Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: gamecreature on June 11, 2006, 10:06:58 am
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This box has some speaker mesh that covers the entire panel (24.5" wide). As you can see in the photo, there's a big hole where the original speaker was. I'd like to put in some stereo speakers, which means two more holes. It would be nice to find a source for this mesh so I could put in my stereo speakers and cover the central hole with a simple plug. Is that possible?
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www.partsexpress.com
You may want to think of filling that hole though or it will act as a port.
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I had a similar problem with a cab I had. My solution was to cut thin piece of masonite and put it over the entire piece up there. Then I cut out the new speaker holes. Once the marquee retainers where in place and everything was painted you could not even that I was covering up the old hole.
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gamecreature,
funny you should mention this "problem" you have had with a once useless hole that housed a single speaker. I had the same dilemma trying to figure out what to do with the hole and mesh that covered it. Using a hole saw, I cut 2 new holes for the new speakers and I filled them with hacked PC speakers - the right speaker had the volume, bass, and treble controls on a PCB, as well as a power LED which I hacked to fit in the old speaker hole. I then covered that with the old square mesh. As you can see in the picture, the power LED, volume knob, bass knob, and treble knob (sans the knob for now, since I don't know what happened to it) are now underneath the old mesh....just goes to show what you can do with what you got and a little inginuity :)
As for the mesh for each of the PC speakers I used, I tore those off since they were grey, screwed/glued them over the speakers, and I am quite pleased with the black "grill look" of the black meshes. The speakers sound great and the subwoofer is underneath the monitor shelf in my cabinet.
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gamecreature,
funny you should mention this "problem" you have had with a once useless hole that housed a single speaker. I had the same dilemma trying to figure out what to do with the hole and mesh that covered it. Using a hole saw, I cut 2 new holes and used hacked PC speakers - the right speaker had the volume, bass, and treble controls on a PCB, as well as a power LED which I hacked to fit in the old speaker hole. I then covered that with the old square mesh. As you can see in the picture, the power LED, volume knob, bass knob, and treble knob (sans the knob for now, since I don't know what happened to it) are now underneath the old mesh....just goes to show what you can do with what you got and a little inginuity :)
As for the mesh for each of the PC speakers I used, I tore those off since they were grey, screwed/glued them over the speakers, and I am quite pleased with the black "grill look" of the black meshes. The speakers sound great and the subwoofer is underneath the monitor shelf in my cabinet.
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I have the same problem in my cab. What I ended up doing was using some black stick-on foam (craft dept. at Wal-mart) to cover the hole. Since it sticks to the wood around the hole on the inside, it keeps light from the marquee from showing through too (which was my biggest concern).
Are you actually looking for a wire mesh or just a sheet of metal with a grid of holes? I'm going to be using the latter. I wish I knew where to get the stuff, mine was a piece salvaged from a display at work (free!). The hole spacing is a bit different, but it's almost exactly the same material used for the speaker grills on my Primal Rage cabinet. I keep putting off cutting and mounting it because I'm paranoid I'll screw it up.
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Are you actually looking for a wire mesh or just a sheet of metal with a grid of holes? I'm going to be using the latter. I wish I knew where to get the stuff, mine was a piece salvaged from a display at work (free!). The hole spacing is a bit different, but it's almost exactly the same material used for the speaker grills on my Primal Rage cabinet. I keep putting off cutting and mounting it because I'm paranoid I'll screw it up.
Yes, that would work nicely. Plastic would work, too. I just can't seem to find the stuff. I'll probably go with the masonite solution that Madk posted...
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All,
I went crazy for over two weeks trying to find speaker grill cloth and speaker fabric. Nobody had it, except a few places that wanted to sell me a huge roll. Then it hit me! Plain old fabric! I ran to my local fabric & craft store and amazingly, they had 58 zillion types of fabric. Different colors, thicknesses, patterns, you name it. I bought 2 yards of black fabric that was pretty thick (you could make a pair of pants out of it,) for a total cost of $5.98. I stapled the fabric on and it looked awesome. I stapled it on so tight that you can't even tell it's fabric, unless you look closely. Done and done!
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If your gonna keep black as your color I'd recommend scoring yourself a piece of black laminate. Using counter top laminate is really easy and it gives a great durable finish (just thing about the abuse your kitchen counter top takes). It will cover your exisiting speaker hole cleanly. As far as speaker grills for the ones you want to install, if you do not have any, one option out there are shower drains. I used two plastic ones that had a retro look to their slot pattern and painted them black. They are easy to install as they have a lip on the outer edge (so the hole you cut does not have to be perfect). They popped right into the holes I cut with my jig-saw. The make stainless steel ones if you wanted a metal look.