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Scratch Build – In Progress Crusty McBeanbags III

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Cheapskate, 22 Jun 2013.

  1. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    I was pressured to post this quick little build, even though I don't have any hardware and it will likely go straight to storage.
    I had some time to kill, and some scrap materials to get rid of, so I thought I'd build ol' crusty. A while back, I tried to get rid of some cast aluminum outdoor speakers at the local Goodwill. Apparently they have a policy against taking anything slightly rusty, so they stayed around as garage clutter. On a whim, I checked to see if I could fit an ITX motherboard inside. It turned out the fit was perfect, and I tore into the speakers so violently I have no pictures of the start of the project.
    [​IMG]
    -Here's the inside of one of the speaker back panels. I have already sawed the mounting pegs and stuff off the inside here. The plan was to take the two speakers and attach them back-to-back, then use the backplates to make faceplates.
    [​IMG]
    -I had to sand the faceplates down a bit to fit them in the raised border on the speaker fronts. I pried the metal mesh of the fronts and tossed it immediately. That's some of that stuff there's no pictures of, bear with my rambling for a bit...
    [​IMG]
    -A back becomes a front, and a back becomes a back again. -what?
    I added an 1/8" bit of plexi scrap to get these flush with the lip.
    [​IMG]
    I have some nice metal from a control panel for an old X-ray machine here... No, I don't have the X-ray part. :( I had to remove some spot welded reinforcements off the back. These bits are to splice the two speaker bodies together.
    [​IMG]
    -I drilled the body holes first, then traced the hole pattern onto the splice.
    [​IMG]
    -Here's a good size reference shot. I countersunk the holes so the expanded bit of the rivets would sit inside the splices. Grandpa's safety goggles served me well for this project. The sander throws filings straight up and forward, so even sitting off to one side you end up looking like Ziggy Stardust.
    [​IMG]
    -I clamped the halves together while adding the rivets.
    [​IMG]
    -There used to be grit on this poor sanding drum. I used it to remove some of the rear speaker face. (the whole back-front thing is giving me hell.:lol:)
    [​IMG]
    -I got this far with the sander and a jig saw. The aluminum is close to 1/4" near the edges.
    [​IMG]
    -I filed on the edges for a long time. I filed the rivets down even with the splices too. The extra room will be needed.
    [​IMG]
    -I have the fan already fitted in this pic. The speaker mount was almost a perfect match for a 92mm fan, and I have this insano-thick 92mm fan I want to use. I'm fitting a box for the power, LED, and USB. This was originally an order-clearing button box from a certain local fast-food establishment... Are you keeping track of the sources yet, 'cause it gets better.
    [​IMG]
    -Some work on the switchbox. I've blasted the entire setup with oven cleaner at this point to get the "crusty" effect. The switch was originally shiny nickel and stood out way too much. I tortured it until it matched the rig a little better.
    [​IMG]
    -I added this spacer to make the switchbox and the fan level with each other. -What is that? It kinda looks like a tiny engine head...
    [​IMG]
    -Yup. It was once a weed-eater engine. Here I'm chopping the top off of the itty-bitty piston head.
    The plans I have for that will have to wait for the next update.:D
     
  2. Azariel

    Azariel Minimodder

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    I'm actually very curious what the original 'speaker' looked like! But other than that, very nice start cheaps!
     
  3. AlienwareAndy

    AlienwareAndy What's a Dremel?

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    I had a pair of alu speakers once. Mind you they were B&O so cutting them up would have been like cutting one's throat.
     
  4. LegendaryScott

    LegendaryScott Trying to live up to the name

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    Crusty McBeanbags III. Love it.
    Looking forward to the rest
     
  5. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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  6. Vetalar

    Vetalar *learning english*

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    quick build from cheaps? i definitely must see it!!!
     
  7. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    The word to be interested in is 'quick'.

    Looking great at the moment cheaps. I always love the charm of your handmade parts.
     
  8. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    :D Thanks, but why does 'quick' seem so impossible? The hard part was cleaning the metal chips up.

    [​IMG]
    -What's this picture celebrating? I dunno. I think it's the mounting of the switch box and the fan.
    [​IMG]
    -I gave the motor head some oven cleaner love at some point.
    [​IMG]
    -Hey, there's that fan hole again. I must have been proud of it or something.
    [​IMG]
    -I went through several bits of aluminum angle for covering the fan, but I can't get it to look as gnarly as the cast stuff. The oven cleaner trick only works on cast.:(
    [​IMG]
    -Here's that piston head set up for milling flat. I wish I snapped a pic of that. This stuff cuts like butter.
    [​IMG]
    -I flipped it over and milled a 1/2" hole right in the middle.
    [​IMG]
    -After that I... Well it's hard to tell, but I hammered a 1/2" plexi rod in the hole, and glued it to the casing with a scrap plexi 'donut.' Here I've wired an LED to the back, and gobbed up the wiring with some window sealant that was nearby.
    ...You can also see I made the spark plug hole in the engine head square. The reason for that...
    [​IMG]
    -Any usb connector I find to fit in this will NOT fit through the pansy 1/2" hole i started with. I had to hack it out a bit.
    [​IMG]
    -After forcing the plexi rod into that hole I milled, I sanded it flat.
    [​IMG]
    -Then I hit it with the oven cleaner, and a few other things... It looks deliciously nasty.:)

    [​IMG]
    -I cut venting into the -Can i just call it the back BACK panel now? I didn't mill all the way through, and the position somehow changed between sessions, so I just drilled and filed the rest out.
    [​IMG]
    -Figure A: Pointy uncomfortable file 'handle'.
    [​IMG]
    -Figure B: Comfy fuel hose handle.
    It was not much of a filing session. It was more like a 'chipping out paper-thin bits' session.
     
  9. craig - toyoracer

    craig - toyoracer Minimodder

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    Hummm old aluminum speakers, discarded x-ray machine housing, broken weed-eater, scrap plexi, window caulking and fuel hose and oh yeah lots of oven cleaner and were still on the first page :duh:


    Love the junkyard modding Cheaps. :rock:
     
  10. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    The funny name got my attention, thought what the heck could this be. :D

    Cheapskate project & off to a good start. :D:clap:
     
  11. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Thanks. :D
    You forgot restaurant equipment, Craig.
    There's a couple more salvage items left.
     
  12. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    [​IMG]
    -Looks like where I left off...
    [​IMG]
    -And now for something not metal. I wanted an insulation layer for the motherboard tray, so I used the ABS skin of a Dell desktop server. The first one is a test fit...
    [​IMG]
    -I said it was an exact fit.:D This is just a test-fit board, BTW. I'm not sure it will even power up. ABS is easy to work with. I used a hacksaw to gnaw out the basic shape, then ground the extra material off with a bench grinder. Any detail work can be done with a wood chisel.
    [​IMG]
    I decided to use a pair of tabs to hold the tray in place. Here is the front one, which hides under the front panel.
    [​IMG]
    -Look close and you can see I epoxied some plexiglas blocks against the back for screws.
    [​IMG]
    -Here's an earlier pic with the back slot and fresh screw holes on either side of the vent.
    [​IMG]
    -Gad! These are so out of order! F*ck you photobucket! F*ck your new hashtag dickery too!
    Um... This is the test fit of the back tab. The new mounting holes healed somehow.
    [​IMG]
    -So at this point I was out of cast alu materials. I wanted the whole thing to have that nasty grey look and the better quality aluminum didn't darken with oven cleaner. I started digging around in metal bins, (MMMM, laptop titanium..)
    [​IMG]
    -'cuz in the bottom of one of them, I had this. It's some kind of aluminum/tin combo.
    [​IMG]
    -Oh, boy. It cut really easily. I used plexi settings for the cut.
    [​IMG]
    -I left the edges rough. The initial plan was to have it line up with the faceplate and butt up against the switchbox. I ended up not liking that look.
    [​IMG]
    -So I filed it back even farther. It's so soft, I used a (dull) wood rasp file.
    [​IMG]
    -Here's a prelim fit. This stuff didn't get too dark either, but it's much nastier than sheet aluminum would have gotten.
    [​IMG]
    -It blends the lighter alum too, so I guess I can go ahead and use it.
    [​IMG]
    -The last donor part of this update comes from a cardboard map cabinet from the '50s.
    [​IMG]
    -Instant military-style handle/guard.
    This is essentially done. I don't have any plans to put hardware in it at the moment, I just wanted to blow off some steam.:D
    I'll probably spend the next few weeks digging around for a usb connector.
     
  13. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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    Nice grill, nice project. :)

    I agree & it changed almost straight after I bought a big subscription, they definitely made it worse, worked excellent before the change, now it's more clicking & more editing for doing updates.
     
  14. miller

    miller What's a Dremel?

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    Great work, It has a real heavy duty industrial look, it's not as easy as some people might think to just hack up some old bits and throw them together, it always involves more than that once you get started if it's actually going to end up looking more than just a pile of junk but done with some thought and "The whole is more than the sum of the parts".

    Working and building on the fly has a freedom to it and I like the way things evolve some random parts just seem to fit together like they were made to, kind of weird at times :idea:
     
  15. Big_malc

    Big_malc Minimodder

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    Love that grill cheaps
     
  16. craig - toyoracer

    craig - toyoracer Minimodder

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    That grill fits the nasty look perfectly. :thumb:
     
    Last edited: 1 Jul 2013
  17. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Thanks, everyone.:D
    @Waynio - Right? Don't get me started on all that laggy-*ss flash interface.
    @Miller - That's the nice thing about the Imperial standard. Everything's dimensions are rounded off to inches to save time. It would be hell to get stuff matched up if it was all standardized to millimeters.
    @Craig - It pitted up beautifully, but it still stayed pretty bright.
     
  18. craig - toyoracer

    craig - toyoracer Minimodder

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    I am glad the different shades really look good. :)
     
  19. phinix

    phinix RIP Waynio...

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    Haha:) I saw this original name of the project and straight away knew it has to be our Cheaps:)
    Looking good, man! Nice chassis, also like this pattern in fan cover. I'm curious what you gonna do with this:thumb:
    ..oh, and you have to show us yourself in those grandpa's safety goggles!!!
     
  20. Azariel

    Azariel Minimodder

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    Absolutely love how this looks! Its got that real authentic weathered look! Don't get me wrong, I've seen a lot of cases with the painted weathered look which looked great, but this is just ....I don't know....better...

    Anyway, I decided against Photobucket as soon as I noticed they downsize all files to limits I was not happy with! So I went with imgur, which up till now has been very easy to work with I must say.
     

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