Abstract
If the 1801 speaker cabinets were my first real dip into understanding audio and getting ready to better understand electronics, then this project was just fun. This was created as part of the Sachsian Syndicate ISRU boombox challenge, in which a boombox had to be made from as many repurposed materials as possible. In my case, I took this as an opportunity to dumpster dive at my new job, where scrap wood was thrown out constantly. Though it wasn’t encouraged as part of the rules, I took influence from Tom Sachs’ many boom boxes. It had to be completed in under two months, and this was a fun opportunity to make something unusual for me.
Design
Worktrash was designed to be a miniature version of this piece:
Which I loved as a multimedia functional, intricate plywood sculpture. My first sketch initially looked like this:
The only requirements for me, it would have to use the midrange and tweeters from the broken Cerwin Vega speakers I had been wanting to throw away for a few years, and the old subwoofer from my car. Because of the sub, the center cabinet would have to be pretty big, and thus the size of the whole thing had been decided. Another core component of the design was a separation between the three speakers, like a mini sound system. I started getting the rough dimensions of each piece, and was fishing wood out of the dumpster to cut down to size later. The amp would be a small bluetooth generic model, enough to drive the powerful sub with a left, right and center sub channel, last requirement, I wanted the amplifier section to have the same look as a Mcintosh style amplifier, with big VU meters, backlit blue-green.
Fabrication
I cut everything out of 3/4 inch preprimed plywood, making the three contiguous boxes, before cutting the holes. I then mounted speakers and began working on the handle, the sides would be CNC cut to carry the lightening hole design I added, and the two outsides would hold the a detachable schedule 40 steel pipe. Everything was very simply glued together with a brad nailer.
The Vu meter and amplifier are supported by a sheet of acrylic with the width of the hole pattern laser engraved out of it. This part sits in a pocket in the plywood just above the sub. The acrylic was painted black around the VU meters to give the gloss black look while also safely securing the panels to the back of the front panel. My final goal was to power the whole ordeal from a Milwaukee battery. This didn’t work, I think there was something mislabeled on the circuitboard, and my power taps would just short out if a battery was connected, therefore the system runs off a permanently mounted wall wart power supply, thought the severed Milwaukee drill handle remains. I engraved the title “Worktrash” in the front of the speaker with a soldering iron.
Conclusions
It was fun to participate in a build challenge and this reframed my mind for smaller scale builds outside of a career context in a time where I was just focusing on the large scale projects underway at work. I used this speaker every day for a very long time and still have it mounted in my garage to use when I’m working on something that doesn’t require hearing protection. This project was delayed for quite a while because I started to have perfection paralysis, I eventually decided to let the project go and enjoy it for what it was, I’m glad I did because the project was done on time, and has been of great use to me in my daily life ever since.
