My DIY recycled, retro, and really Neat-0 Gainclone box.

[Spasticteapot]

This is my most recent Art Metal project. I've also been working on my own LM3875 amplifier boards that should fit inside just fine, with plenty of room for a volume potentiometer. (the PSU would be outboard.)

The sides are Socket 370 heatsinks leftover from dead PC's, the lexan was a piece of scrap I found, and the copper bits were leftovers from someone else's project. The epoxy, however, was not recycled.

It's not done yet - I'm adding a small faceplate, polishing it, and adding a clear varnish to the colored-metal bits to bring out their color better.

(If you're wondering, I applied bits of flux to the shaped piece of metal, and heated it, while cooling it carefully. End result? Pretty oxidation. The texture was produced by good, old-fashioned hammering.)

If anyone's interested, I'm going to be building quite a few of these, and many will be for sale. The next one's going to be made out of wood instead of Lexan, and likely use larger heatsinks as well.

[Nordic]

how did you get it so invisible? special varnish?

[rjm]

Microwaves.

[Spasticteapot]

It should be visible now.

[falcott]

Not bad - not bad at all. You'll have yourself something quite unique at the end

[DcibeL]

That is quite unique...Now I wonder what you are planning to do with the the Mauro Rev.A board I will be sending you shortly...

[Spasticteapot]

I'm putting it in a toaster.


No, really....

[CarlosT]

That's art, man...now will it work?

[Spasticteapot]

Originally posted by CarlosT
That's art, man...now will it work?

It should. I'm following my general rule of "If your heatsink is too big, it's not too small."

I figure I'll use a Slot A heatsink I have sitting around on the inside of a 1950's or 60's chrome 2-slice toaster. Convection, if nothing else, should keep it cool, but I might add a super-low-noise undervolted Panaflo fan like this one: http://www.directron.com/60l1a.html. (They make even less noise when running on 7v.)

I know I'm going to use EL backlights and VU meters on the toaster, but I can't figure out if I should put some meters on the side, use it as a power amp, or something else entirely.

Perhaps I should find my donor toaster first. It's not like dead toasters are worth very much, and some of the older ones would likely make fine heastinks if I use a 1/8" copper shim between the toaster wall and the amplifier.

When I explained what I wanted to do for my "found object" assignment, the look on the Art Metal teacher's face was priceless.

[falcott]

Hey, I was thinking of using one of those old (real old) toasters for an amp case too!

Have a look at these gorgeous creations (especially the "Toast-O-Lator". How cool is that? It even looks like an amp! ) here:
www.toaster.org/1940.html

or the "Half-round Sunbeam" and the "Gazelle" (!) on this page:
www.toaster.org/1920.html

I'm trying to think of something witty to say about toasters and burned chips, but I can't think of anything right now