Building your own projector isn't a new idea. Disassemble a desktop LCD display, put a really, really bright lightlight source behind it and add some lenses and voilapresto! you've got a projector. The real question: is it worth it? Obviously you may be a little unwilling to venture out and spend your well earned money only to be stuck with a pile of parts and no result.
If there is still associated cost, why build your own? Replacement lamps for store bought projectors cost around $300 each and only last a few thousand hours best case scenario. The lamp in a DIY projector should last about 10,000 hours and costs only $50 to replace. You can make your own projector for much less than a store bought unit too. The cost can even be brought down lower by scrounging parts or picking them up surplus. Now the picture begins to start making more sense. Add to the fact you'll be the envy of all your friends not only owning your own projector but being able to say with pride that you built it yourself!
Once you've learnt the theory of light projection and select which type of enclosure you would like to make, the next step is correctly fitting all the parts inside. You'll need to correctly disassemble your LCD and mount it together with your fresnel lenses and high intensity discharge lamp,together with your triplet lense to complete the assembly process. Next is setting up for keystoning and ensuring your light source is properly centered to ensure light gets evenly distributed across your LCD to make certain your projected image is uniform. Finally you need to properly test your projector undoing all your hard work to ensure it doesn't overheat or you risk damaging the sensitive electronics or LCD itself.
If you have plenty of time up your sleeves, you can do the research yourself, there are couple of places to check out. "Lumenlab" recently made access to their forums free. Alternatively, The "DIYaudio forum" users have some interesting ideas too. While these sites do offer great information - there is a wealth of it to digest - It'll take you a few weeks of reading to get you up to speed.
If all that sounds daunting and instead you want complete guided ? take you by the hand ? instructions, check out http://www.buildyourownprojector.com. This site has an incredibly detailed eBook which not only explains all the theory needed to build the projector ? in simpleton terms - it also gives you comprehensive photos of the entire process and even suggests sources for all the parts needed. These guys have done their research too, suggesting places where you can go to get parts inexpensively to complete your project for a fraction of the price of a store bought projector.
