Although I ran my current projector many 10s of hours now, it was time to give it a face lift. Out with the old in with the new.

Inspiration to redue my current PJ came from:
Joe Bakery Aero PJ design
and Haas's PJ

I got tired of the box getting in the way and my girlfriend making fun of me. Yesterday I went to Home Depot and picked up 1/2" sanded plywood for the initial enclusure. My current PJ is 34" long outside dem. by approximatly 13" wide use 3/4" MDF wood, What a big mistake I did. HEAVY! HEAVY! HEAVY!

I loved the asthetics that Haas's and Joe Bakery's PJ has. The enclosure looks far more appealing for when I want to impress my friends.

Currently I will be guting the old box and transfering everything over. I want to make the unit as tight as possible to minimize as much space as I can. I will be using four dowels to start as Haas's did and create a belly and a top cover for the unit.

Inventory:

Sraped old box for wood pieces
Sheet of 1/2" sanded plywood 2*4ft
Norpo bowl with Eye Bulb 400W coil core ballast and capicitor
Sony SDM HS53 H model no FFC
4" coupler and 3" Pipe parts from Home Depot For focusing mechanism
2 SPST switch from Radio Shack
1 120mm 120V fan
Lumenlab Lenses
Weather strips to mount lense in housing

Pictures provided by (1) 4.0MP Fuji fine Pix 5100 series Digital camera.

The old Box located here

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1369

Silly Girlfriend! But I have the same issue, but even using the designs from joe and hass it will still be large.

Yesterday I jumped in and pre cut my wood panels I need. The panels look so much smaller than the existing PJ that Im affraid nothing will fit inside. My eyes were playing tricks on me I guess.

I'll try to post pics but my internet at home is acting funny.

Internet is up and running
Enclosure partial built

I notice the big difference in weight of the case. The 1/2" sanded ply with the new demesions made a dramatic decrease in weight from the old enclosure.

Scale of 1-10 in weight.
Old enclosure 10
New enclosure 3

That is the approximate weight difference from switching from 3/4" MDF to 1/2" sanded Ply wood.

Yah MDF is pretty heavy.

Yesterday I trashed my laziness and redid my light engine. Before the bulb and reflector were installed solo. Now I've attached both of them on one system for easier adjustability. I have pics, I was having trouble posting, I'll try again tonight.

I have decided to build a smaller, and more portable projector so I am glad that I read here, because now I will most likely use plywood.

beginnings

more planning

picture with the case coming together. You can see were I got my inspiration.

different angles, preliminary phase

placing dowels in for spacers, Haas's design

dowels again. At this point I ask my girlfriend to pick it up. When she did I saw her reaction to how light it was compared to the other enclosure.

NICE!

triplet home

lights coming in

part coming to the new home

In the previous pic I redid the light engine. I'll post new pics of how it looks now.

This is the one I really like. You can see the mass difference from the old enclosure to the new one. Now when I think about it thats a lot of wood to trash out. Currently that is my little work space. I'm building the new one ontop of the old.
Plus it's easier for me to source for parts and hard ware.

Anybody need an Enclosure. Hate to waste all that wood.

I cracked my Lcd Screen while trying to fix the verticle lines in the screen. I wasn't geting an image. The screen just kept going in and out. I was pushing on one of the horizontal controlers and then crack went the screen. it turned black in the cracked corner.

Now I have an excuse to buy another screen.

Any chances of the measurements being posted

I have been reading for months now but would rather build a nice streamlined box rather than the monster box... oh wait can I use monster or will I be sued? j/k


Anyway good work so far keep us posted

Roughly the lenght is **" long *****" tall by ****" wide....all are outside measurements. So Far the front peice that holds the lense is ******** wide by **" thick. The sides and bottoms of projector is sanded ply wood. To save weight The rest of the enclosure's covers are *** wood board purchased at Home Depot.
To add I painted the covers flat black using that paint used on Grills to with stand heat. I'll most likely add some flashing as added protection.

The coil ballast probably makes up half the weight of the entire enclosure.

This weekend I got the fan installed, the Original plan were two 80mm fans, when I fired up the lamp and felt the heat, I got scared and changed my mind...going with the 120mm 120V fan.

To finish I will need:
-new LCD
-Install alluminum flashing around the electronics
-Install female-female VGA adapter on the side of box
-Stain and fabricate the box for asthetics.

I'll post updated pics later on.


Can't wait to see Episode II on the big screen.

may want to put the measurements in another forum or PM me so you dont get in trouble

THanks BTW

I am still in early plannign on mine

Never knew this but mine looks just like Savo's projector. Just sligt differences in style.

Here:
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5905

WOW rene, that is really something. I was wondering if you could post detailed plans on how you did that, would be VERY much appreciated. That's how I want to build my box.

I'll start a Plog for that then. I'm almost done with this thing. The hard part for me now is finding a new LCD panel. It frightens me to do all the surgery on an LCD to find out it is diagnosed with FFC issues. OUCH!!! ....now how do I put this thing back together again

Awesome, sounds good, thanks very much. When ya gonna show us some results?

As soon as I get my new LCD I'll show some pics.

All this time at work, who ever thought that the LCD monitors I use are on the compatible monitors list. If only I can get my hands on one that will be awesome. At work We have the Gateway found on the list. sometimes I would try peeking through the grill vents in the back to see if I can find FFCs. If only it was that easy to find out if the monitor is good or not.

Where is this list you speak of... should I assume laptop lcd's wont cut it? 'cause I pillaged a nice one just today..

Your box looks fresh! I understand it's copied and all but...

I'm just but a noob 6 months away from even thinking about being done :/.

Thanks

The compatible monitors list is in the reference and tutorials section...here's a link to the list:

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4


HTH

FS

I got my CMV 520D at work on 7/07/05. I went home and picked up some tools from home and stripped the monitor at work in less than 20min. Very nice monitor with lots of goodies. I cant wait to take advantage of the DVI function.

Now all i need is my Samsund DVD player with upscale capabilities to test the DVI function.

I have the monitor mounted in it's metal frame for support. I beeded the corners with Liquid nail just enough to hold it in the frame. unfortunately I don't have router bits small enough to mount it in a wooden frame. I would of prefered that method.

Good news. The stripdown was a success. My LCD still works

DO YOU HAVE ELECTRONIC PLANS DRAWN FOR YOUR BOX OR MEASUREMENTS YOU CAN PROVIDE?

THANKS
BOB