Digital Home Thoughts: Building a Digital Photo Frame

"My father in-law, Harlan, gets all the credit for the top notch carpentry work. We sat down with the monitor and my initial ideas, and he basically ran with it from there. The first thing he did was create the inner frame that the holds the monitor. You can’t see any of this wood now that it is done, so it’s not the prettiest lumber. The inner part of the inner frame is hollowed out so that the monitor sits less than 1/4″ inch back. The bottom of the monitor sticks out more than the top and sides, so the bottom was thinned out more than the top and sides. We also drilled holes in front of the buttons so they’d still be accessible."



We've probably all seen those little 4 x 6" digital photo frames, usually with washed-out cheap LCD screens and costing far more than they should. I really like the idea of a digital photo frame, but I've yet to see one that actually impresses me in any way. This custom-created one certainly does - and given how cheaply you can get Dell LCD monitors (especially when they're on sale), this approach seems quite workable...if you know someone who's great with wood. ;-)