Great source for high quality Optics

Due to a certain sale thread and the lack of proper optics for sale at reasonable prices, an easy way for anyone to get your hands on high quality optics is well within anyone's reach.

1. Go to eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

2. Search for "lcd projector parts"

Up will come an avalanche of projectors which don't work for reasons ranging from needing a new lightbulb to a blown fuse in the power supply, to physically smashed. If you're lucky you might get a projector with an easy fix problem, and can get you a nice fun toy for entertaining or playing games on a big screen :gun:

3. Find one that's cheap, and bid on it - I've gotten projectors regularly for $20-40

4. Wait for projector to arrive

5. Rip projector apart when it arrives

Inside you will find: High quality AR coated lenses, dichroic mirrors which work very well for combining lasers, fans, electronic bits, LCD screens and polarizing filters, all kinds of stuff.

I took a bunch apart last year and got lots of great optics. Just an example: (this is ALL stuff just from taking apart a few projectors)

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VERY nice advice! Thanks Mario!!

cheers for the advice very helpful!

Excellent Suggestion! Thanks +1

Woah! Thats some sweet stuff there, thanks for sharing

NICE!!! all this packrat needs more stuff! thanks.

Other items - Microfilm projectors, old library cataloging readers. People scrap those out like crazy.

Inside is a huge FSM and 4 other smaller ones. a lens and focusing assembly and some cool indicator lamps & fans.

Just thought I would point out that the projector needs to utilize 3CCD technology. I don't think a DLP would have the same stuff.

Nice suggestion! This is almost as good as buying broken DNA scanners for Argon Ion lasers... What's the cube?

The cube combines the Red, Green, and Blue LCD elements into ONE full color image in the projector. It can do the same with Lazor beamz

Yeah, pretty much any LCD projector made after 1995 is gonna have the 3LCD technology. The cube does work for combining lasers but the efficiency is low. The dichros work much better for combining lasers.

Cool, even if efficiency is low, it would make a great paper weight!

Your desk looks a lot like mohrehnbuhrgh's... hhhh(or however the Fck you spell it)

I didnt realize that there were that many usable parts in one of those.

Wow that's amazing. Those parts are real eyecandy. I know what I'm going to do next when I ever get my hands on a LCD projector.

Do projection TVs have such an assortment of optics worth salvaging? Like:
Mitsubishi 50" Projector TV $30.00 OBO!

The front screen on that is a giant Fresnel lens (did I say that right?)

I know a guy (not overly bright) who salvaged the front of one of those, he used it to fix a broken window. Damn near burned his house down.

There are some other goodies in there certainly worth ripping one of those apart, assuming it's broken first.....