This Boombox was created for my friend with mostly recycled parts. The story is that I owed my friend big time, so I took his old car speakers he wasn’t using and decided to make something useful.

Below is how I had initially thought how it should be constructed. Now with this design, I realized that creating such a shape would be difficult. I even tried with the tools that I had but it failed miserably. I found a local laser engraving shop that would cut my piece for a very minimal fee, so I decided to use them. All they needed was a marked sketch with dimensions, turnaround time was very fast as well. I will likely be using them for my future projects.

*You can view this project as well as many others on my personal blog at www.diy-create.com.

Step 1: Parts Needed

Acrylic Sheet (Received via Craigslist) (FREE)
(2) Speakers (Received from my friend) (FREE)
Amplifier Board (Sure Electronics 15w x 2 Class D Audio Amplifier) (~$15)
Used Headphone Cables (My Junk Stash) (FREE)
Some Sort of Stand (TV Stand) (FREE)

Step 2: Construction

The shape I had designed came out exactly like I had designed it. As you can see I’m just laying the acrylic sheet against the stand. Seems good to me!

I realized that the speakers, that came from a Honda Civic, has these tabs. These tabs were probably used to fit in the door card of the vehicle. It is not needed in this case.

All Done Here!

Now its time to install them!

In the previous photo you can see I’ve started created construction lines for the stand. On the next photo, I drilled three holes for the stand and now I’m starting to layout amplifier board.

With the amplifier board holes drilled, it is now to time to attach them to the speaker board.

I wanted to integrate an iPod Dock and I spent a great deal of time trying to integrate it to the system. However, it was after the integration to the system that I realized iPod docks disable volume control, therefore the volume needs to be controlled via an external volume knob/potentiometer. Unfortantely, I learned this AFTER I had integrated the dock into the stand. It was looking really great, but since I had not taken this into my design consideration, I decided to ditch that idea. Here are some pictures of the dock before the idea was ditched. Luckily, I was able to cover the exposed holes on the stand with a Honda Symbol that I got from the junk yard.

Step 3: Finishing

Now its time to reassemble everything and uncover this boom box!! In the latter pictures, I took a Honda Decal and was able to center it so that it covered the exposed holes.

Step 4: Conclusion

The project is done and my friend was very happy with it. I enjoyed this project and really I was blown away by the finish, the laser really helps. If I had to do this again, I would definitely incorporate the iPod dock for sure. With that, I will definitely have to incorporate a volume knob as well. The amplifier is rock solid, it can definitely drive those speakers easily. Also, if there is a version 2, I would probably design something that would sit behind the speakers as a cover, so the speaker can resonate properly. Most speaker enclosure are enclosed, but in this project my objective was to use whatever I had and make it very interesting looking. All in all, I’m very satisfied, here are some great pictures I took.

This was my first project in which I used a third party to cut my pieces. I found that in my past I would waste so much time just cutting the pieces that I would quickly loose interest. A local shop, Custom Engraving and Signs, have two laser cutters that can cut practically anything you can imagine. I was blown away by the accuracy and sharp definition of all my cuts. If I can win the Hurricane Lasers Contest, I want to continue doing what I'm doing now but at a much faster pace. I have so many great ideas just waiting to be designed and implemented. Rather than waiting for the shop to cut my design (which can take 1-2 weeks), I can do it at my own pace. I do believe that winning one of the Hurricane Laser Cutter will help evolve my creativity into an even higher level. Thank you Hurricane Lasers for sponsoring this contest that has inspired me to create such a high quality and memorable gift for my friend.

Links

Sure Electronics 15w x 2 Class D Audio Amplifier – TA2024

Custom Engraving & Signs

DIY-Create --- Acrylic Boombox

And as always, you can view this project as well as many others on my personal blog at www.diy-create.com.