Oops! There goes another Mountain Juke Box! (*05/04/2009*) Update

[DaOld Man]

Ok, Ive been working on a copy of Mountains juke box for a few weeks now.
I have most of the parts together and have started on the wood work.
Here I am thus far:

Motherboard: 2.4 gig P4 Dell Optiplex 260 computer with 512 meg ram
Dell Optiplex power supply.
15" ELO touchscreen monitor.
80 gig HD.
Dell speaker bar.
Griffin Powermate (Still debating whether or not to use it.)
Current plan is to use XLobby for the juke software.

[javeryh]

Sweet.  Is 80GB going to be enough?  I'm putting a 640GB one in mine (it was only $70!) so I won't ever have to worry about space.  I can't wait to see some progress.  At the rate these things are popping up I'll have more than mountain's example to go off of because I work so slow!

 

[DaOld Man]

Thanks JH, I only hope that mine turns out near as good as yours.
Im hoping the 80 GB will be enough. Im not planning on saving any videos, so I guess I will find out.

Now on with the project, and a few pics to get started:
The mother board (with PCI expansion board):


Heres a closer look at the PCI expansion board. This baby has got to go!


And here is the board removed. Means less space needed for MB:


Here is motherboard attached to a regular monitor, in test mode. The CPU fan is in a very weird position (remember, just testing):


And here is the same 15" ELO touchscreen model that I think everyone else is using:


I am at a bit of advantage over the rest of you guys.
The touchscreen monitor arrived with a broken node (the little probe thing in the corner of the screen.)
It works as a monitor just fine, but the touchscreen part is dead.
I called the company and they said they would send me a replacement. I asked for a return procedure and they said to just keep it.
So I have a broken monitor to get all my measurements and correct fittings with.

[mountain]

I had the same problem with the first monitor I bought too. The transducer had a wire broken off and they sent me a replacement. I plan on operating on it sometime soon and building another juke (portable)

Good luck with the build! 

[Kaytrim]

WHEEEEEE!!!   Another one to follow.    mountian has started a fad.

[Franco B]

Cools

You can't have too much of a good thing

Are you planning on building it to the 'mountain bible' or are you making any changes?

[drawfull]

Wow! There's loads of these popping up!

Good luck with the build, hope it turns out awesome 

[DaOld Man]

Thanks!
I plan to keep it as close to Mountains as I can, but I lack the skills that he has, so we shall see.

[DaOld Man]

Ok, I am working 6 12 hour shifts in a row this weekend and next week, so jukebox work has temporarily come to a halt.
I have been taking some pictures of my work up till now, so I will try to catch up a bit on the project status.

here is the Gx260 MB laying beside the monitor, for size comparison:

I was thinking that it looks like a perfect fit!
The motherboard is attached to a metal backplane. I removed the motherboard from this back plane for now.

On the back of the monitor, I laid out a piece of paper. I then traced the vesa mounting holes with by rubbing a pencil over the holes.
I then laid the motherboard backplane on top of the monitor's back, and positioned it where I wanted it. I then taped the paper to the backboard. I now had a drilling guide:


(Sorry about the quality of the last pic, sometimes they turn out good, sometimes not. Maybe when I have some free time I can learn to use the camera).

Here is a pic of the motherboard laying where it will be mounted to the monitor:

Notice one screw in the monitor housing lined up with a slot in the backplane. It's the only one that lined up. I used it to hold the backplane steady while I measured.

I removed the backplane from the monitor, stencil still attached with scotch tape.
I punched each vesa hole in the stencil with a center punch, then removed the stencil and drilled the holes in the backplane. Here it is drilled and positioned on the back of the monitor:


Notice the bright area in upper left corner of the last pic?
This is where a plate on the motherboard attaches to the backplane. I dont know what the plate is called, but it raises the motherboard off the backplane about a quarter inch, and the CPU heat sink attaches through the motherboard to this plate. I could see right away that this plate was going to interfere with one of the mounting holes I had drilled.
I removed the plate from the motherboard and attached it to the backplane. I then marked the drilled hole on the plate by sticking a pencil through the hole form the backside of the backplane.
I then marked an oval on the plate so that it can have room to slide back and forth on the backplane. The plate is attached to the backplane by sliding the motherboard towards the front of the backplane. I then drilled and cut the oval out of the plate with a drill and dremel tool:


A better shot of the modified heat sink plate:


And here is the plate test fitted to the backplane:


You can see that the vesa mounting bolt head will clear the motherboard because of the raised mounting holes on the plate, and the plate will clear the bolt. The plate will be able to move to lock it in place on the backplane.

*More to follow when I have more time. *

[DaOld Man]

CPU Heatsink/Fan modification.

This motherboard has a fan that mounts to the back of the computer case. A plastic cowl makes a 90 degree turn towards the CPU heat sink. This allows the fan to suck air across the CPU heatsink and exhaust out the rear of the case. That is in a normal situation.
But this aint normal.
I wanted the fan to suck air across the heatsink, but I needed the fan to exhaust at a 0 degree angle to the heatsink, not 90 degrees as father Dell intended.
So I mounted the fan directly on top of the heatsink.
I used piices of 1 inch aluminum angle iron to attach the fan:

I used one piece of angle on each side of the heatsink, and fastened heatsink and fan with some sheet metal screws.
Heres the other side and teh bottom of the heatsink:

Here is fan/heatsink mounted to CPU

I may use a spacer between the fan and heatsink, Im worried about the fan being to close, maybe not drawing the volume of air it needs to. But with MB on the bench, the CPU is not getting hot at all.

Ok, here is motherboard attached to the backplane, and the whole works attached to the monitor. I used 4 mm bolts with 1/4" spacers to separate the MB from the monitor.
The motherboard wont be covering any air vents in the monitor, but I thought it sure wouldnt hurt to allow a little air space between the two.
See the brilliant way of propping the whole works up at 90 degrees for test purposes?
(Patent is pending):


And here is the rig being tested. XLobby is installed, but not done tweaking it yet.
The Griffin Powermate is also hooked up. (It dont like me, probably why it is frowning in the picture):


* Stayed tuned for more updates *

[DaOld Man]

Ok, I woke up early today (I will be paying for it tonight I know), so I decided to do a little more updating.
I had two power supplies that I examined for use on this project.
One was a regular ATX box type Compaq power supply. I wanted to use it because it is pretty much the norm, but I didnt have the room on this project.
So it's off to Ebay to find a power supply made for the slim case Dells.
The power supply is trim and slim, but it had a plastic doo-hickey on the end, which I think is to fasten it to the dell case. But for space's sake, I had to get rid of it.
After scratching my head and drinking a beer over it, I figured the only way to get the piece off was to remove the fan. (I had to break the "warranty is void if this label is broken" seal. Does this mean I cant return it to ebay if it goes bad?)



After removing the fan, the plastic thing came right off.



Now I have a power supply to use on this juke:



(Please dont tell anyone about me breaking the sacred seal.)

Ok, thats about all the pics I have for now. I do have some of the woodwork I have done so far (not much work done yet), but they havent been uploaded to my computer yet.
Take care, and thanks for looking.

[logik]

Thats brilliant!! I am using the same Dell motherboard and monitor for my juke, I think i may try mounting my board to the monitor too.  Hopefully I have some room behind it to do it. I have a few of those Dell power supplies like the one you have pictured. They are extremely quiet and thin, perfect for jukes

[DaOld Man]

Thanks logik!

Im thinking that this setup would be good for a bartop arcade too.
May be what I use this touch-broken monitor for.

Good luck with your juke, I will be following your progress..

[DaOld Man]

Man what a beautiful day.
I had already attempted to make the two pieces that will rotate against each other, but I didnt like the way it turned out.
But I will touch on it a bit.
I cut two pieces of 1/2" MDF, one a 1/2" shorter than the other.
I then marked the center with a chalk line to each corner.



I then set up my circle cutter to cut out the center hole.
I had to route out a space for the bit to clear in the nylon block I used.



I then attempted to mark the holes for the magnets. I have 10 magnets so there needed to be one at every 36 degrees.
This was very hard since I had already cut out the center hole, and I decided to scrap these two pieces and start over.



So I cut two more pieces the same size.
I fastened them together with 4 screws. I marked the top piece again with the chalk line.
My chalk line was a little off on one corner, so the center was off. I corrected it.



I then fastened my protractor with a small nail right to the center mark.
I marked every 36 degrees from 0 to 180.
I then twisted the protractor around and lined it up with the 0 and 180 marks, then I marked out the remaining 36 degree marks.
I then traced the round part of the protractor, making a circle, which gives me a good drill mark on each 36 degree.



I then removed the protractor



I then laid out the lazy susan bearing on a piece of paper, and marked each mounting hole.
I then lined up each hole with a straight edge and marked the center.
I then punched the nail through the center mark and attached the template I had just made to the center hole of the top board. A little piece of tape helped to hole it still.



I then drilled holes for the lazy susan bearing mounts.
The inside holes went through the bottom board.
I drilled the holes very small, and I circled the ones I will use on the top piece.
I also drilled out the magnet holes.



I then used a hole saw to cut out the very center of both pieces.
I then removed the 4 screws and separated the 2 pieces.
I drilled out the holes in the top piece for T-nuts which will fasten the lazy susan to the the top piece.
Here are the two pieces with the lazy susan bearing installed for test purposes.



And here it is rotated a little more than 90 degrees.



After I was satisfied that the magnet holes still lined up in all positions, I separated the two pieces again.
I cut both pieces 15 1/2" in length. But since the skin will add 1/4" to each side of the top, I needed to cut it down a 1/2"
So I put the top in my table saw and cut 1/4" off each end.



I am kinda worried that the 15" is going to be long enough. It will be very close.

I know it doesnt look like I got a lot done today, but I found that my table saw was cutting about a 1/16" out of square, so I had to adjust the blade. I hadnt done this before so I had to find the manual and figure out how to do it.
The manual says it is factory set and shouldnt need adjusting but it told how just in case.
I found one of the locknuts on the adjusting screws was loose, so I guess thats how it got off.
This took me a good hour.
Come on weather, hold out another week or two!

[DaOld Man]

Another beautiful day yesterday.
I got the bottom box put together and a plate made out of acrylic.
First, the box.
Here it is, being clamped in my high tech state of the art clamping device:



Another pic for good measure. Notice the mark for the cutout for the power entry module? Something tells me I should have cut this out before gluing the box together.



I could have sworn I took some pictures of the cutout for the dell speaker bar, but I guess I didnt.
I will try to get at least one when I release the box from the clamping device.

Next up is the plate I made out of acrylic. Now this was an experience in itself.
It took me two tries until I got one I liked. Then I had the brilliant idea of trying to polish the 45 degree edge with my dremel tool. The dremel had a cloth like wheel on it, but it took a bite out of the edge of the plate. You can see it on the right side of the plate. I got to try to fix that today.
Cutting out the hole for the Ethernet connector was a real pain too. It's a little "whoppy-jawed" but it's going to have to do.



Thats the RJ-45 Ethernet connector at top of picture.
I plan to install a speaker jack and a switch on this plate.
The speaker jack will be the kind that turns off the speaker bar when you plug in headphones or external amp adapter.
The switch will allow me to start up in Windows for maintenance purposes.
(I installed this type switch on Stevies Juke and I am very happy I did.)

Notes about polishing the edge of the acrylic:
After you cut the 45 degree angle, the router bit leaves terrible marks.
I first used 100 grit sandpaper to take out the big marks.
I then used a dry SOS pad to take out the sandpaper marks. I then used a lot of elbow grease and a dry cloth to rub it slick.
It still doent shine like Mountians did, but I havent bought any of that polish that he used yet. So more to follow...
This plate gave me some good trial experiences.

[drawfull]

It's looking awesome, though as days go by I'm so glad I don't have to worry about machining acrylic!

Looking at everyone elses and yours it would seem the base vs screen dimension is about 5" high - I reckon we've fit the speakers in my thread in that space and have the correct volume for the sub. This worries me as everyone else is using the dell speaker bar, I'm assuming cos of space restrictinos.

That's why we haven't gone for a detailed IO panel but I'm beginning to have doubts.

Have you considered fitting dedcated speakers in the base area or am I missing something 

CHEERS!

[DaOld Man]

Thanks drawful!
I think my base is 4 1/2" tall.
yes, Im using the dell bar because of space.
I will have an external amp jack on the back, so I can plug in a stereo or even a better set of PC speakers.
The dedicated speakers will be the dell speaker bar.

Ok, another beautiful day and I got a little bit done.

First, here is the speaker bar sitting in the hole I cut out for it.
The hole is a little big, but it shouldnt show after I get the acrylic on it.
I like the grill on the speaker bar, I sure hope I can keep it showing.



Here is a pic of the speaker bar inside the box. I put tape over the port holes to keep dust out.
I also keep the sound bar in a plastic bag when not using it for test fitting. Dust is everywhere in my work area.



I burned up a straight router bit today. (JaveryH, I feel your pain). I thought it was going to catch the wood on fire there was so much smoke:



Here is my I/O panel laid in position on the back of the box. I got the hole cut out for the power entry too (thats what I burned my router bit on. I finished it with the jigsaw):



Here is a shot of the bottom box front:



Here is my service mode switch and external amp jack laying beside the I/O panel.
I also have the holes drilled in the panel for these two devices:



The I/O panel with ethernet jack, service switch, and phono jack installed. It is dusty. You can also see the holes I drilled in the box for this device.



And here it is temporarily mounted for fitting test:



And here is the inside view. I have since cleaned up the rough edges around the holes:



I plan to get some black allen-head bolts to attach everything. I think this will look a lot better than the silver bolts I have now.

[jthompson]

Hey that bit looks like mine!



Mine was from a cheap craftsman set that is about 20 years old. Time to get some new ones I guess. The Juke looks like its coming together good. Good work. I am using a dell MB as well for my project. I drilled some holes in the heat sink and used zip ties to fasten the fan after removing the shroud. Seems to work OK so far.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for the kind comments, jthompson!
I cant remember the brand of that bit, but it was a good one. I used it on my rotating monitor project and the first juke box I built. Im sure it was run backwards more than once.

I got some work ironed out that was nibbling on the base of brain today.

First, I laid a magnet shell and a magnet disk between the two rotating pieces. It is a tight fit, so I will have to countersink them a bit. Wont be able to do that until I install the laminate. (Which, BTW, I ordered yesterday. Lowes says it may be a couple of weeks wait on that.)



Here is a pic of the magnets, shells, and disks. I ordered them from the same place Mountain did. (Rockler).



After a lot of thinking about a stop, I came up with this. Its a piece of aluminum angle. I plan to fasten two blocks on the bottom for this piece to contact and stop rotation.



I found that if I stop so the magnets line up to help hold it, it will be about 17 degrees off 90.
Or I could go 17 degrees past 90. Either way Im not too happy with it.
Whats your opinion? stop before 90?



Or after 90?



I havent decided yet what to use for stops. I thought about a small block.
Here is a long piece laid in just for reference. My dog keeps stealing small pieces of MDF that hit the floor, and I hate to cut this piece yet. I thought about using it in the corners of the box.



Im also having the same problem Mountain had with his lazy susan bearing. It rocks back and forth slightly. I dont have the tool he used to fix his. I tried vice grips, but maybe I just ran out of patience. I decided to move on to the top part and leave this alone a bit.

I cut the MDF 15" long. it turned out to be 15 1/16", which may be better, because Im worried that 15" might not be wide enough.
I marked the center of the board and another mark down from the top 7 17/32".
I drilled my 1/4" pivot hole.



Then I got out the mighty circle cutter (inspired by Mountain's design), and proceeded to cut in circles. (Correction: half circles.):



I then marked it out, using Nvts' drawing (adjusting measurements for my width).
I also changed his marquee base width to match the cut out for the monitor width.
I dont know, I still havent decided if I am going with keeping both the same width.
Heres a pic with the marquee cut out marked in pencil, and the powermate knob laying approx where nvts has in his drawing (above marquee base line):



Here is a pic with the knob laying pretty much center of the marquee base line:



What do you think? Im leaning towards knob center of marquee base, but I will have to drop the monitor down more.
Now, another question:
Which do you prefer, the edge of the MDF close to the knob, or a little distance between the edge of the MDf and the edge of the knob?
Here is a pic with lines drawn to illustrate both:



Well, I guess thats it for now.

[DaOld Man]

Well, Ive been studying nvts' drawing and it looks like his volume knob is center of the marquee base line.
Looks like he has his marquee base line higher than I do mine.
Im sure glad I didnt fly in and start cutting.
I plan to lay it out again with marquee base higher. Will see how it looks. I think I will print out nvts drawing and take it out to the shed with me tomorrow.
I sure dont need to rely on my memory.

[javeryh]

DaOld Man - This is how I laid mine out (the drawing isn't to scale but the dimensions are accurate).  I tried to make the border look consistent from the sides of the monitor cutout up and around the top:



I struggled with the layout for a few days at least.  I think I drew it out about 5 or 6 times before settling on it.  Hope this helps.

[Nvts]

One thing that is hard to tell in your pictures is how wide the sides are between the edge of the monitor and the edge of the MDF.  Both Mountain and javeryh have a very small amount of material between the sides and the monitor.   This makes for a bit of worrying when making the T-molding cut I beleive.  That is why I made mine a bit wider and have more meat on my sides. This also makes my marquee not line up, as I did want all the space open still.
Here is the picture of javeryh's

and one of the thicker side of mountains. (I don't think he posted one of where the cord is...)

and a bad shot of how much wider mine is.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks guys.
James, your drawing helps a lot. I see where you have the marquee base line raised too. I looked at mountains again, and his looks to be the same. So, next plan is to raise the marquee bottom.

Thanks for the pics nvts. Pics are always best for me.
My juke will be even narrower than mountains, so I am worried about it.
I think I will go ahead and cut out the monitor hole and see how it looks before I do a lot more work on the marquee.

[DaOld Man]

Just a quick update. No pics this time around.
I have the marquee area cut out. I settled with a cross between javeryh's and nvts' designs.
I plan to post the measurements later.

Cutting out the shapes in this juke box is a real pain in the asbestos.

I am going to go with the 15" width. I know I will be beating myself later, but after I add the extra 1/4" of the skin thickness on each side, I think the slot cutter will leave enough meat to hold it together.

Been playing around with the griffin power mate too. I really wish I could find a dual 50 K ohm audio taper pot with a push switch on it. A on/off switch would be an extra bonus but not really necessary. The push switch would be nice to use as a "press to mute" function. It needs to be momentary on. (Push on, release off).

If somebody could point me where to find one of these I would greatly appreciate it.

Now back to work...

[drawfull]

I only researched as far as skim reading the PDF at the link below, but sounds like it might do what you want...

http://www.vishay.com/docs/51031/p11.pdf

Apart from the boot-up unreliability, what's the problem with the Powermate?

[DaOld Man]

Thanks drawful!
I will go through the pdf file later. Looks like I can design what I want.

My biggest problem with the powermate is the boot up problem.
I just dont trust it.
Plus the cost is pretty high for a hobby such as this. But that boils down to whether you want to lay out the cash for it.
It would be real neat if they just offered the guts and the knob at a lower cost. But they dont.

I used a pot on my first juke and it works great. I couldnt find a big knob like the powermates though. I did find one later on ebay.

[Barry Barcrest]

By bootup problem i assume you are refering to id not being identified everytime. Someone on my forums had this issue and it turned out to be the drivers. They obtained some other drivers and it worked everytime from boot up.

This is the thred
http://www.freeboxjukebox.com/Forum/index.php?topic=580.0

They mention it in there and there is a link i think.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks Barry.
Version 1.5.3 came with the PM.
I think this is the one they are talking about over in the other forum.
I couldnt get it to do right either.
I think I only tried it on my desktop.
Ive got parts laying everywhere right now, as soon as I get some time I will put the jukebox PC back together and try V 1.5.3 on it again.

[DaOld Man]

I wish to invite everyone to a party being thrown by me, for me, in honor of me winning the "Idiot of the year award"!

I had the marquee area pretty much the way I want it.
Had the monitor opening all measured and marked.
Then I had the brilliant idea to go ahead and cut the front piece off the board I was using, just to make it lighter so it would be easier to cut out the monitor hole.
Not a bad idea.
So I marked 1 inch below the monitor opening mark, to give me a good amount of meat on the front bottom piece.
My first minor mistake was just making two small marks and not drawing a line all the way across the board.
I put the sawboard on the piece to be cut, lined it up all nice and straight.
I was really happy with it.
Now my big dumb mistake. I lined the saw board up with the line I had drawn for my monitor bottom.
But wait, it gets better. I cut the piece without double checking!
I noticed my mistake when I saw that I had written "monitor edge" on the board, unfortunately the sawboard covered this message.
Now I got to make this piece all over again!
Several hours of work flushed down the toilet.
 
I may take this as a blessing and make the new piece a little wider.

Here is a pic of my mistake.
You can see where the mounting flange of the monitor overhangs the edge of the board.



And here is another, top view:


What a moron I am I am.
Now to put salt on my gashing wound, here is a pic of how the marquee area turned out, with power mate positioned for clearance checking:



I thought it turned out pretty good.

Here is a pic with the bad piece positioned on the bottom plate:



My first reaction was "How can I fix this?"
I thought about adding a 1" wide piece to the bottom, but the sides around the monitor is going to be so thin (5/16") that I wouldnt trust it holding.

Then I thought maybe I could use this piece for the back. That would save a lot of cutting on the back piece.
Maybe I just need to start over? My 1/2" MDF work table is getting smaller.
After making a circle cutter, a sawboard, then messing up the two rotating plates, I may have to run out and buy another sheet if I keep screwing up.

I need a hug.   

[drawfull]

Assuming you're going down the laminate route, with an acrylic front I don't think the additional piece at the bottom is such a bad idea.

Sure, when you're assembling everything it might not be the strongest, but with the laminate and a single sheet of acrylic surely it'll be more than strong enough?

It's crappy when things don't go right, I've had a few the past few days - hope you can work around it! 

[Franco B]

Don't sweat buddy. If you have enough material and want to make one the same size just clamp your existing piece to another bit, trace round, jigsaw the excess and then flush trim it to size (just make sure not to flush trim the smaller part!)

Not so bad eh? 

[Nvts]

I'm with Franco, use the one you cut off the template for a new one.  You might have spent hours making that one, but it would only take 30 minutes to make another one just like it.  The Home depot I go to has 24x48 inch precut MDF that I used for mine, since I can't carry a full sheet around in my car.

The other thing I would check is how much clearance you have with the cables that come off the ports on the motherboard and the side of the shell.  The picture that you had it mocked up sure looked like it would be forced past the edge of the monitor too far.  That made mine shift more to the right side, so there would me more room for cables off the side.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks guys.
I took the wife out to eat today and while we were in town (30 miles away), I stopped by lowes and picked up my laminate. They first said it would be a least two weeks, but I got a call today saying it had come in.
I picked up a straight pattern bit today, so Franco, I think you have an excellent idea of just using the bad piece as a template, and this new bit should work very nicely.
When I got home, I glued a 1 1/4" piece to the bottom. The glue is drying now.
But I dont think I will trust it. I think I will go ahead a make a new one and add at least 1/2" to the width of it.
I wanted it to be as small as possible, but its better to have too much room than not enough.

NVTS, I attached the cables and all to the MB when it was mounted to the monitor.
Its going to be tight, but I think it will go. The one Im most worried about is the VGA cable. I tried to find a 90 degree cable, but I cant.
If I give myself more width, that will give the cables more room too.
I can also shift the motherboard more to the right if I have too, but not much, because I plan to stand up the power supply on that side.

Oh well, time for me to quit whining and get back to work. I got to work 12 hour shifts this weekend, and Im pretty sure we have a maintenance outage next week, so that means 12 hour shifts for me most of next week too.
So I probably wont get a lot done next week.
why oh why cant they just mail me my paycheck??

[DaOld Man]

Bumped just to let everyone know the status of this project...

Whew.. what a last 7 days! Worked 79 hours in 7 days.

Got off on time today so I went back to the shed.
I decided to go ahead and make a new front, since the piece I glued to the bottom of the one I screwed up didnt look too good.
Plus I went ahead and added another inch to the width.
Now the width (before skin) is 16".
The wood width around the monitor cut out was 5/16" now it is 13/16".
I quit after cutting out the marquee area, because I am little wore out. (hey, it's my thread and I'll cry if I want to.)

Anyway, sorry no pics tonight maybe I will get some fresh ones tomorrow.
Tomorrow is supposed to be cold, even calling for snow flurries, so I may have to fire up the kerosene heater.
 
I plan to cut out the monitor area, cut out the back, add 1/2" to each side of the bottom plate and the speaker box. And hopefully get all this done tomorrow.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. One more mess-up and I just may have to kill myself.
(jes kidding, I havent done that in the last 51 years, probably wont now.)

[DaOld Man]

Got some work done today, after sleeping in a bit (I missed the morning cartoons dag nab it!)

Had to fire up the kerosene heater and it did good at keeping me nice and warm.

First, I cut out the hole for the monitor, which I had marked last night. I used a jig saw first, then set up rails to guide the router pattern bit to cut right down to the mark.



I didnt take pictures of the setup for each cut, but I basically had to lay out rails to guide the router bit four time.
Here is the finished product:



Next I laid the monitor into the cutout and marked for the sensor wires on one side:



Then I marked the other side for the buttons:



I noticed after my first cut that I had the monitor upside down when I marked the clearances DOH! I fixed that. Here is the sensor wire side:



Here is the front of the monitor, laying where it should be when project is finished:



I had been wondering why everybody was cutting out for the top to go into the wood more, now I see.
The mounting plate on the top of the monitor is closer to the front than the bottom mounting plate.
Now I will have to router out a bit to make the monitor sit level.

how much did you guys cut out? (Depth wise?)
Looks like it doesnt need much at all.

Here is my final shot for the day. I call this my 2001 Space Odyssey shot:



Next on the to-do list:
Router out for monitor top mounting plate.
Cut this front piece off the board. (Hopefully correctly this time).
Cut out laminate (or acrylic) routing guides for marquee, monitor, and speaker bar.
Add 1/2" to sides of speaker box and get speaker box ready to laminate.

[DaOld Man]

Cut out laminate (or acrylic) routing guides for marquee, monitor, and speaker bar.

Got the router guides cut out. They turned out pretty good.
Had a little bad luck while cutting out the speaker guide. The sleeve on the pattern bit that holds the bearing down against the cutting part came loose and allowed the bearing to walk up the shaft of the bit. The bit went wild before I could stop it, cutting a dip out of the guide. Im hoping I can fix this with some well placed wood putty.

I looked at the monitor mounting plates again, and they now appear to be the same, so Im thinking about not routing out for those, unless someone can give me a good reason why they did theirs.
Didnt get to work on this today, but hopefully tomorrow afternoon I will get the 1/2" additions added to each side of the speaker box and be ready to laminate it.

Then I got to make the jukes back.

[javeryh]

Looking good!

[DaOld Man]

Thanks Javeryh.

Here are some pictures of my routing guides I made.
I plan to insert these guides into the cutouts for the monitor, marquee, and speaker bar after I glue the acrylic on the front.
I will then use these to guide the router bit to cut out the overhang I need in each of the acrylic openings. I can then remove the guides.

First, here are the guides for the marquee and monitor:



And here they are test fitted into their respective cutouts:



And here is the speaker bar guide:



You can plainly see where my pattern bit bearing messed up on me.

And here it is installed. I will have to place it insid eteh speaker box, and extend the bit up far enough to reach it:



I now have two pieces cut for each side of the speaker box to make up for the extra inch I added to the width of the juke box.
I had to bring the box and the pieces in the house to glue, I am afraid it is too cold out in the shed for the glue to set up good.
The kerosene heater keeps me warm, but the parts of this project are still cold.
I am waiting for the wood pieces to get to room temperature.

[DaOld Man]

Got the 2 pieces glued to the speaker box. It is now the correct width:



I thought about a potential problem down stream.
The router guide I made for the speaker bar wont work with the 45 degree chamfer bit, so I tried to cut it down to fit the hole in the box.
The router broke the piece and ruined it.
So I made another one:



Here it is fitted into the hole:



I still need to cut out the area between the two round holes.
I still havent figured out how to do that, guess I am afraid the router with the pattern bit will break it.

This is going to hold up the applying of the acrylic and laminate because I want to be sure the router guide will fit before covering the hole with the 1/8" acrylic.

[DaOld Man]

I got the speaker bar router guide finished.
It took me a lot of work.
I first drilled 1-1/4" holes between the two on the ends.
I then cut between the holes with a jig saw. This left a very rough edge.
I used my dremel tool to bring the cut right to the line, then I finished it with a lot of hand sanding. I had to be extra careful because of how thin the edges are.
Before I did anything I coated the entire outside edge with carpenters glue and rubbed it in good. I think this strengthened the piece of mdf considerably.
Here is a pic of the finished piece:



Here is a pic of the guide laying on the speaker bar:



You can see how the opening in the acrylic will hopefully line up with the speaker grill.

I also applied laminate to the top and the two end sides of the speaker box.



The corner needs a little more work, the white stuff you see near the front is actually a small piece of painters tape that Im having a hard time getting out.
I used the tape to protect the top edge from scratches from the laminate cutting bit.
(This may not have been necessary, I dont know.)

I have to pick up some wood putty tomorrow. The cutout for the power entry module is a little big around a couple corners. I need to fix that before applying the laminate to the back. I dont want a crack around the module.

I also need to figure out how to hold the speaker bar in. Im thinking 4 L brackets that will let me run two springs around the back of the bar to hold it snug against the front acrylic.