Designer:
Jeff Bright

Project Category:
Home Electronics

Project Level:
Advanced

Project Time:
20+ Hours

Project Cost:
$100 – $500

Project Description:
I had a piece of pine wood I cut using my log saw. It was so thin, you could see light through the sap lines. I saved it because I knew I was going to make something weird and cool. I don’t remember how this idea started, but I settled on a lighted boom box using this wood as a faceplate with white LED lights behind it. I built the cabinet out of particle board with 3 seperate compartments for a 2.1 system. I bought a Dayton DTA-2.1BT2, 2 Dayton Audio PTMini-6 Planar Tweeters, 2 Dayton TCP115-4 4″ Woofers, and 1 HiVi 5″ as a sub. Was on a budget on this project, and there was a ton of other choices, all being more expensive. I used a music controller for the lights. The result is nothing short of amazing! Everybody who sees it says the same thing, that is Fricken cool! Except they didn’t say Fricken! Yeah, I stole that!

Design Goals:
Make the weidest, coolest boombox ever.

Driver Selection:
Dayton DTA-2.1BT2, 2 Dayton Audio PTMini-6 Planar Tweeters, 2 Dayton TCP115-4 4″ Woofers, and 1 HiVi 5″ as a sub

Enclosure Design:
Particle board with 3 compartments for the 2 woofers and sub

Crossover Design:
woofers and tweeters crossed over at 4000hz

Tips & Tricks:
Making a particle board boombox with square edges is easy, making one with rounded edges is hard. I cut 3/4″ thick pieces 1″ x 8″ with angles on the long ends. Glued together, they made 1 180 deg turn. Then used a flap disc on a sisde grinder.

Conclusion:
This turned out pretty cool! I made for my wife and she said she is proud of it, not something she does often.

About the Designer:
Pilot and mechanic on a corporate jet. I built a log saw 15 years ago and have cut up hundreds of logs. I always have one of a kind, weird cuts of wood that I never know what I am going to do with, but eventually find a project.

Project Parts List: