Finally got some pics put together of the speakers I've torn up and rebuilt for this cabinet
First, I started with some 25c (yep that's right 25c at Lowes) glass fan lampshades. I cut a base for the back and used some long screws from an old attic fan motor to hold things together
Then I picked up a couple RGB leds from Radio shack and mounted them in a hole drilled in that plate. But a simple RGB wasn't enough
. I came across a pile of those "fake tea lights" with a flickery orange LED inside for 50c each. So I bought a pile of them and started hacking them apart.
Inside, they're REALLY simple. just a 3v battery, a switch and the LED. The LED actually has a tiny little chip in it that handles the flicker.
Turns out, with the proper resistor, you can drive these straight from an LEDWIZ.
So there will be some RGB goodness going in but mostly it'll be flickery candle light that illuminates things in this cab.
Once I'd fixed the LED's in place, I had to do something with the sub. It was going underneath the buffet, so it really wouldn't be seen much, if at all. Still, i couldn't just leave it as a big silver/black box, so a little paint, some brass trunk corners, and flowery bits laters.
And here it is in its new home.
The speakers had a little control panel with a headphone jack, vol knob, and indicator light ,etc. I mounted those in an upholstered panel near the back of the cab, but still accessible. Had to add more brass bits
And the final result looks like this. I also upholstered around the lifts so you really don't see any of that hardware any more. I've kind of shifted from a "full out steampunk" theme to a little more subtle "refined Victorian SteamRapscallion" theme.
And up close on the speaker itself.
I don't have the LED's wired yet, but I have powered them up off the battery. They make the entire glass shades glow and flicker as if candles were in there. It's a really neat effect that turned out better than I could have imagined.
I'm not sure if it comes out in the pics, but the speakers are on flexible goosenecks, which lets them bend over into the cab, so everything folds up nice and tidy still. When it's closed, there's literally no indication of what's inside.
Now, the big issue is figuring out how to mount the mobo, PS and hardrive up underneath there, but not have it all just hanging out.
I'm guessing I'm going to go with a stained a trimmed walnut box with some more brass corners and acorn nuts all around.
But if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! The wackier the better. I'm open. I was at one point considering putting the sub and PC in a small antique trunk and parking that to the side of the buffer, like an end table. But I decided all-in-one has a better feel to it.