Toysrme

Absolutely nothing you don't already know from looking at pictures Im sure you've seen a thousand times before. It aint any different than building a good MDF speaker box. You wanna tip? Mark everything multiple times exactly, but don't mount anything remotely perminantly. It all has to be moved, the distances are NOT 100% regardless of what they calculated out to be.
unsplit = easy
Slick way is to use some threaded rods to space everything together. That's been bigger in the last year or two.
The smaller the distances you use, the brighter it will be. 2% loss per every piece of glass you hit.
Obviously you want to get back inside it! Remember that!
Get all my bulbs/ballasts off the Bay. Meh Im more practical. That's why I don't pay LL $500 for a set of chinese lenses, then pay some other yaboo $600 for a ------- LCD screen and controller just to be a smaller box and 1080p. ---- it when I want a 1080p panel Ill buy a god damned 19" 1080p monitor, build a 400w @ 575, or 1000w setup from ebay and pocket the $500 difference.

Alot of guys have to do folds. I dont so I can't help you there at all. Mine are all straight shooters because this room is huge. 15' tall with a second storage floor at 9.5'. My boxes can be made of anything at any size and they are not in the way and not visible.
Absolutely chance stripping the monitor. You can always try to get a walmart to take one back <cough> superglued together with a $1 sheet of glass put in it who's backside was spraypainted black <cough>

Oh... A welding helmet and long sleeve denim shirt will save your life trying to setup these bulbs. Its almost as bad as looking at low amp TIG arcs.

Toysrme

Just recognize how dim these things actually are. A cousin of mine has one of the older Hitatchi 1024*768 100w HID projectors he uses for football games & movie nights. That thing is visible in the evening with storm blinds closed - no curtains (windows along the entire wall - facing west) Far brighter than the brightest of the 400-575w DIY ones. Oh man... Not even close to that old POS he has.

Like seriously... People like to say they can run a pair of 60 or 100w lamps in the room. They're bullshitting you. They might turn the projector on and walk around, but you don't WATCH with lights on LMAO! Maybe one of Arizona's big amp jobs, but not with a lowly 150-200-250-400w bulb.
Look at the pictures of them with a flash on. That's about what they look like if there is ANY light in the room.

Have blinds and HEAVY curtains/drapes to go over the blinds! Don't plan it in a room that is open to other rooms.







Seriously. You may get 1-2% of a bulbs lumen output projected. A 400w bulb will throw less light into a room than a single 75w lamp bulb in a white lampshade... Food for thought!

Jorsher

Yeah my plan was to use threaded rods. How did you mount them? I only could find some 4" rods.

I'm doing a single vertical fold. Not too hard to measure out, but allows a smaller projector. I'm goin to build a small shelf under it to put all my theater equipment and HTPC. Aiming for a 120" screen, I think it needed an 11 or 12' throw, can't remember.

I already have a panel stripped (from over a year ago). Definitely will allow a shitton more light through.

I've used these bulbs quite often I actually have a 600w setup I used for plants in the past, but that's solely for plants and the bulbs are all optimized for plant growth. It's a pimp digital ballast that gives more light using less power, with "softer" startups, less noise, runs cooler, safer, etc etc etc

So back to bulbs, where can I get some cheap t15 with 6500k temp and a high CRI/lumen output.

Toysrme

120" will be big!
Seriously I don't even care about bulbs. I just buy afew bulbs on ebay at a time, burn them in and which ever has the best color gets used.
Never done one with rods, that's just how many choose to do it now. Na I don't mean like little 4" threaded rods. I mean people use four long ACME like rods to mount the entire unit. Then enclose that.
I just do 1/2" MDF or ply boxes (whatever is laying around from the shop). Mount the light box inside with bolts. From there use small wood blocks to friction hold the unsplit LCD+frezzies in place. The first box I used cabinet drawer slides to hold the lens. Both Besler's Ive been extremely lucky that they were already in sliding lens mounts that just flange bolt onto a flat surface! Adjust the lens, spend a day finding a set screw = done!

Using 1/2" MDF/Ply is still prolly the most popular by 80-90%. Lately the rod ones have become popular.
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index...=threaded+rods
Like that.
Damn 600w would be hella ****. Probably exactly what I need! Probably take forever to find a useable bulb for it too!


Sigh... I need to find a 450-600mm Fresnel for the cheap. *Really* dont feel like paying $40 for one.