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Build an Image Projector/enlarger From an Over Head

Projector. by 8footape in reuse
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Build an Image Projector/enlarger From an Over Head Projector.

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A warning before you start this. if you follow these directions on
converting your overhead projector it will probably no longer work as an 8footape
overhead projector. But on the major plus side you'll have an Follow 2

inexpensive image inlarger.

Bio: random
My main goal with this is for creating artwork stencil paterns and other
such things. that and not paying $300 dollars for an enlarger from an
More by 8footape:
art store.

Theres a couple ways you could modify a part so it could be used for
both transparency and overhead projector probably of course. so i might
include that Related

Easy (Cheap) Photo

tools/materials Enlargements
Electric drill by blurofreality
# drill bit
#" philips screw driver Plywood Math Machine
Locking pliers by nopvelthuizen

4-5ft long 7/8ths square steel tubing or 3/4 aluminum edging for
plywood if using the original bracket the 4 foot long piece is good 5 foot
would be need to attach to frame without the bracket and still be able Office Sketch-O-Graph
by murak
to shrink the images.
wood
wool blanket.
Enlarging the Everyday
#" double sided velcro (Chromogenic Printing
sewing machine. Explained)
by johnnak
overhead projector $20 at goodwill
wire caps Copier Reductions and
zip ties Enlargements Done
Right
by Phil B

Step 1: The Tricky Bit

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The Tricky Bit

 If the pipe on your projector is the same as mine you'll need to get a
7/8ths piece of square tubing. This is the first thing you need Do this
before you do anything else or you realy are going nowehere fast.
there are a few companies that make the stuff. but i didnt get any
response to my inquiries for a single piece of pipe.
3/4" angle iron joined with another piece facing it to form a tube is
7/8ths so i had planed on trying to weld two pieces together. a 7/8ths
piece of pine is two soft and frnkly a bit flimsy any way to take wieght
of the head and to hold up to the roollers inside. Also it needs to cut
pretty truly to not have the rollers loose there grip.
what I ended up using is this. A piece of aluminum edging 4foot long. Its
a channel ment to be put over the edge of a 3/4" piece of plywood. I had
intended on uning two of them.sourounding a piece of wood. cut 3/4" -
5/8" 4 feet long. and to the length of the edging. I was going to use
two piece cut of the excess and fit them together over the wood. I
ended up using one instead. I had some scrap wood cut from a differnt
project that fit perfectly so didnt feel like cutting off the exess metal. if I
end up haveing problems I'Il go back and do that later
just put the edgin on your cut wood and test the fit on your projector
head. Its a little tricky getting it in theres a sliding wedge that likes to
fall out and mis algin itslef. you have to push in place and up to
have enough room to ge the arm. (yours and the original) If the fits to
tight to roll up and down easily plane the wood thiner or sand to
fit (only use a planer if your planer will take of paper thin shavings) be
careful if you make low spots it wont grab and you'll have to start all
over again. Smooth the wood with some fine sand paper. dont take of
much wood your just making a smoother surface here.
once i got the fit righ and snading done i rubed a little parfin wax on the
back of the wood to act as a lubricant
add a screww to at least two points throught the metal into the wood.
if you couneter sink the holes for a scwerhead to fit in you"ll have
eonugh clearance to get all the way to the top of the. the second spot
will have parto the bracket on it so you dont have to worry about the
second screw right now. If you want to glue it in i have no problem with
other than that i dont know how long the aluminum will hold up
against the steel roller and if the glue changes the thicknes you have
more work to do thining it out. again.

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Step 2: Gettin Rid of the Glass

Gettin Rid of the Glass

Open the projector and remove the glass plate.sliding it out. you can
save this for later for another project, or keep it around so you can use
the projector as a light table for tracing. etc.
Undo the screw on the arm above the lense assembly remove the head.
be carefull its got some springs and other parts that can fall out. set it
aside.
If i rember this right you need to remove the front of the projector to
remove the mirror and the plate its atached to. I started this project up
to a year ago??.. Couldnt find a 7/8ths piece of square steel pipe so it all
got put on the back burner.As so many things do.
but back to the task at hand.
 you'll need your drill. and a bit about an 1/8th inch minimum would be
my guess, or a dremel and an appropriate dremel bit if you perfer.
open the door on the bottom of the projector. Pull the power cord out of
your way. Take your locking pliers and unscrew the nut holding the
mirror in place.
While the projector is still on its side take your #" philips head screw
driver and insert it in the holes on the bottom of the projector and
unscrew the two screws holding in the top of the mirror. you should
now be able to remove the mirror.the next part for you to remove is the
sheet metal the mirror was attached to. To do this you need to take
your drill bit and drill and carefully drill out all the rivets that are
holding the sheet metal down. once youve done this you have to
remove the front of the projector.
next you will need to take the front of the projector off. There are 5
screws holding mine in place.
you should now be able to remove the sheet metal from the projector. if
not double check all the rivets are loose.

This is important because it gives you a place to put your images or

objects you want to project.

Step 3: Doing the Unthinkable....

Doing the Unthinkable....

Now to disengage the safety feature. it has an interanal switch so that

in only runs when the lid is down and locked in place. mostly for when
the bulbs are being replaced I suspect. that and general opinion is that
hot metal and hands dont mix..
remove the five screws form the back,and the screw on top. as well. (im
not sure if they were in any way holding the back on but i had a
moment of trouble geting the back off so i took them out.
Pull the back off. unclip the wires from there conector and set the back
to the side so you can work.
Unscrew the two screw holding in the safety switch box. open it up.
unscrew and or cut thewires leading into it. Strip the ends of the foru
wires. Now pull the power cord out of the machine> detach the gorund
wire save the screw thats holding it in. Now on the back panel in the
bottm right hand side you should have a nice open spot with nothing
behind it. drill a hole big enough for the power cord to go through. Slip
the power cord through feeding in its wires first. Tie it into an
overhand knot with enough length to reach the other wires when you
reconect it, but not so much that it takes up excesive space in the
machine. pull the wire connector from its slot on the insed of the
machine. pull the panel apart slightly and feed all the wiresto one side
making space on the bottom for you to put your images etc.

Step 4: Repositing the Arm

Repositing the Arm

 Youll be using a straight piece for your arm for this projector. so you
have to reposition the bracket. Now if you dont want to use/reuse the
bracket thats fine. you can even improve your enlargemnt potetnial if
you atach the arm differntly anyway. The basic thing here is to put the
arm up on the machine and with a straight edge mark on the side panel
where the arm should now go
You can see from my ruller its about 5-1/2" from the edge.
Remove the cover on the bracket that holds the arm in place. take the
arm off. be careful if you havent remove your lense assembly.You dont
want to damage it.
Undo the bolts holding the main part of the bracket from the inside. the
back of the projector should still be off. an set off to the side at this
point.
and remove the caryying strap. at this time also.
The bottom hole on this one is about 2-1/4" up and the top hole is
about 1-1/4 down it looks like. The little spec next to the ruler is center
punch mark for drilling the hole.
the holes should be drilled about a 1/2" over from where the edge of the
arm is going to sit. the hole size should be at least big enough for the
bolts to slide through. you dont want to much lateral wiggle. so if the
holes youve drilled dont line up verticaly with brackets holes open this
up with a dremel or round file enough so that they fit but not allow to
much wiggle.
reatach the bracket.
Be careful not to damage any of the wires when drilling.
Once your brackets atatched undo the old orange support clip from the
outstide. slip a small zip tie through tht two holes and tie down the
wires that are loose inside. this is just to keep things cleanish.

Step 5: The Orange Support

The Orange Support

it wont help you to repositon it as I found out. The original arm is offset
the straight are sticks up off the machine when its down. I took the
time to repostion my supporth thing retatch it offset the holes to keep it
in the same basic alignment etc. so im including the 2 pictures i ive got
of it any way. so Basicaly dont do this. the secon pictue is the measur of
the offset of the holes have.
but if you want to use the support which im going to repostion again at
some point for myself any way. You need to take a boad or some similar
thing and attach it to the body of the projector and have enough
overhand to support the arm when its down.
this might however interfer with the Shroud later. im not sure. since i
havent made either yet,

Step 6:

I dont have any pics of what i did here so. this image will suffice.
The second hole up on the support arm is the one you want to make on
 your new support arm. the hole needs to be as big as the tube thats
going to go throught it which is sittin above the arm in the pic. theres 4
thin washers dont lose em.
remove the shee metal pyrmaid thing of the supprot arm. put it on your
new. I dont think this is necessary but i did it any way.
assemble the arm and attach to the bracket make sure it works.

Step 7: Wiring Up.

Wiring Up.

you should have pulled your wires through the side of the frame when
you disconected the safety switc. You should be looking at the insied
and it should look like the first pic i hav here.
With a pair of wire caps. conect the wires from the power cord together.
Black to black white to white. retach the ground wire to where it was
before.
run a zip tie through the opening the wire conector went throught and
bind the wires to it. the Picture with the screw driver show them bound
with the zip tie this is how it looks like from the outside. this should
give enough clearance on the inside to reinsert the light assembly/back
of the projector.
Last Pic is of the inside wires zip tied to the machine with the holes from
the orange suport

Step 8: Using

Using

slide the Head onto the support arm. lift it up. turn on the machine and
deicde wether your shrininking or enlarging .
for shirinking raise the head all the way up and a foot or fwo from your
surface. this will give you 2-3 times reduction you can see it on the door
at about 2 inches.
for enlarging to maxximum all the way down and 20 or so feet away
from your surface. which is around 20 times magnification. 6" inch
screw driver was 10ft long on my wall.
adjust up and down for clarity.
this gets hot so be careful with your hands and be careful with what you
put inside. the screwdriver was nice and toasty when it came out.
so thin plastics might distort?and warp? and othere things may brought
to point of ingnition. so a word of caution.
my camera doesnt take low light pictrues all that well an it looked a bit
better in person but, heres an old ninja turtle of mine hes missing his
arms from all his battles with the shreder and was it the foot? who
names a ninja clan the foot?

Step 9: The After Stu.

Alright so i mentioned a shroud earliar. I havent done this as of yet so
I'll just explain the thinking. take a wool blanket.cut it into 3 to 4
triangular stirps or straght with the last foot or so taperd so as to fit
 around the body of the prajector and atach to the head. rember you
realy dont want to block the ventilation.
Atach some adhesive backed velcro to the head of the projector. and
sew or attach it to the wool shroud. this will make your image brighter
and have less unwanted light from the projector on your surface your
projecting onto.
wool is naturaly fire retardnt and pretty opage so its a good choice. dont
use something like a plastic tarp it can melt and burn and the thins stuff
will be really bright still most likely. lose lose.

An Idont think i went into it. but for the support arm without the
bracket. a piece of wood the same thicknes that bracket is or as wide as
needed for the base of the projector head to slip by the side of the
machine all the way to its maximum depth. and drill a couple holes
where you feel is appropriate through your suport arm and the projector
body and atach the arm.You may feel or find that you need to make an
angle cut on a piece of wood to fit the angled undercut on the side of
the machine for full support.
Id try to leave this movable or removable. as transporting anything
thats 5 feet long and breakable is complicate.

And to modify this further to still use as a transparency projector you

would have to cut the sheet metal the mirror attaches to in such a way
that it can sliped in and out with out binding on the edges. that
or atach the mirror to some that will achieve the same end goal.

thats about it for now i think.

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