2012-09-09

In the trunk of my old car, I had a large speaker box that added quite a bit of volume to the music I was listening to. When it was time to retire the car, I put the speaker box into storage, and quite recently, I decided to actually do something with the box.

In my mind I saw an exquisite vision of what could be if I used all of my skill and determination to make something with the speaker box. Fortunately, I skipped all of that "skill" crap and just threw a bunch of components together to make a boombox of awesomeness.

A Bit of Soldering

Knowing that I would need to connect some sort of audio playing thingy to my boombox, this adapter cable needed to be crafted from a pair of RCA cables and an audio plug from the local electronics store.

This was the only soldering that I did on this device.

The Box

Oh man look at that massive, far too heavy box. The crappy carpet on the box is coming off and I need to glue it back into place.

The Box

The hot glue gun was almost used, but then I remembered that I had this can of spray adhesive just waiting to be used.

With a spritz-spritz here and a spritz-spritz there, the carpet was put back in place.

The Box

From an unused laptop bag, I salvaged some strap components that I attached with some wood screws.

The Box

Some of the fabric from the laptop bag was hot glued to the back of the speaker box to make this pocket.

Within the pocket, I store two power adapters for the amplifier. One is a wall wart and the other adapter plugs into the cigarette lighter of a car.

The Amplifier

On Amazon.com I purchased a little 12Volt amplifier that I attached to the back of the speaker box. The nice thing about this amplifier is that it has a USB port for charging electronic devices like my digital music player.

Right now, this thing is basically finished....

The First Test

The boombox was taken to my buddy's place where a backyard deep fry was going on. The amp was plugged in, powered on, and a MP3 player was connected. BOOM! For such a small gutless amp, this thing really jams.

Here are some beer battered yam slices frying to a delicious golden brown. nom nom nom

The First Repair

The plastic connectors from the laptop bag strap couldn't withstand the weight of the box and the epic sounds of Iron Maiden. A short length of heavy duty shoe lace came to the rescue.

Up the Irons! Don't blame the Maiden.

The finished product

The Future?

There are a few things I would like to do to the box...

  1. replace the heavy crap wood with a very light box. Seriously, this thing is too damn heavy.
  2. add a motorcycle battery to the box to make it more portable.
  3. add a solar panel on the top of the box to charge the motorcycle battery. Double win!

Now quit reading, and go rock out!

Comments
2012-09-15 Alison Chaiken:
"Retire the car"? What kind of tires did you get?
2012-09-15 jezra:
My "old" car, not my current car.
2012-09-15 Thomas Perl:
I wonder what the belt is doing there in the background of the second photo.
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