Current Project.

        Post # 5



        After the (not so) Laptop was ruined and never got finished I took a break from trying to build things. With money being tight and other personal things going on I didn't have much time to build nor the motivation. This went on for some time until my neighbor bought these clock housings from a garage sale. When I saw them it was a light bulb moment because all I could think about was how cool the would look as Speaker housings. Well turns out at that point in time my Neighbor was unwilling to part with them. Luckily for me I just bought a new wood lathe and need something to do with it. I began making my own Speaker Housing from scratch  with the overall design inspiration taking from these clock boxes.

             After getting into the project of the speaker boxes My wife and I went to a second hand store. This is where I found a Flatscreen computer monitor for about $12. Needless to say I could not pass up that deal however I didn't have any use for another screen. Yet again the little hamster in my brain started running on his wheel. (Thats a metaphor for thinking you see) I came up with this idea that I was going to rebuild the monitor out of wood and attach the speakers to the either side of the monitor.

       I began by taking apart the monitor peice by peice and scraping every Plastic or unneeded part I could. Again this was a very fast part of the build seeing how I wasn't concerned in ever putting this thing back together the way it was. The monitor came apart very easy a few clip and screws and it almost falls apart in your hands.

        Then started the stage of mocking everything up to fit. The speaker housings that I had made had a slightly more Gothic look to them than a Steampunk look. However I was ok with this because I love the look of gothic architecture. At this point I thought that I would make this a Steampunk computer monitor with a Gothic feel to it. This seems to me like it was a good fit because it two things I really like merged into one.

   


   Here you can see the Monitor surround beginning to take shape with the speaker housings attached to the sides. With a limited wood supply at the time I had to make due with what I had. Hence the few different colors of wood. the Speaker housings are wrapped with the same red velvet and brass tacks I was using on the roundtop laptop.

      

           With the top part of the screen surround being done mocked up I started thinking of little detail things to Jazz it up a bit. The top seemed very plain and boring so I made a little trim peace that I cut out and routed  with a colonial bit to give it a little more Gothic styling. I left A gap behind it where I put some more of the faux red velvet. The speakers were part of a powered speaker/subwoofer combo that when turned on Had a little blue LED that light up. Now with the red velvet I didn't think that a Blue LED would look very good, so I switched it out for four red 5mm LEDS. With the top center piece being raise up off the back panel a little bit I gave me a perfect place to put some lights. Now when the Speakers are on the Center Corbel has a nice little glow from the backside. It looks great in a slightly darker room but with a well lite room it's not so easy to make out.

        

           Next the Speakers needed a little love in the way of corbels. Without the corbels they looked to be just floating on the side of the monitor, and that just did not look good at all. Again trying to stay with the Gothic feel I made this set. 

        With the speaker corbels done I attached them to the bottoms of the speaker housings. As you can see it give it a much more finished look. This was where the work on the Monitor stopped it still needed to be stained,but for now it was done. The next step was to make a desk for it to set on. However I was beginning to fear I was losing the idea of a Steampunk computer. So the only solution was to make the desk the monitor was to set on much more Steampunk in character. There was only one way I could think to do that, and that was with a roll top desk. Now I don't have the money to blow on a antique roll top desk to start cutting into and potentially messing up, So I would build one, but I've never built a roll top desk before so I was in for an adventure.

      That is were I will pick this back up tomorrow so until then take care and thanks for reading.