So here's mine. It's a bit messy

[98TJ]

Got the woofer enclosure built and ready for paint.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Beautiful work! Would this be called 'Steam Punk', 'Avant Garde Retro', 'Unreal Re-purposing', or 'Techno Time-Warp'? Whatever you call it, I'm all for it, and SUBSCRIBED!

 

[98TJ]

Thanks.

Made the amp mount and painted it.

 

[Coyote Red]

Is all this stuff going to fit in there?

Thanks for the fix. It had been like two days.. And then all we got was a little tease on the woofer.

 

[chencho]

Then did a test. It works.

[/QUOTE]

Nice. No one commented on the fact that you have Clutch in rotation... Where's Elephant Riders? You're missing an all-time great.

Fantastic work on the radio.

 

[98TJ]

I've been busy over the weekend. Had family here, smoked 9 racks and a shoulder, bought/rebuilt an old 30s/40s desk fan, and got some work done on the jukebox.

I mounted the re-built woofers in the new enclosure, added banana/binding posts, and wired all the speakers.

Plugged it into our Win7 machine downstairs in the TV room and loaded various songs to get it going. Rock, rap, country, and some dubstep to get the re-foamed woofers broke in and loosened up a bit.

With the computer volume at 100% (slider in the taskbar), the pre-amp controls for the speakers at 50%, and the volume control for AlbumPlayer set at about 25% this thing gets down. It rattles the floor upstairs.

What's funny is we have a nice surround sound setup in the TV room (Denon receiver that's fed audio/video from PC via HDMI) and when you plug in to the audio jacks on the sound card it stops putting audio out via HDMI.

So I had it on, went upstairs, and we listened to it while BSing upstairs. Turned AlbumPlayer off, and went to the garage to work on an old fan I picked up.

While I was out there I heard the kids watching a movie. Thought nothing of it. Came inside to get my phone (was next to the jukebox) and realized that just how loud it was and how good it sounded. I thought the home theater system was on.

Decided to measure dB output six feet in front of the jukebox.

Meter maxed out at 140.5dB and the jukebox wasn't at full volume.

 

[Killa-B]

Awesome. The more I look at this site, the more I realize I dont know how to do $#%@! I am into Mountain Biking and I love all of your bikes!

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

"Meter maxed out at 140.5dB and the jukebox wasn't at full volume."

Holy Smokes, that is some serious ear-splitting dB!

Looks like a VERY successful project. Is the HDMI cutout something to be resolved with remote switching or what?

 

[Topcat]

wild looking toy, Nice job....Now how do we get one...lol

 

[ace028]

Any updates for us? Awesome build!!!

 

[98TJ]

"Meter maxed out at 140.5dB and the jukebox wasn't at full volume."

Holy Smokes, that is some serious ear-splitting dB!

Looks like a VERY successful project. Is the HDMI cutout something to be resolved with remote switching or what?

The HMDI audio seems to be normal function of the card. If you plug in to the audio jacks on the sound card it uses those jacks for audio out instead of sending it through HMDI. Make sense, really. No reason to have audio sent through both.

wild looking toy, Nice job....Now how do we get one...lol

I had a guy ask, told him it'd be $1,000 plus parts.

Ace, here's a small update. I've been having some pretty bad neck pain so I haven't felt the urge to work on things like normal.

Speaker pre-amp controls

Plate cut for the monitor controls. Still need to mount it. Holes were rough there. Was still in the process of checking fit and hitting the high spots with a round rasp.

I needed to extend the wires for the monitor control switches so I used CAT5 guts and soldered in an extension.

New cable.

Stuck in place with a fresh coat of paint on the panel. This was after the first coat. A 2nd coat has since been applied.

 

[littleviking]

Needs more tirangulation.

;-)

 

[98TJ]

Needs more tirangulation.

;-)

...and you, Sir. You get a Pirate Salute.



*edited to add update*

Got started on the trim piece for the touch screen. Making a mold of the stock piece so I can cast replicas and cut them up as needed. This will give me a "factory" look to the new trim bezel.

Mixing some silicone rubber

First half of the mold poured.

 

[flybefree]

Looking good...can't wait to see how you make the bezel ring. Hope your neck feels better.

Shaun

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Very slick! Never have seen anyone make a mold. Where do you get your mold making materials?

 

[Red Leader]

Can't wait to see what its going to turn out like!

 

[Bobcat719]

Soooo, I am dying here. Any updates? I would love to see how that mold came out! Nice build, I thought I was good with speakers....man was I wrong.

BK

 

[ace028]

I'm dying for updates too. Hope your neck is feeling better, don't over do it.

 

[Red Leader]

BTW how is that Craftsman table saw holding up for you?

 

[98TJ]

Soooo, I am dying here. Any updates? I would love to see how that mold came out! Nice build, I thought I was good with speakers....man was I wrong.

BK

I'm dying for updates too. Hope your neck is feeling better, don't over do it.

Poured the first half of the mold with some old silicone. It ended up with bubbles in it. Went ahead and poured the other half with some new stuff so I'd have at least half of a mold that was usable. Applied the rubber-to-rubber mold release and all went well. Needed to get more silicone so I could re-pour the bad half, but all I could get was high-strength stuff. Got that, poured the bad half and waited for it to cure. The high-strength **** takes 24hrs to cure and 48hrs for a complete cure. It NEVER fully cured.

So...waited for the regular stuff to come back in stock. Got it, mixed it, and poured again. It cured and when I got ready to separate the two halves of the mold they wouldn't release. Seems *someone* forgot to apply mold release prior to that last pour.

So...I'm out 3lbs of silicone rubber. Three pounds. Did I mention it's $30/lb?


...and I need to buy two more pounds of silicone to make a good mold. *bangs head on wall

I'm debating ripping the radio apart and getting more stain on then applying the matte finish while I wait for the silicone to come back in stock.

BTW how is that Craftsman table saw holding up for you?

As you would expect, that saw it running great.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

****, that stuff is EXPENSIVE! Sorry to hear about your 'learning experience'.

 

[98TJ]

****, that stuff is EXPENSIVE! Sorry to hear about your 'learning experience'.

Bad thing is that this wasn't a learning experience. I've used this stuff for years.

Just had a mental blank (had a brain injury in 2008 and, as a result, memory issues) and didn't apply mold release when I re-poured. I could see the mold release on the surface of the mold, but I needed to apply more before the re-pour...and I thought I did.

If I had used mold release, I'd have cast parts by now.

Got another pound of the high-strength silicone today. Will mix/pour tonight and hopefully have a good mold half in a day and a half to two days.

 

[Coyote Red]

I screw things up all the time. Unfortunately, I don't have a brain injury to blame it on.

 

[98TJ]

Made a little progress tonight.

Re-poured the first half of the mold. The only stuff that was in stock was the high-strength **** that didn't fully cure last time. Fingers crossed.

We've had this thing in the dining room and the wife and kids have been using it with Zune/Ipod and it's been difficult to get it back to the garage for work.

Got it back down tonight, gutted it, and give it more stain. Decided to put a dark walnut stain on the walnut veneer to make it stand out. I think it looks better like this. Not as plain.

Tomorrow it should start getting some matte clear.

 

[98TJ]

Made progress today. The re-pour of the high-strength silicone seems to be a success so it seems that the first half of the mold is good. Now I need to wait for more silicone to come in stock before I can pour the 2nd half - making sure to use mold release.

Also got the first layer of matte finish on.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Looking very elegant! What product are you using for the matte finish, and how are you applying it?

 

[98TJ]

Applying Rustoleum matte poly with a Wooster brush.

Chose this due to how it this thing will constantly have hands on it while in use. The matte is supposed to be more fingerprint-resistant than a standard semi-gloss.

Stain is Minwax red chestnut and dark walnut.

 

[dave67fd]

I've factory restored a few old radio's in my time but sir you take it to the extreme. I commend you on your attention to detail. Keep up the good work and the pics.

 

[Jackass1983]

excellent work. keep going!

Cheers Mark ( www.ST2000.de )

 

[98TJ]

Thanks, Dave and Mark.

Haven't been working on this lately. It's been put aside for now. Working on a dartboard cabinet for the neighbor, cutting the body lift out from under the FJ40, restoring some bedroom furniture for my mom, and today was spent cleaning the garage.

Here's a shot of it as I was making a bit of progress. Pulled the Jeep and FJ40 out and starting moving the shelving and bikes around to see how I could clear up floor space. The garage is deep enough to park both the TJ and FJ nose to tail, but I'm undecided if I want to continue parking them on the same side and have one side of the garage open, or park them side-by-side in the front half and have the back half open.

 

[lowbucktruck]

Nice work on the finish job on your radio/jukebox cabinet. Very cool project!

I feel your pain, its tough with ongoing projects and trying to keep the garage cleared enough to make the room needed to work on stuff.

 

[98TJ]

I feel your pain, its tough with ongoing projects and trying to keep the garage cleared enough to make the room needed to work on stuff.

It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have so many things going on at once.

Refinished an entire bedroom set for my mom and that's still sitting here. Delivering it this weekend.

The radio I'm working on was out there. I moved it inside for now.

The dartboard for the neighbor is on the workbench

I still need to cut out four sections of the FJ's body lift.

I've been working on the stairwell in the house. The builders anchored the handrail into the drywall instead of the studs. They didn't even use anchors - just screws. Had a maintenance guy come by and he had a bad leg and was limping around. Told him about the handrail and he STILL managed to try to bear his weight on it...pulling it out of the drywall. Everything has been patched/compounded/sanded so now it's time to prime the wall and re-paint.

For now I'm focused on getting **** gone and clearing up space in the garage. It will be much better when I get the bedroom furniture out.

 

[98TJ]

Getting work done to the Toyota.

Someone, at some point in this thing's life, thought a 3" body lift would be a good idea.

Every bolt I've had to deal with has been seized. Sawzall and a grinder with cutoff wheel seem to be the only means to remove this ****.

I picked up an air chisel set from Lowe's and this is what happened to two of the chisels in the first minute of use on a rusty bolt.

 

[streetstar]

My road bike

:

Drool I have about a 10 year old Litespeed i keep plugging away on , whatever the first year 10 speed Dura Ace came out -- i tell myself when i drop 50 pounds i will get a new 11 speed carbon scoot -- Really wanting one of Colnago or Pinarello's so -called comfort geometry frames with a slightly taller headtube than true race geometry

I just dug an old Yeti FRO out of my storage that i am going to clean up and hang somewhere in my house

I couldn't help but notice what appears to be a white Santa Cruz in one of the pics-- is it a HEckler or a Superlight ? (or something different i hadnt even thought of )

Just posting these up to show that i have a similar cycling affliction --- this really only scratches the surface too - (i mentioned this in Bill's hoarding thread also

couple of Santa Cruz's in there, some track bikes, the aforementioned Litespeed (its painted because it was a team color scheme, but its Ti) - as well as some miscellaneous other junk -- would probably have a hard time getting 5k for the whole lot - bicycle hoarding is a lose-lose propsition - sadly i only ride the Litespeed and the blue Santa Cruz now

 

[98TJ]

Nice!

The white bike is a 2006 Iron Horse Yakuza Aniki that I rebuilt with SRAM XO drivetrain, Elixr CR 203mm hydro discs, Transition Revolution 32 wheels, and some other stuff. It was a 43lb bike when I got it, it's at 36lbs right now. I use it for cross-country riding. I'd love to get a better fork for it. The one that's on it now (Spinner Ammo) is a 6lb piece of ****. Would love to score a cheap 140mm Lefty.

A few photos from the Yakuza build.

I have another bike now, a 2008 Cannondale 29er Two. This belonged to my neighbor, he rode it ONCE with me on the trail. Other than that it has sat. He was going to sell it to me for $500 but I've been helping him out when he needs it and I took him to the ER recently when his wife was out of town. His wife is a nurse and said I saved his life by taking him to not one, but two ERs to get him treated.

So he and his wife decided to GIVE me the bike. I have a 2008 29er Two with a XL frame/raw finish. This was the other finish option for the Two but isn't a XL frame. It's a large. So now I have two 2008 Cannondale 29ers.

 

[streetstar]

I can see the diff now between a Yakuza and a Santa Cruz -- your upper shock mount attaches to the downtube rather than the top tube --- me being primarilly a road oriented guy - all the MTB designs seem to run together except the carbon frames.

Come to think of it, A C'dale prophet is fairly close in the looks department too.

Sounds like you like the LEfty concept , but if you see a deal on a thru axle Talas -- thats a pretty nice fork to try also


----- must be pretty tough to find the time to ride with all your projects going on -- when i get into "training mode" i'm usually too blasted every night to do anything but re-hydrate and sleep

 

[98TJ]

Haven't been messing with personal projects lately. Been getting the FJ40 ready for winter duty and doing a few things for other people.

This weekend, however, I had SWMBO come out and give advice/help make the garage more organized.

I previously parked our 98 TJ and the 77 FJ40 nose to tail on one side of the garage. With winter approaching I decided to move the FJ up front and park the two side by side.

All of the bikes are now stored along the left wall and in the back left corner, hanging from the ceiling. Well, except for my road bike and the choppers. Road bike is in the work stand and the choppers are parked on the floor.

We moved the two work benches with back walls to the middle of the garage, just behind the support pole in the center. The bench we had up front, with no back wall, was placed in the back where the two other benches were.

Doing this really opened up a large area. I'm lovin' it. Spent a little time hanging spare Craftsman raised panel wrenches on the pegboard. Will organize things more throughout the week.

A couple of pics. Camera phone - sorry.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

SWMBO is a magician! Looks like enough room for the two of you to practice ballroom dancing while listening to the jukebox.

 

[jktruck150]

Looks great man! I am still amazed of your bike work! The organizing looks like it paid off! A clean garage is a fun garage!

 

[98TJ]

SWMBO is a magician! Looks like enough room for the two of you to practice ballroom dancing while listening to the jukebox.

She did well. It's weird that as much as I'm out there working, she's the one that made it more work-friendly. I've got a feeling that some big furniture projects are in the future.

Looks great man! I am still amazed of your bike work! The organizing looks like it paid off! A clean garage is a fun garage!

Definitely looks better. I'll have to get the DSLR out and get some decent pics with a wider lens.

The bikes...man...I haven't worked on a bike in months. Too many other things going on. Maybe soon.