Projector Lift - My DIY Experience!
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08-01-2006, 8:40 PM
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| Member  |  Projector Lift - My DIY Experience!
Its been a very long gestation period.. when my projector was out of use... but my projector lift is finally finished! (ish). Background: I would have loved to have my projector downstairs, but owing to concrete ceilings and wooden floors there was no way I could ceiling mount a projector as nowhere to run any cables. This meant a separate set-up upstairs in the spare room where I could access the ceiling space... and doubling up my cinema setup from downstairs too as I wanted to keep surround sound system with my Loewe TV  Why a lift: To make matters more complicated... my spare room has a dormer window and this was the only place I could mount the projector.. this meant a projector lift was needed as a) it is the spare room where people stay occaisonally and b) the projector would be in the way when not in use.. and could be seen by people walking by and looking up. DIY Option: I looked around on the net for projector lifts and couldnt really find any that a) were less than about £800 b) looked nice when down and c) could fit between the joists. DIY it was then  The Build: A few sketches were made, trying to sort out how the thing was going to work.. I discounted anything electric as too complicated and too expensive. Linear motors would have been nice, but again couldnt find anything that was cheap. Quite a few sites had ones for raising plasmas out of boxes.. but again too expensive. Stages: 1) Cut hole in plasterboard between joists.. no going back now! (pic 2) Space between joists extremely tight for projector size. 2) Noggins in the way on each side... so had to pry/cut these out and fit new stronger ones as they were going to hold some weight (pic 3) 3) Build the box that would go into the hole. This was a four sided affair, tall enough to completely enclose the projector when in up position (pic 4). I used thicker wood at the sides and routed two channels in each into which the sliding arrangement would fit. The whole arrangement was painted, and then the slider rails fitted. The box was fixed together on the outside using angle brackets. These had to be routed too so they did not stick out else would foul on the hole in the ceiling. 4) The four sided, open top and bottom was then fitted into the ceiling and screwed into the joist/new noggins on all four sides (pic 5). Tolerances for the whole things had to be in the region of <2mm  Once in place, the gaps were hidden by some wooden beading as you can see half fitted in the picture (5). 5) Then had to build the bit the projector mount would screw to. This had to fit exactly in the box with very small gaps else would look unsightly. On the top side was two uprights in line with the rails to which two small wheels were attached each end. (Very dodgy bit of DIY went on here). The underside was painted and the Vogels mount fitted. 6) The manual mechansim was then put together. To ease the weight having to be pulled up and down I used a 3:1 pulley system with some small blocks bought from an online sailing shop. A secondary system also added a 2:1 system with a counterbalance weight. The first pulley system is being tested in pic 6. 7) See if it works! The board and mount arrangement with the guide wheels was lowered in from above, and the projector fixed to it.. pics 7 & 8. It sort of went up and down and with a bit of adjustment... seemed to work OK! I had to make sure the c.o.g. was right in the middle owing to the single attachment point. 8) Once know this was OK, bought some curtain pole and fitments to hold the lower board in place, so just looks like a loft hatch when in up position. 9) Pics 9 and 10... now you see it, now you don't!!! Pic 11 view of dormer with projector down. There was a lot more too it than this.. but in general the above steps show the progression. The main problems were the access to the bit of roof above the dormer window... a nightmare of having to be half wedged between the sloping roof joists to reach through  and those ****** rails the whole thing slides up and down on. I ended up using drawer rails.. but if was doing it again would search longer and harder for some decent metal rails with ball bearing movement.. such as found in computer rack rails. Trouble with these is the limited height in the roof space.Anyway.. very happy with how it looks down as well as up. Some of the ones you could buy looked horrible down, with the pantograph mechansims looked very indistrial. Feel free to post any questions and I will do my best to help if anyone else is motivated into building one themselves by this post!  EDIT: Dimensions requested... have added extra picture with some of the dimensions. Front to back was limited by space between joists... sideways there were some noggins which I removed and replaced by studier pieces of same height as joists. 18mm MDF was used for the sides of 'box' and 12mm MDF for front & back. The interior of the box is 44.0 cm wide x 44.5 cm front to back. The actual sliding mechanism is 2.5mm smaller all round than the box interior to allow room for movement... then there are the curtain pole pieces holding the bottom peice of wood in place which cut into the area available for the projector. This could be limiting depending on the size of the projector.. OK for SP4805 which is small and should be OK for larger ones such as AE900 and Z4.. just. I did check before hand so if I upgrade I wouldn't be stuffed! The vertical space for the projector and mount between the upper and lower pieces of wood (18mm and 12mm MDF respectively) is 24.0 cm. The mount is the small Vogels. This could be got rid of completely and mount the projector directly on the top piece of wood... but with no lens shift I wanted the image/screen lower so could live with the drop. Mounting the projector directly could cause problems of adjustment though, i.e. having none!... and front to back space could be a problem also for running the cables from the back of the PJ. Last edited by guido; 18-01-2006 at 11:32 PM. |
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08-01-2006, 9:05 PM
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| Senior Member  | Quote:
 Very nice  | |
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08-01-2006, 9:48 PM
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SU...PERB!! Genius and the whole thing looks like a professional job. Well done |
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08-01-2006, 10:40 PM
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| Senior Member |
That's just brilliant work!! I wonder what our houselord would say if he'd find such a hole in the ceiling when we move out, otherwise I'd go for it myself!  |
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08-01-2006, 10:44 PM
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| Prominent Member  |
Fantastic DIY effort. It just looks so beautiful that you really should finish the job with a remote controlled hydralic system  |
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09-01-2006, 12:48 PM
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| Moderator  |
Excellent Quote:
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09-01-2006, 2:31 PM
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| New Member |
Uhoh.... Somebody's been watching too much THUNDERBIRDS... (Sits humming the theme tune whilst looking at TB2 inspired set up) Ian. |
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09-01-2006, 2:40 PM
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| Conspicuous Member  |
A slide which delivers you to the viewing seat, and a cold beer popping up within arm's reach would add the finishing touches I think. |
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09-01-2006, 6:01 PM
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Thanks everyone for positive comments  Quote:
I did think about having 4 x Screwthread linear motors, one on each corner...Quote:
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Last edited by guido; 09-01-2006 at 6:03 PM. | ||||
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09-01-2006, 6:55 PM
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 In any case think its a case of rain and dirty windows!  | |
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09-01-2006, 10:24 PM
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| Senior Member  |
That is frickin fantastic What a proffesional looking job..you must be really happy with how that has turned out.
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09-01-2006, 11:00 PM
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and thx again to all nice posts! I have only built a PJ Lift.. some people have gutted a whole room for their cinema  Would love to construct something a bit more sellable! I reckon there must be a market for the home cinema enthusiast PJ Lift as opposed to commercial and professional installers. Need a box with everything built in, say a couple of drop sizes - 30cm and 50cm, a proper electric mechanism.... for self-installation.. and not more than about £350.... as you can pay £100+ just for a ceiling mount. Maybe I will think about Mark II | |
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26-05-2006, 8:21 AM
| #23 |
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I'm starting to plan a project, I found these linear actuators http://www.firgelliauto.co.uk . On the http://www.firgelliauto.com web site you can find the remote control they mention on their Plasma Lift article. The .com web site has the same project with different pictures, I think. I found these runners http://products.jetpress.com/products/5031/140/ they look like the have a nice fixing plate to attached the "basket" to. I've got some old kitchen cupboards so might use that instead of the MDF panels that Guido used, much kudos to Guido for showing us the way to go by the way.SWMBO wants it to look almost hidden so I may put a sheet of plaster board under the bottom panel and have it plastered. I'd use the small metal bead that is used on a corner, when dry lining with dot and dab, around the edge of the "hole" and on the edge of the cover panel. My project will be a while off yet, I'm renovating and extending a 1932 semi at the moment so my Home Cinema will be built from scratch. I'll be allowed to do this when the other stuff is finished. Cheers J |
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27-05-2006, 2:56 PM
| #28 |
| Senior Member |
i'm assuming you could make these for a relitively low cost? if so would it not be worth making another and see how much you can sell it for? would be a simple fit for anyone as joists are a std distance apart ect and most PJ's would fit if i was in the market for something like that i would pay £500 for something like that, just a thought |
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27-05-2006, 10:09 PM
| #29 |
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Lift still works... and has had many ups and downs now! Still quite pleased with it.. the only thing that bugs me is the crappy rails I used... wish I had found something a bit better... smoother action with ball-bearing runners. Maybe one day I will replace if it starts getting a bit wobbly as hoist up and down. Linear actuators would be nice too! Beaker... those ones you found look good. $99 for 300mm travel.. not sure how many you would need though. Guess you could get away with two? My main problem was access into the area of the loft which is actually a dormer window.. making all work extremely difficult. We were having some hired in plasmas installed for a demonstration at work this week and the company (forget the name now) also did home cinema installations. I asked them about PJ Lifts and if they did these. They said they had and used 'Chief' lifts from the USA. They said there was a new one on the market that was specfically for home cinema. I reckon unless specifically designed for the UK market the joist separation here is still going to be a factor. They are still expensive though: http://www.chiefmfg.com/product_disp...?typ=ps&id=194 It would be good to see some more home-brew lifts here and even better a sub-500 kit available to buy!
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