I wanted to try something medium sized again inbetween this project and my ultimate sound backpack project (collecting funds ). So with a friends birthday coming up I decided to make her one of my boomboxes. She likes the color crimson (hence the name), so I went down to frys today to pick up some stuff. This is what I will be using with this project. 6 watt rms speakers and an el-cheapo battery charger combo. - Cost: $30 (for everything) I tested the speakers out on the wall before I hacked them up, and they were amazing, especially since they're a no-name brand. prototyping time. I decided to make something with rounded corners, I think like the mac mini if I'm not mistaken. The entire box will be an easy 3 pieces to cut out, and I will only have to bend one of them. the simple set of tools I use for prototyping my latest stuff. Start of the cardstock version... I couldn't resist putting this picture up. taking shape.... general idea. The paper didn't exactly like to make rounded corners, but its more or less of making sure everything fits inside. The acrylic sheet will work just fine. test fitting for the x and y axis test fitting for the z axis... everything looks good. sized up the pieces for cutting on my big acrylic sheet. thats all for tonight, the whole thing will be finished by tomorrow.
heh, I have a free power socket in there. I have a big strip of 12 and 2 smaller 6 plug surge protectors in my room, but every single plug is taken up. When I mod I usually set up various parts of the project in different parts of my house. I've already soldered in the kitchen, did the cardboard box in my room, cut acrylic in the garage, and arranged everything for size in the bathroom. I got a free msi mobo and amd 1800 today, but setting that up will have to wait until after this is finished. Look for an update around 7 pst.
back to modding in the garage. Today I was unable to get the krylon fusion, because home depot didn't have any tomorrow morning I'm heading out to ace where I'm hoping they will hopefully have it in a crimson like color. anyways, I started out by making up my lines for cutting the acrylic. This time around, cutting would be a little trickier than usual. I once again used the plastics / plywood cutting disc, but I did the cut a little differently. chisel edges, so that the edges will come together like this - \|. oh, and don't forget your eye protection. I got hit in the goggles so many times. cutting stage 1: I accidentally cut into my tablecloth (towel) now covered in acrylic particles from cutting, I had my semi finished piece. there it is all cleaned off. Since this is a modding thread, I had a few questions about vinyl die. will it change any of the acrylics bonding properties? Can I still use acrylic epoxy over areas that have been vinyl died? also if I were to vinyl die a piece of acrylic and then use a heat gun to bend it, will this release any toxic fumes or fade/change the die color? The non die side of the acrylic will be the side being heated.
Wow you have the same exact eye protection that i have. Mine are messed up though the strap doesnt always work correctly.
well bad news.... with everything going cleanly, we had to start all over 2 hours before the party... heres what happened. got the first piece cut with the chisled edges. painted with the krylon fusion... the paint came out really damn nice once it dried. We started out with a scratched piece of acrylic, and sanded it down. After the krylon set we had a mirror finish. Ignore the sticky stuff left over from the tape The first half of the box, bent to shave via the heat gun. I found out that unless you let it dry for a really long time, the heat gun makes the acrylic so hot that it makes the die able to be peeled off. DISASTER!!! The acrylic snaps! I tried to epoxy it back together, so maby I could use it for a later project. So we start all over making just a square boombox. Here the top and bottom pieces are cut. we were already late, so we didn't take pictures of everything. Here are the speaker holes being cut. The bottom one was sanded even with a dremel sanding drum. we unfortunateld did not have time for the epoxy to set 90 minutes so we had to ghetto it with some brackets and hot glue. See that mirror finish I was talking about though? (I think I might have put that bottom piece in backwards now that I look at it.) there it is finished... definetly not what I wanted. The power led is buried inside of the box X_X... whatever. It sounded pretty good, we tested it with daft punks Robot Rock... sounds pretty good. Considering this is the fasted boombox I've ever built, I was somewhat happy with the result. The birthday girl liked it so thats all that really matters. Hope these projects are helping you guys in some way. I had excellent results with the vinyl dye on sanded acrylic, so at least one thing.
