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Free
Projector Instructions
TROUBLESHOOTING
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Here! |
Well here it is. The one we have been waiting for."Big
Woody!"
The design of "The Big Woody" was based on
instruction set 3. With a few modifications we were able to make a
projector with an interchangeable lens. We did this so that you can
compare the quality of image between the normal magnifying lens and
the fresnel lens. We took a few pics as we went along and at the end
you will find pics of the output of this baby. If you have ago at
"Big Woody" make sure you have a look at instruction set 3.
Instruction set 3 has all the basic procedures that are essential to
making "Big Woody". Have fun and enjoy!

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Big Woody
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First we took this 13 inch TV to turn into our "Big
Woody" project. Because the screen curves it would be pretty hard to
make the projector box fit the exact shape of the screen. Not
impossible of course but we decided to take the easy road and build
around the straight edges of the TV. We chose 3 mm ply wood for this
particular job. Its light and inexpensive. |
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13 inch TV (above) |
Our first task
was to take the measurements of the TV height and width. Then we cut
the sides, top and bottom allowing 6 mm extra on the top and bottom
sheets for the joins. Each sheet having the depth of 500
mm |
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Cutting front panel (above) |
Because we used
3 mm ply, we needed to make some edges for joining and added
stability. We cut these the same length as the box depth (500
mm). |
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Cutting corner strips from 95 mm x 50 mm pine
(above) |
After cutting
these corner strips we glued and nailed them together to make corner
strips to nail the ply wood to. |
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Using wood glue for added strength (above left) We
used a nail gun to nail these flat pine strips into a corner strip
(above right) |
After theses
corner strips were made we glued and nailed the top, bottom and
sides to the insides of these corner strips. |
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More glue on the corner strips before attaching the
top, bottom, left and right panels (above left) Attaching the bottom
panel onto the strip where the glue was just applied(above right)
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We repeated the
process for each side until the box had four sides. |
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Finishing up the first "outer" box
(above) |
OK. After
completing the process for each side we were left with a 4 sided box
(500 mm in depth) that fit snugly around our TV set with the corner
strips on the outside. |
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The
finished "outer" box (above) |
We then set
about cutting the ply for the second "inside" box. This box has to
fit snug inside the outer box so the corner strips were applied to
the inside. |
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Cutting the panels for the "inner" box (above left)
Its a good idea to check that the panels fit inside the "outer" box
before continuing (above right) |
Make the corner
strips same as the first box but they should be shorter at one end.
Our pine strips were 50 mm wide so we cut 50 mm off the end of each
corner strip to the inside box. We did this because once the sides,
top and bottom of the inside box are together there must be a frame
at one end for the front panel to attach to. Make sure to attach the
corner strips for this "inside" box onto the inside or you wont be
able to get it inside the "outer" box. |
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Attaching the panels can be made easier if you use
clamps to help hold them in place (above left) Using a nail gun
really makes it alot quicker. (above right) |
We made our box
with a "slide in front" panel purely to be able to show you the
difference between the two lenses on the same box and TV. Once both
boxes were complete we made the front panel. You need only make one
to accommodate the lens you want to use. |
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The frame for the front panel it attached.
(Above) |
Once the front
piece had been cut to size we had to find the screen centre on the
ply wood front panel. Because we made the box to fit the TV and not
the TV screen we couldn't just find the centre of the the front
panel. First we measured in from the sides, top and bottom. In our
case, the measurements from outsides of the box to the edges of the
screen were :
top to screen
edge 40mm sides to screen edge 38mm bottom to screen edge
78mm
We transferred
these measurements onto the front panel and then found the centre by
making a cross from corner to corner. We then measured the radius of
the 5th biggest circle on the fresnel lens and used a compass to
draw the circle onto the ply wood. We cut the hole and then gave
everything a light sanding. |
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Marking the hole for the lens (above) Note: Even though the
lens is page shaped make sure the hole fir the lens is a
circle. |
Once everything
had been lightly sanded we took it all outside for a coat of black
paint on the inside and let it dry. |
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Spraying the inside of both boxes and the front
panel (above) - make sure you don't inhale the
fumes. |
We measured in
from each side (left and right) to centre the lens and used our
better judgment to centre it (top,bottom)
and then used
duct tape to secure the lens in place. By using duct tape we can
easily reposition the lens or turn it around if we need to.
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Secure the front
onto the box or in our case slide the front in. |
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A quick
application of bees wax along the corners of the inside box to help
it slide easily. |
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And there you
have it. "Big Woody" |
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To
get the image below we set up the projector in the following way.
You will have to fiddle around with your lens and projector to get
the image right. It does work so persevere with it and if you have
any questions we will try to do our best to answer them for
you. |
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"BIG WOODY" in ACTION |
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