Fiberglass Jukebox - Completed

[joey1207]

I am in the process of building a jukebox cab out of fiberglass, Just thought I would share as I have saw so many items here that were awesome. I am kind of in the middle of the build, so I will post the pictures up to this point, sorry for the poor quality, but they were all taken with my cell! Here are the innerworks, pics to come soon:

Intel Core 2 Duo
Intel MB
2g DDR2 Ram
500w psu
XFX 8600gt grapics
Soundblaster Audigy
10 total 120mm Antec Quiet Cool Fans
Logitech z5500 speakers (awesome system)
3 12" blue neon tubes
2 10" sound activated Plasma Plates
Griffin Powermate Volume control knob
19" widescreen lcd (top monitor) for video and winamp visualizations
15" magic glass touchscreen lcd (lower monitor) Jukebox control
SKJukebox software (totally awesome) THANKS SalmonKing!
various smaller items, will post pics as soon as I am thru with the slide out panel that it all mounts to.

[joey1207]

This is the frame covered with fleece getting ready for the resin. You can get somewhat of an idea on the shape the cab will have when complete.

[joey1207]

This is after the final resin coat, pre fiberglass.

[joey1207]

This is aftter the final layer of fiberglass.

[joey1207]

This is after the first stage of sanding, you can get a good feel for the final shape of the box. I plan to finish sanding this weekend as well as apply the first layer of body filler to smooth the surface and get ready for paint.

[joey1207]

These two pics are of the fans and marquee. I made the marquee from plexi glass, I cut and frosted the plexi, then made my stencil, painted it, clear coated and peeled the stencil off. The fans are 120mm Antec Quiet Cool Blue, there will be 6 of them, 2 on each side pulling air in, and two in the top (unseen) pushing air out. I am still building the tray for my board. This is primarily a jukebox, but will be adding a removable MAME control panel after the build is complete. Made of fiberglass of course!

[mountain]

Way cool! I have always wanted to build a cabinet using fiberglass techniques I learned in my car audio days. I miss the smell   

Keep the pictures coming!

[joey1207]

Thanks for the post! this is my first ever fiberglass attempt. lots tougher than i imagined, but working out well.

[mountain]

Yeah, it is a pain in the ass to work with. It stinks, it's messy, the dust is bad for you, the glass fibers make you itch like mad, it's expensive, it's exteremely time consuming.....

But man, you can get some great results if you know what you are doing.

[joey1207]

Thanks for the encouragement!!! You are right though, it is all of the above! I am taking it very slow, hoping for good results.

[IA1NY]

Nice cab!!    I'm glad to see some more exotic designs.  Can't wait to see more picts.

[joey1207]

Thanks alot, it will be different, thats for sure. I will have more progress and pics by the end of the weekend, that is the only real time i have to work on it!

[CheffoJeffo]

Just thought I'd say  ...

[BobbyG66]

Very impressive! You got skillz. 

[joey1207]

thanks again folks! I got a little more sanding done last night, will be ready to apply the body filler by tomorrow afternoon, so I should have some great pics by monday (promise to use a better camera this time!)

[Zobeid]

Safety note for anybody who wants to work with fiberglass. . .    Always wear gloves when handling the resin.

Some people think its cool to get their hands on the resin when laying it.  It doesn't appear to irritate their hands at all, so they assume it's safe and all those warning labels are just the usual BS.  Not so.

I knew about a fellow who made high-power model rockets out of fiberglass, he was somewhat famous (or infamous?) for them.  But after doing it for a while, and after all that skin contact with the resin, he became sensitized to it.  Now he can't work with fiberglass at all -- even with gloves -- because it would make him too sick.

[mountain]

Safety note for anybody who wants to work with fiberglass. . .    Always wear gloves when handling the resin.

Some people think its cool to get their hands on the resin when laying it.  It doesn't appear to irritate their hands at all, so they assume it's safe and all those warning labels are just the usual BS.  Not so.

I knew about a fellow who made high-power model rockets out of fiberglass, he was somewhat famous (or infamous?) for them.  But after doing it for a while, and after all that skin contact with the resin, he became sensitized to it.  Now he can't work with fiberglass at all -- even with gloves -- because it would make him too sick.

Also, use a breathing mask when sanding. those little glass fibers will tear up your lungs quick!

[BORIStheBLADE]

Very cool project.

[joey1207]

Okay, here is the cab after sanding and initial primer. Sorry, i have pics of before and after body filler, but my phone is hosed up and wont send the pics! I sanded the fiberglass with 40, 80, 120 grit sandpaper, applied the body filler, sanded it with 80, 120, 220, then wet sanded with the 220 again. Then I applied first coat of primer, wetsanded and applied the second coat, ran out of supplies. My fiance said i cannot work on it any more this weekend! The jukebox is themed Thunder Struck, she calls it Thunder ---stingray--- because she says the amount of time I spend with it is a homewrecker! LOL, my girl, she is the bomb, love her to death!!! anyway, here are a couple of pics, more coming soon!

[Neilyboy]

dang nice work man.. I am anxious to see how the control panel attaches to this thing!! Awesome project man I look forward to watching this one progress!
Neil

[joey1207]

Thanks a ton for the comments. I have already designed the cp, it is gonna be pretty sharp, but, for now, my main priority is the jukebox portion. I have been moving into a new house so I have not worked on it in a couple of days, but plan to finish it out this weekend, then the cp in the following week or two.

[(+_+)]

I am so impressed that I went out of my way to log in and post something.

Very, very cool and impressive.

I look forward to seeing your progress. You're also enticing me into coming out of the closet to create Hyperspace II cab or some such nonsense.

[_) (V) (-)]

Very nice, Looks like you got a vision man!
Yeah, I miss that smell, and the headrushes too...
Helps come up with original designs though. lol
Can't wait to see it all wired up. That panel is intriguing.

[joey1207]

Thanks for the positive feedback folks. I have got to do very little on the cab the last week or so because we have been moving, but I did squeeze in a few minutes last night and cut some of my speaker openings.

[starplayer]

Congrats, that's turning up really stylish. But aren't the specs a bit overkill? Unless you're planning to play heavy roms.

[joey1207]

Huge overkill!! I bought those components for a computer for my fiance, but upgraded her and since I already had them, just figured I would put em to use!

 

[starplayer]

Huge overkill!! I bought those components for a computer for my fiance, but upgraded her and since I already had them, just figured I would put em to use!

 

Wow, your fiance must be really computing power hungry Is she on 3d modelling or gaming?

[joey1207]

neither, I just like getting the latest stuff when I can.

[leapinlew]

Very nice dude....

whats up with your icon? You work in IT (like the rest of us)?

[joey1207]

Yeah, I am the IT Director for Willstaff Worldwide. One of the guys in my department said I had to post my jukebox on here (I have never done it before), and then he said I had to have an avatar, and that is the first thing I found, its pretty goofy, but it got onjisan off my back!

[psychotech]

 

REALLY works for me 

That's really something else ..and looking mighty fine 

Keep up the good work 

[joey1207]

Thanks psycho! I appreciate all the great feedback and positive comments, hope to have some more progress pics thru the weekend.

[DaOld Man]

Thats turning out great.. I had my doubts at first, but looks like they are quickly leaving..
Cant wait to see this baby finished..
 

[joey1207]

Thanks Da! I apologize for not updating lately, but moving into our new house has had me shut down from fun stuff!         I have done nothing new other than test fit my fan enclosures. My plan is to have all body work done by the weekend, hopefully that will be the case!

I appreciate everyones feedback and positive comments!

[joey1207]

Okay folks, finally getting to work on my jukebox again! I am in the process of mounting my fans and finishing body work to prep for paint. The fans I am using are Antec Quite Cool 120mm with blue led's. The enclosure are 5.25 fan housings that are made to go in your 5.25 bays to blow down on your hdd's. I made the stencil in Paint Shop, printed on adhesive paper and cut the letters out with an x-acto knife then just centered it and stuck it on. I just ran in to post this while my wood filler is drying where I mounted the first two fans. A couple of slip ups with the dremel left me some spots to fill! I will post more later today or tomorrow.

[DJ Infinity]

I like it!!!!!! fabolous original design!!!!       

[joey1207]

Thanks DJ!
Okay, slight design change. I was able to get a Rover LED, this thing sprays a light show across the walls, ceilings and floors in about a 120 degree span. I am mounting it in the bottom of the cab next to the sub as it is sound activated, the pic is so you can get an idea of how the llights look. I mounted it in the bottom, facing up so to cover as much of my gameroom as possible. I dremeled a rectangular opening in the bottom, then routed  1/16th deep around the edge so the piece of plexi will sit flush, the pics are before any sanding or cleanup, so they look a bit rough!

[joey1207]

I also noticed after the primer, that there were several small imperfections, so I am going back over it now filling and sanding all the little spots that are not perfect. I hope to have all of this done and the cab primered for paint by tomorrow afternoon. The one picture is the upper right corner of the cab where I have started applying the body filler to the little divets, the other is a picture of the opening for the rover led under neath the cut outs for the 10" plasma plates. This piece of plexi may get frosted, I have to test how the leds will project thru it before I decide. I also got the two 120mm fan housing mounted, filled and sanded on the right side of the cab, forgot to take a pic of that, but I will add it tomorrow.

[The_Tyler_Black]

Looks Very cool!! ! (especially for your first time)! Cant wait to see finished pics/video!

[joey1207]

Thanks Tyler.....

Well, I didnt get nearly as far as I wanted to. My AOCD (Anal Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) about things being perfect got the best of me, and I ended up spending the whole afternoon fixing places that I was not happy with, so, I did not get to the point I wanted to on the cab. I did, (I think) get all the imperfections fixed, so, after I sand again, hopefully I will be ready for paint. Here is a pic of the cab with what I hope to be the last of the body work! It is not sanded yet, so i will post another pic of the final sanding before I prime.

[joey1207]

hey folks, not much of a post, but I finished sanding, finally, and I couldnt resist testing one corner with paint! This is no clear coat, but it does have a good smooth shine to it, the pic is with a phone, so you may not be able to tell, but it is really like a sheet of glass, i couldnt be happier with the results!

[ablizno]

Nice. What type of paint did you use?

[joey1207]

It was just some Krylon gloss black I had at the house, not the actual paint I will use on the cab.

[joey1207]

okay, gonna be a long night, but I will have this thing ready for paint in the morning! I am waiting on some wood filler to dry, so I thought I would do some test fits and take a few pics while I wait. These pics are the fake speaker holes in the box, the top two in each section of three are only for design. I took some foam, and shaped it to fit, then placed a small piece of grill cloth over it, you can see what it will look like, the actual speaker will match, but I have to mount the speakers before i can cover that hole.

[joey1207]

Here it is sitting where it goes, it is not stretched tight yet, just wanted to make sure i was gonna like the look

[joey1207]

Here is the 15 inch touchscreen with the homeade bezel (wood trim!) in place.

[joey1207]

And here is a quick shot of the 2 10" plasma plates mounted, they are where they will stay, and sealed from the back, I will fill in with bondo around the edges, sand, cover and paint with them in place. This is all I have for now, but I have also mounted all 6 of the exhaust fans and filled in around them. I will post more tomorrow.

[The_Tyler_Black]

Hey looks good so far (again)!

Question though, i am a reader that skips some details and asks questions at the end of the book because it didnt make sense, is the whole inside of the cab hollow? Acoustics wise i cant imagine it sounding as good as it could with it being hollow! especially with all the speakers/subs in the same air space it would sound really muffeled (like screaming in a pillow)!

[joey1207]

Tyler, very good point. All of the speakers are contained in thier own housing, and the sub is in a ported box that will go in the bottom of the cab, with the port in the box, expelling air thru a hole in the bottom of the cab, plus, the inside of the cab will be lined with foam, so hopefully, it will sound as good as it did in the test i did!

[Burke LaShell]

Would you mind taking some more pictures of your homemade bezel?  I'm just about to mount mine and I really like the way yours looks.

Thanks!

[joey1207]

Burke, I will take some pics tonight, but basically all it is, is 1/4 inch trim cut on 45's to make the square. I test mounted my monitor, then cut one piece of trim , test fit, then the next piece, I did this for the 19" and 15" monitors.

[DrumAnBass]

Wow, can't wait to see how this shapes up; really impressive...!

How did you learn to work with fiberglass?

[joey1207]

Thanks alot DrumAnBass, to be honest, this is my first ever attempt! (Probably why it has taken me so long, doing things 2 or 3 times till they are right!!) I mostly just read about it, but have always wanted to do something out of fiberglass, especially after seeing some of the killer speaker boxes folks make out of the stuff. Anyway, thanks for the comments!

[joey1207]

Here are a couple of updates, one is the system board, one is the inside of the cab as I have never posted a good one, and the other is the cab after the first 2 coats of black, still two more to go and clear.

[shardian]

For a project as slick as this, I really think black is a mistake. That thing is SCREAMING for some color.

[BASS!]

For a project as slick as this, I really think black is a mistake. That thing is SCREAMING for some color.

I so agree! Why not candy apple gold flaked red? Or super dooper neon orange with yellow accents.

[shardian]

For a project as slick as this, I really think black is a mistake. That thing is SCREAMING for some color.

I so agree! Why not candy apple gold flaked red?

A metallic flaked paint would be perfect.

[joey1207]

I agree with you all, and thanks for your comments. After much thought, I have decided to go with a Metallic Charcoal with Silver flakes, and some graphics, I should have this complete by the weekend!

[BASS!]

I agree with you all, and thanks for your comments. After much thought, I have decided to go with a Metallic Charcoal with Silver flakes, and some graphics, I should have this complete by the weekend!

Awesome! That is going to make this so awesome.

[joey1207]

Okay, here ya go. This is going to be the basecoat color, I will be adding graphics later.

[Franco B]

Awesome, just awesome 

Cant wait to see the finish paint (and the completed project!) 

[joey1207]

Thanks Franco, man, enough about my juke, your cocktail cab is kickin tail! That is freakin awesome, hate to even show mine after seeing the work you are doing!

[joey1207]

K, got the rest of the cab painted, got the faux speaker hole inserts made and in, got the volume control mounted, and the touch screen mounted, hope to finish up the component install tomorrow, and possibly start on the airbrushing for the grapics, will post more pics then.

Franco, just looked at your cab ....again...all i can say is....

[joey1207]

Just for grins, here is a pic of my first juke, trying to make it "furniture" like...(no laughing please)

[joey1207]

Got both monitors, the volume control, the sub, the Rover LED, the system board mounts and the upper right speaker mounted today. (forgot to take pics of the inside, will get them tomorrow), but here it is from the outside so far, it is very dusty and dirty right now, and still havent had a chance for the graphics yet, but I am getting there.

[joey1207]

I intitally intended to NOT use the center speaker in the set, but today, decided to, and went ahead and hole sawed the top of the cab and mounted it. Aside from the graphics, the outside and construction are complete. Here is a shot of the cab with all components mounted.

[joey1207]

This is the entire cab interior, the top is not complete as I still have to mount the top two fans, so I left the wiring loose waiting on that, and at the bottom, I realized after getting this far that I did not have my power strips here, so, the power cables are just hanging there for now.

[joey1207]

Here are some various closeups, one is the system board, and the small thing on the right is the controller for the Logitech z5500 system, I decided to leave it in the enclosure, unseen, but do have a remote sensor hidden under the speaker cloth on the front so the remote will handle everything. The others are just shots of different parts of the cabs interior.

[The_Tyler_Black]

Looking good Joey. Much better choice with the paint change!

I think that your first juke is way better!!

Keep up the fantastic juking and post more pics!

[joey1207]

Finished, (except for graphics!) here is a quick video i took:

[leapinlew]

Awesome dude...