Evening,

I've had a creative urge and I feel the need to do some painting. I want to put a picture on my wall but I have the artist talents of a brain dead chimp so I want to trace.

So, I got a load of transparent printing sheets, found an image, printed it out and now I'm not overly sure how to project the image. At first I though "box + light bulb = projector" but the projection was crap and only clear on a range of 1.5inch. Need a bit more distance between me and the work surface.

So, any tips to make a home brew projector of sorts? Or anyone got an Overhead projector going cheap?

Ta folks.

Do you have access to any kinds of lens? Even a simple magnifying glass? The bigger the better.

Depending on the size of the lens it won't be very bright, but with a large piece of cardboard and the lens in the middle, you can project a monitor image onto the wall. You'll need all the lights off to see it properly. You'll also need to flip the image.

You can find OHP lenses on eBay if you're likely to do it more than once. People use them to project films onto the bedroom ceiling

I've been hunting for a cheap overhead projector for a couple of years now...I have an old flatscreen monitor that I'm going to take apart, lay the screen on the overhead projector (in place of the transparent sheets) then project what ever's on the screen...

JJ, this the sort of thing?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FULL-PAGE-MAGNIFI ... 1|294%3A50

I've not tried it with one of those, but in theory it should be great. The bigger lens means a brighter image. Do you have a small monitor, maybe 15"? And a big cardboard box. Stick the lens into the bottom of the box, and put the monitor about 12" away from it. Move it about to get focus.

The image projected will be bigger by however many feet away the wall is, so 3' would give a 3x bigger image. You need to work out if you can balance the box and stuff at the right distance from the wall.

You could also try with a bulb and the print, but you'll need to disperse the light or you'll tend to get an image of the bulb rather than the print. Might work with a bit of white paper, or even just a print onto white paper.

Ahem.

*wham wham wham*

I AM NOT MAKING A PROJECTOR FOR AN OLD SCREEN. NO MONITOR, NO MOVING IMAGES. I WANT IT FOR A STILL NON-MOVING IMAGE.

We good now? I just want an overhead projector of sorts for a STILL image. Not moving.

Yes I did read that and understand

It's just, the easiest way to get an bright evenly lit still image is to use a monitor and just show the still image full-screen on that. If this is just a one-off for tracing one picture, you could use your actual screen that you use.

Using a transparency, you need to defuse the light. You can do that with white paper, but it soaks up a lot of light. Put the paper an inch or two behind the transparency so it's not focused. A ground glass sheet would be better than paper, but it's something else to buy. Tracing paper might be good.

If you print onto paper and light that with a bright table lamp from behind, then it might be nearly as good but the grain of the paper will show in the picture really strongly. Mind it doesn't catch fire if you're using a 100Watt bulb.

Something you could look for is a light-box. They give a good even A4 size light, but they're not that bright.

I know, I was just saying you may have problems finding an OHP for such purposes, seeing as I've had my eyes pealed for the last couple of years looking for one...

Sorry I misread that, I saw Home Brew Project,Hmmmmh.

Currently drinking: Home Brewed red stuff. 80p a bottle. Annoyingly, if I was in Spain I could actually buy table plonk for less than that, and it would taste no worse

Don't bet on it ,your Home brew versus a tetra pack of 69 cent table wine ,I'll drink your's anytime ,
P.S. we are having a bbq Sunday ,your are welcome .

I really would, but you're a bit far south by about 1000km! Thanks anyway

My parents live in France. When I'm there, I buy cheap booze and fags. They go to Spain to buy cheap booze and fags

I used to drink the €1 1.5l plastic bottle red-label (or was it blue? - the better one) "wine lake" Spanish stuff when I was over there. It wasn't great, but still better than this.

I only have 20l left before the next batch. Hopefully that will be better.

"0l my god that might kill you at least what i drink has a best before date .

Anyone wondering,

This is what I came out with.

I can see a box. Would you like to give us some information. About anything?!? :etc: