WIP - Photo Booth

Looking good! I used particle board for my build too (for the same reason as you...lol), and I see some of the same issues in yours (screws damaging corners). I ended up going to a friend's house who has an entire woodworking shop in his garage to finish my build. The key is to pre-drill all screw holes, and to make them look nice, use a countersinking drill bit so that it leaves a space in the wood for the head of the screw.

As for the finish of the box, I stumbled across a thread somewhere that said to use spray on truck bed liner to give particle board a nice professional looking finish. I used it on mine and it does improve the aesthetics of the box considerably. The key is to lay down a good coating of primer so you're not wasting a bunch of the bed liner with the wood absorbing it all.

If you figure out how/where to get a plastic housing made cost effectively, please share. I have a buddy who does a lot of work with aluminum and I'm going to see what kind of cost I'd be looking at to rebuild my box out of aluminum. The big issue then is making sure the wifi signal can make it out of the aluminum enclosure far enough to be usable.

btweller wrote in post #17765936
Looking good! I used particle board for my build too (for the same reason as you...lol), and I see some of the same issues in yours (screws damaging corners). I ended up going to a friend's house who has an entire woodworking shop in his garage to finish my build. The key is to pre-drill all screw holes, and to make them look nice, use a countersinking drill bit so that it leaves a space in the wood for the head of the screw.

As for the finish of the box, I stumbled across a thread somewhere that said to use spray on truck bed liner to give particle board a nice professional looking finish. I used it on mine and it does improve the aesthetics of the box considerably. The key is to lay down a good coating of primer so you're not wasting a bunch of the bed liner with the wood absorbing it all.

If you figure out how/where to get a plastic housing made cost effectively, please share. I have a buddy who does a lot of work with aluminum and I'm going to see what kind of cost I'd be looking at to rebuild my box out of aluminum. The big issue then is making sure the wifi signal can make it out of the aluminum enclosure far enough to be usable.

I was thinking the same thing. A friend and his father to sheet metal work and are good welders, but I don't know if that would be the best.

I'd probably go with a cabinet grade plywood. The stuff from home stores should be fine if smooth and voidless. Should be lighter than the MDF as well. I wouldn't do anything metal / aluminum if you need WiFi in it. Also, taken into account properly grounding the metal one to earth (3 prong plug) if any electrical connections are made in it.

Good points...maybe I can do an aluminum frame instead, and then attach wood paneling for the sides and a brushed aluminum faceplate, etc. Make the while thing modular so that you can change the look up depending on the event by swapping out exterior panels. That would also help with accessing interior components more easily too.

So I ran into problem my first night out, but I see what needs to be done to fix them.

Lessons learned.
1. A 1" hole will not fit the power outlet of most surge protectors.

2. Triggering a Dynalite pack requires a trigger of some sort.

3. A pocket wizard PII will not fit on top of the D70 in the space provided.

4. Triggering a Dynalite pack with TTL enabled on a D70 will pop the breaker in the pack most every time.

5. The Dynalite pack can still pop the breaker when someone else has a camera that shoots a zillion pre-flashes.

6. A new computer setup that's worked flawlessly before won't always work flawlessly again.

7. Make sure you're ahead of schedule.

Thankfully I already knew number 7 and arrived 2 hours early. That wasn't really early enough with all the troubles I ran in to but once I got things going, it went smoothly.

LOL @ #2 and #3...I ran into the same problems (albeit with Buff gear). The CST wouldn't fit on top of the camera in the case, so I ended up falling back to my Strato triggers that (barely) fit. The problem then was that I didn't have a sync cord for the Stratos, so I ended up using a 430EX to optically trigger the moonlight. Worked fine until the speed light went to sleep, at which point the first photo in a series wouldn't be lit, as the flash would fire late.

Glad to hear you got everything sorted out though. Congrats on the first event!

And I have sync cables, but not the right kind for a D70. I'm going to get a hot shoe to 1/4" cable for future events. Friends of mine have an event called Mini Thanksgiving they do the Saturday after the official Thanksgiving and it's turned into more of a mega with over 35 people showing up last year. I'm going to set the booth up this year and see how it does there. Also, I need a shorter speaker stand. The one I borrowed is still a bit too tall.

This is the shortest one I could find (and the one I ended up purchasing):

http://www.amazon.com/​gp/product/B008R0WCUG

btweller wrote in post #17777511
This is the shortest one I could find (and the one I ended up purchasing):

http://www.amazon.com/​gp/product/B008R0WCUG

That's the one I bought after seeing your post. Which reminds me I still have the one my friend let me borrow. I need to return it.

This photo booth is a great concept keep up with the good work!

I have a possible job coming up for the photo booth at a school dance. I'm probably going to see about using printers instead of the iPad as middle school kids may not have e-mails, facebook, or phones to send the photos to.