New TechnoAntique Juke project

[brihyn]

First, for any purists who don't believe in cutting up antiques for projects like this, you might as well close the browser now...You're going to be disappointed.

Since finishing the Mame cab late last fall, I've been admiring all of the jukes and VPin tables here, daydreaming a bit. I had this idea to find an old crank phonograph player and make something cool and interesting out of it.
I currently have an old 42 RCA non-operational radio sitting in my office with a music streamer sitting on top, pc speakers inside (the radio hasn't been modified at all.)  I've always thought it'd be cool to make it more of a new unit, but it was a gift from my wife when we were first dating, so I've refused to do a thing to it.

So, a month ago I began the search for a crank phonograph. I found one immediately that I really liked...pretty good shape, interesting design, with a frozen crank. I was also able to negotiate a price just over what I was imagining spending. But....I had just begun the search, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that finds the search to be one of the most fun parts of this hobby. So I temporarily passed.
This week I began negotiating with a guy that had a stripped down Victrola on craigslist...no innards, so perfect for my project, but I couldn't get him down the the price I liked, and frankly, I wanted something with a bit more design to it then the Victrola's give, so back to the antique store I went today.

The thing's bought. I need to work through the spring honey-do list so that I can start working on this. I'm not sure of the brand, but I feel a lot better cutting apart a non-Victrola.

The current idea is that when you open the lid, a 3/4's crank of the handle will raise a touchscreen to about 20ish degrees. The volume pull on the left side will (hopefully) be connected to a sliding pot to actually change the volume. I've been working on the pc evenings while searching CL for the antique.

Investment:
Antique: $60
PC: Already Owned

Sound amplication was made with a cool wooden speaker bell. I'm thinking of making a dock to sit a smart phone on that would amplify sound through this bell. I've seen some pretty cool projects like that on Etsy, so that may be my foray into steam punk.


7/20/2013 Update:
The thing is finally finished.

[brihyn]

Score!
About a month or two I stopped by our local Goodwill Goodbytes store (they only sell technology that's been donated) and picked up a 15" touchscreen for $15.
Great find...accept it didn't dawn on me until much later that the actual touchscreen glass wasn't there. And With no way of knowing if the accoutouch board worked, I wasn't willing to drop the cash on a glass for the thing...so instead I opted for a touchpad.
This weekend at the same store I dug through a box of displays (no cases etc, just the display) and lo and behold, one single 15" display with an accoutouch glass connected. 7$
Took it home, plugged the glass into the control board and everything seems to work great.
With that (and finally getting most of the honeydo's finished), this project is finally kicking off. The doors have been pulled off, stripped, and restained with a nice red mahogany.....looks great.
Can't wait to make some serious progress on this in the coming weeks/months.

[brihyn]

Edited the original post with finished video.

[Drnick]

Very nice,  The touch software you are losing fits in with the theme really well.  I like the ghetto volume control too 

[brihyn]

Yeah, I love DWJukebox for this, but I really wanted the ability to stream online radio, so I'm most likely making the switch to Touch Jams.
And as for the volume control, it's not pretty inside, but I really wanted to keep the original volume control rod...that actually slid a board over the top of the sound hole on the original speakerbox, closing and opening the path for sound. So I wanted to find a way to re-use that.
In the video, you see it pop-off of the volume slider. That was the beginning of the end of that...I had nothing but problems afterwards...I finally bought a new slider control from Monoprice...it works much nicer now.

[Le Chuck]

What a great build.  Love it!