The home theater experience is defined by immersion and big production values. An easy way to achieve immersion is with a projector. But electronic projectors can be expensive, as can their maintenance. The cheap and effective alternative is to harness the laws of physics and bend light from an existing television or computer monitor. This can be done with a Fresnel lens--a large square magnifying lens that doesn't curve the light that passes through it--and an apparatus constructed from wood boards cut to the size of a tube television or tube computer monitor.
Instructions
1. Measure the sides of the computer monitor or television around its screen. Mark two boards of wood with the exact width dimensions of the top and bottom sides of the monitor. Cut along the markings using a circular saw. Cut two more pieces of wood the width of the remaining sides of the monitor plus 1 inch: the length of two board thicknesses.
2. Set one of the longer and one of the shorter pieces of wood perpendicular to each other, in an "L" shape. Hammer two nails through the flat side of the longer piece of wood and down into the shorter piece of wood; hammer them in at the extreme ends of the boards. Do the same for the other longer and shorter board of wood. Then nail all four pieces together.
3. Measure the inner dimensions of the newly created box. Cut two boards to match any two parallel sides of the inner box. Cut two more boards the length of the remaining two sides of the inner box minus 1 inch--the board thicknesses are subtracted because the new box must fit snugly in the original box. Nail these boards together into a four-sided box.
4. Measure the inner dimensions of the smaller box. Mark these dimensions as lines on the lens with a marker. Dip the cutter's rotary blade in oil, and wipe off the excess oil with a dry paper towel. Roll the cutter back and forth across the drawn dimensions until the blade penetrates the lens and all outer edges are cut off.
5. Place the smaller box on a flat surface so that the two open sides are perpendicular to it. Apply superglue to the edges of the lens. Balance one flat side of the lens in one hand, and reach through the box to grip the opposite flat side of the lens. Slide the lens upright into the box, and hold it at the edge of one open side until the glue sets and the lens doesn't budge.
6. Slide the larger box over the front of the television or computer monitor. Slide the smaller box into the larger box with the Fresnel lens side facing out. Point the monitor at the wall you would like to project onto, and slide the inner box in and out of the outer box to focus the image.
Tags: computer monitor, flat side, board thicknesses, flat side lens, inner dimensions, longer shorter, Measure inner