must sign off now to assure correct intake of product. Wish me luck all. I'll be back...

OMG!!! Is that custom cheese?! How did you get the meatballs aligned properly on the bread?!!!!

Seriously... nice work so far!

It was a dam good sub, lol. Ok got the monitor stripped without problems thanks to sydneybirds teardown, dont know if it still works cause I haven't had a chance to hook it back up yet. But after the strip I ran into a small problem. The sled I made is about 1/8 of an inch to small and the lcd in its metal frame won't fit. Not a big problem, I'll just have to cut the frame down a little bit tomorrow after golf. Hopefully by this time tomorrow night I'll have some screen shots...

Dude your design is amazing, I cannot wait to see some results!

Duck, any results? Waiting on some pics of your projection.

Ok, First off let me say a few things. Number one, THANKS to all that have helped me get through this build. I'm not completely finished but Damn close. Second, the pictures you are seeing are with the top OFF of the projector and the lens for keystoning is NOT completely centered and C, These pictures were taken from the side and taken with my CAMERA PHONE... That's right my camera phone... They are alot better in person and I just wanted to get some results posted. And let me say to ANYONE trying to build one these things. YOU CAN DO IT!!! This is my second try, the first didn't get completed, I was unhappy with it. Take your time, plan it out and you will get through it. I know it doesn't seem like it but you will.
And 4th let me say, WOOOOOOOOOOHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I got screen shots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A shot of Julia roberts in closer.
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Scream, I'm a horror fan... Big Time
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Again scream
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Scream
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scream
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I need to do alot of tweaking, get the keystoning lens lined up and put the top on and then adjust the color.

Sweet!, obviously your playing it widescreen or are you using some sort of program to widen fullscreen? Your camera phone doesn't do it justice I imagine. How are your corners and hot spotting?

Yeah I'm playing it wide, gives me more of a "movie theater" feel. I didn't have my camera handy so I just snapped some with my cam phone, quick and easy. I'll get some better picks sometime today and post them as well. The corners seem pretty well lit, no real dark edges to speak of and no hotspotting, So far everythings going well.

Ok, big night tonight, I watched my first movie, A whole movie. Picture was bright, clear and crisp. Did some tweaking and man what a difference. I can not tell you what it felt like to watch a full movie on this thing. I still have some adjustments to make but everything went off well. The temp stayed righ around 90*. What was funny was that everytime my air conditioner came on the temp actually went up inside the projector by about 5 degrees. I mean weird, it would go from 91 to about 96 then when the air conditioner went off the temp would drop back down to about 90 to 91. Anyway just wanted to post an update can't stay on here long, I've got more movies to watch. Thaks all and happy building.....

Duck.....

what(and where) are you using to get your temperatures? couldn't find it in your plog..also..can you tell me the focusing mechanism a little more? did you find it in another PLOG?

For my thermometer I'm usin this, its a pyrex digital probe thermometer I got from walmart for $15. It's item #7735. I'm placing it between the lcd and the rear lens. It has an alarm you can set to a certain temp and once reached the alarm sounds. Now my focusing is pretty basic, I don't have a way to really adjust my focus very much. Right now I have about a 80" picture thats in great focus from corner to corner. Any bigger that that and I may have to do something else, don't know yet cause I don't have much room in here for a bigger picture.
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All I'm using is an electrical conuit connector and a 3" pvc coupler from home depot. I drilled holes in the metal coupler and screwed it to the front of the box and then just screwed in the pvc piece. Pretty simple.

thanks, exactly what I wanted to know! I'm going for a smaller picture too, maybe 72" the wife thinks thats plenty big, go fidure....anyway simple is good..did you have any problem making sure everything was at right angles?...like making sure the LCD and fresnels are perfectly vertical? or cutting the hole for the triplet lens?

No problem making the hole for the triplet, I just bought a 3 inch hole sae at home depot for $15 and marked the center of the board and drilled through, then screwed in the electrical conguit connector and screwed in the 3 in pvc coupler. Real simple. As far as lining up the lens and lcd thats not a problem after your first test you can eye about where if any things need to be moved.

OK some new screen shots after some tweaking. They're of armegedon, just wanted to post something different. The screen is about 75 in diag. Again these are taken with my camera phone which is low quality but I think you'll get the idea of how it looks. I'll try to get some bigger pictures tomorrow night.
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more to follow I ran out of space.

This the same picture one with lights out and one with lights on, it will show you how bright the picture is.
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Well just wanted to update evryone. All I can say is this thing is kick A$$.

Also to any newbies that view this post that DON'T think they can build one, YOU'RE WRONG!!! Dead wrong, I had no wood working skills nor did I have any electrical skills and I had never taken a monitor apart before in my life. I was scared to death, but with the help of others here, I got through it and I'm Dam glad I didn't give up. Trust me when I say if I can do this anyone on the planet can...

Hey let me know what you think.. Thanks all for the help...
Duck

Wow man, you did an AMAZING job, congrats on finishing it and thanks for the inspiring words.

Absolutely, Im a believer too!

Great job! and I second your statement about newbies..., I hadn't cut a piece of wood in years and electricity worries me greatly(can you say OCD.."gee I pulled the plug twice...better check to see if it jumped back in by itself" ;-) and the LCD part terrified me but I've got mine up and semi-running(wiating on LL fresnels, using too small page magnifiers now) and it is pretty awesome, hope my final product turns out as good as yours! what are you projecting on?

Thanks all for the kind words. I am very happy with the results. Many, many times I thought I'd never get it finished. I really thought I had wasated a lot of time and money in this endeaver but thanks to alot of peolpe here, got something I can be proud of. Trust me, there have been alot of "TOLD YOU SO's" coming from my mouth with friends and family.

As far as my screen goes, you won'y believe it, I was at walmart one day after making that 150 inch big screen thing for less than 15 bucks scam that was going around and wanted to find something cheap to use as a screen and saw some left over (cheap) white cloth in a clearence bin so I grabbed it, 4 bucks. Then I thought well all the light will go right through it so I started looking for something that would be reflective. I came across some of those emergency blankets, you know that are paper thin but supposed to keep you warm in emergency, 2 bucks. Well I stuck both of them together and stapled all of it on some pvc tubing I had left over from some work I did at home and I had a screen. Not to bad. I have recently picked up some black out cloth but havent built the screen yet. I'm hoping to get a better picture after its done...

Some new pics from hostage, great movie...

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And A few for the kiddies from sharks tale.

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what do you think of how bright the picture is? I'm using a 14000 lumen 250 watt mh bulb about the same size diagonal as you and actually I'm pretty impressed with how much light there is.....

VERY NICE! You took those pictures with a cell phone?
You HAVE to borrow a friends digital camera....