I've been working on the PF; inserts are in. Glue is drying. Tomorrow I hope to complete sanding the inserts flat in prep of clear coat on the whitewood this weekend.
Inbetween sessions in the cold garage; I've been working on the External speaker solution. A while back I asked for some suggestions and
femto here at the Aussie Pinball forums suggested that I make the speakers look like the nacelles of the Enterprise. I liked that idea; but was unsure how to execute it. Well; that all came to a head a couple of weeks ago when I came across some older
Altec Lansing FX2020 Expressionist speakers during the uptenth time I looked for a suitable speaker set. These speakers had the same basic shape as the warp nacelles so they be a good starting point. Once I had the speakers this past weekend; I unpacked them and promptly voided the warranty by taking them apart. Once I had them apart; I hatched a plan to making them into warp nacelles. First; I was going to ditch the polycarbonate "stands" and replace it with a 3D printed "wrap" which I'd mock up in sketchup.
Removing the 4 silver screws on the front allows the speaker grill to be removed; then you have access to the speaker and the 4 screw tubes/standoffs which sandwiches the polycarbonate stand between the sliver ring and the black body. I decided I wanted to sandwich the 3D printed "nacelle wrap" identically as the stand.
Here's my 5th revision of the nacelle wrap:
Here's a rear view showing the hollow center for the speaker tube... thereby still giving access to the rear panels.
The wrap is about 4.5inches in diameter and about 5.9inchs long not including the spoke pattern guard.
One of the tradeoffs I ended up doing was that I wanted a "speaker grill" rounded like the front of the nacelles. IE a semi-spherical shape. The problem was I wasn't sure I could find a suitable material to "bend" in the correct but exacting shape. As I result; I brought out the spoke patterns into a spherical speaker grill to give the nacelle shape. I'll probably print the body in grey and the nacelle spokes in black to give it a better indication.
If anyone has the capability or know how to create an oval grill please let me know... I was thinking something like this:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#expanded-metal/=pkkkg8but have no ideal how to shape it easily.
