so uh, no aluminum I guess...

[Draco]

my mistake on the brass

[andy_con]

I order most of my ally off ebay

[mixedgas]

What about brass and aluminum kickplates for doors? As I've seen them in videos from all over the world, I would think you could possibly find them.

Steve

[DrEvil]

I have a feeling those would not be thick enough. As for the brass ones, we've covered brass quite a bit already. It isn't good for dissipating heat.

[Draco]

the brass kick plates are way to thin, sadly my projector i built on wood, so even brass would be better for me, i am only using single mode lasers but fans are mandatory for that crappy set up, buy hey it works

[buffo]

If you are desperate, you can use wood. Just understand that it will not dissipate any heat, it will swell and shrink with changes in temperature and humidity (making alignment more difficult), and it is very difficult to get a perfectly flat surface. But if it is all you have to work with, use it. We have seen several projectors made out of wood here on PL, and they all work to one degree or another.

Obviously metal of any type (even steel) is preferable, but if you can't get the materials or don't have the tools to work with it, then you have to use what you can.

Another option is plexiglass. One of out SELEM veterans (Bill Whitcher, aka Whitcher88) has a very nice RGB projector that is made entirely out of thick plexiglass. He had to add extra fans to get rid of the heat, and the projector is really heavy, but otherwise it's fine.

Adam

[Draco]

when i mentioned heat sinks i am referring to the ones used in stereo's and audio video receivers, they usually have a large heat sink that is flat on one side, some can be quite large depending on the amp, you can build the whole set up on the flat side.

The wood i used was birch plywood i got at a craft store so it does not warp as bad as a single hunk of wood would do, thats the mess in all it's glory