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Oops! There goes another Mountain Juke Box! (*05/04/2009*) Update
Martijn:
Yes, congrats Daoldman... It's indeed a lot more work then i thought.
Question. do you like the plexi front for the speakers? Or would you rather have done it with black mat laminate?
Franco B:
:applaud: :) Great job Daoldman! Turned out great! You must be very happy. :) :applaud:
DaOld Man:
Thanks guys. I forgot to mention you franco for help credit. I am sure I forgot to mention a lot of people, so let me re-phrase it and say thanks to everyone for helping me. This forum is a very good resource.
I am very happy how it turned out, but there are a few messes I made. I will probably point them out later.
Martijn, I thought about using the acrylic or the laminate for the speaker front a long time. I finally decided that I think I would go with the acrylic. I figured it would match the top better.
I think I was right, but you tell me.
DaOld Man:
I few more build pics.
The powermate mount.
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted the powermates blue led to shine around the bottom of the knob. I used clear plexi as the spacer.
Here it is glued to the front:
I used crazy glue to glue the spacer. This is a mistake! Even though I tested it on a piece of scrap, the crazy glue stuck to the paper and even burned the acrylic a bit around the disc. I had a hard time getting the paper off the acrylic and it looks like crap. At least it is sort of hidden behind the knob.
Note to self: dont use crazy glue on acrylic ever again!
I then took a small mirror out of one of my wifes old makeup compact things.
It was perfect for the 1-1/2" hole I cut in the mdf.
I wrapped a piece of foam rubber weatherstripping around the outside perimeter of it.
This was to keep the light from the marquee from getting in.
I then mounted it behind the powermate with a small metal brace. The brace was in my junk box, I'm not sure what it came off of, but it looks like it may have came from a cd rom or something.
Sorry about the flash flood on that last pic.
And here it is looking from the front, with the high dollar knob installed:
The idea doesnt work too well. The clear plexi doesnt throw out the blue light like I thought it would. You can see the blue light if you look behind the knob, but it wasnt the bling effect I really wanted.
I think the mirror may be too close to the led, I may try putting a spacer between the two later.
I thought about moving the led to the front part of the powermates circuit board, but I figured that was way too much work. The led is SMT, and it looks pretty crowded on that tiny board.
DaOld Man:
Here is a shot of the marquee back and monitor and motherboard plate mounted.
I had a problem with the touchscreen not working. Mountain suggested that something may be touching the lines on the inner edge of the screen.
The foam weatherstripping was touching, so I removed the weatherstripping and it worked.
But I didnt like the way it looked with the weatherstripping removed, so I put more weatherstripping on and moved the monitor away from the front by pacing washers between the monitor mounting brackets and the MDF. This worked.
Here is a shot of the speaker box:
The two MDF blocks above the fan are rotation stops. I mounted an aluminum L bracket to the top box.
The bracket extends through the bottom and about 1/2" inch into the speaker box.
These stop blocks stop rotation in both directions at about 36 degrees past the 90 degree point, or top box perpendicular to the speaker box.
The block below the fan is just to fasten the fan to.
I used tie wraps to hold the speaker bar in. I wasnt happy with the way my spring idea turned out. The tie wraps work great.
You can see the wiring for (left to right), external amp jack, startup mode switch, and Ethernet jack.
On the other side of the box you can see the power entry module.
You can also see the fan and the speaker bar power wired to a speaker cable going back on top. This supplies power for the fan and speaker.
Here is the back panel, before laminate applied:
Notice the rabbet cut around the marquee area. Also notice the holes for the USB jacks.
I cut the holes on the wrong side and had to re-cut them.
Here is the grill, test fitted in the rabbet cut:
Here is the laminate after cutting it to the same shape as the panel, and laid on top of the panel for test fitting:
Notice the knick on the left side? The router got away from me. Also notice the splotch of glue right below the knick? This was from a sticker that the laminate had on it. I figured it would just peel off, but no. I had to work on it quite a bit to get all the residual glue off.
Next I applied contact cement to both pieces and after it dried, i inserted the grill into the rabbet cut.
I then laid the laminate on top of the board, with wood dowels between the two.
I carefully lined the two pieces up and then removed the dowels.
I pressed them together with a rolling pin.
I then cut out the hole for the power on button, and the USB ports. (I triple checked the holes before cutting the laminate.)
I then mounted the switch, which helps to hold the grill steady.
Well thats all for now...
Hope Santa was good to you all.
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