Racoon Kaboom

[Superduper]

So, some of you might remember my Kaboom blowed up thread.

Rather than resurrect a month old thread, starting a new one here. To refresh your memory or for those that missed out on that thread, read all about it here:

http://www.boomboxery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=9030

First, the parts were all stripped and bagged. All the exterior pieces were repainted. The broken antenna stub was restored by stealing the shaft from an egg, which I sacrificed. There were some cracked pieces -- those were repaired. The grills were hammered back to some semblence of it's former shape. Although the shell has numerous scratches and scrapes, I chose not to do the tedious sanding to remove all the scratches. The purpose of this restoration was to improve the appearance and give this beast a new lease on life. It was not intended to be a shelf beauty queen. The purpose was to make a fun boombox that would get used. Besides, all this started because my daughter, who never showed any interest in any of my boombox asked if she could have it. Unfortunately, 1/2 way through the work, she sorta said she didn't like the color but it was too late to redo it. If she doesn't want it, then I'll just have to put it to use or sell it. :grim:

After all the exterior pieces were repainted, I began work on the internal parts. The amp board was scrubbed with soapy warm water. The cassette mechanism was cleaned and rebelted. The CD mechanism was meticulously cleaned including the laser and all contacts were treated with deoxit D100 surface conditioner and preservative. It did have some operational issues before but there is none now -- works perfectly. Also, I'm not sure what color the display was before since the bulb was burnt and it never lit. But I installed yellow/orange LED's which I like as it sorta matches the rad color of the shell.

EVERYTHING IS GETTING A BATH

The grills AFTER I already pushed them out. Initially, they were beat all the way back. As you can see, there are STILL lots of dents remaining in some complicated curves. It will need lots of hammer/dolly work. Luckily the metal bends easily with some 4-oz tender-loving-care.

This tube lost one of it's fins. So I cut a piece of styrene about the right length and glued it in place. I got lazy and didn't patch up the voids where the new piece mates but after painting, it looked fine. I figure I can always do that later. Yes, the tube is cracked too but that has been repaired and is as strong now as it was originally.

A few of the fins were broken. Luckily all the pieces remained. They were all solvent welded back. The paper you see is keeping one of the bent fins in place while it is setting.

Ok, after about 1/2 hour or so of hammering, feeling, hammering, feeling..... I think it looks presentable enough. If you feel with your fingers, you can still feel some imperfections and it will never be smooth as glass again but to the eye, they look presentable so I'm calling that a day.

Here is the front control panel. Lots of cleaning needed. Then the panel will need some attention.

OK, more to come in next post.........

 

[redbenjoe]

:spam: :superduper:

 

[Superduper]

OK, now on to some fun painting....

The control panel was first touched up with touch up paint in the worst spots. Then the lettering was masked to give it a thicker coat. Finally, the masking tape was removed and the panel was given a very light fog coat to minimize the hard lines of the masked areas. The lettering is not as clear when done like this but still readable. Anyhow, if you look at the before and after, I think the after is a no-brainer.

Original bulb being removed from the LCD.

LCD desoldered to move it out of the way... don't try this at home ladies and gents.

The empty LCD lighting chamber and new LED's populating it.

The Old Bulb

Newly installed and wired into system. LCD display carefully reinstalled.

More to follow................

 

[Strānj-Bōōmbŏks]

 

[redbenjoe]

i think you should go back and get a $ refund from the $20 seller --
tell him it was sooooo much work

 

[Superduper]

OK, next comes reassembly. Here is probably the most exciting part of the whole project for some of you. We have all longed for a kaboom with true tweeters, right? Well, I recall Ira asking me one time to develop tweeters for the kaboom. So since I had this guy all apart and the project so deep, I figured what better time?

So I enrolled FATDOG to assist with drawing me a tweeter bridge. I already selected and puchased a bunch of tweeters I would use. They needed to be effective yet small enough to fit into the already teeny Kaboom speaker chamber. They also had to be mountable. Anyhow, my initial desire was for an artistic S shaped bridge (think :super: ) But once the artwork came back and after considering the masking effect of the tweeter, it became apparent that the S would not work. So we settled on the one you'll see below. THANKS FATDOG! Then keeping everything in the family, I commissioned BluFuz to cut me some cool metal brackets using the conceptual artwork developed by Fatdog. It took a few weeks but today, they arrived! So kaboom project back on track. They were little rough and not show quality but that's OK since I knew they were behind the grill and didn't need to be show quality. Anyhow, in order to keep costs affordable, I asked Joe not to spend time detailing them.

Here they are: They are test fitted and everything looks A-OK. Tweeters mounted like champs and everything fit perfectly.

So the bridges and decorative rings were painted. These can be painted whatever color is desired to yield whatever cosmetic effect is desired. The small rings are not functional -- purely cosmetic rings.
Here they are after a quick shot of silver paint.

Decorative rings installed onto tweeters with hot melt glue.

The actual tweeter bridges were heated, then hot melt glue applied onto the heated bridges (to keep them from cooling too rapidly) and applied onto the grill retainer bezels. While they felt secure, because the metal was relatively thick and heavy, especially once the tweters were mounted, I decided to add 2 stainless 3mm torx screws at each end of the S as it connects to the circular landing. The bridge was then tapped with threads to accept the screws, then the excess length was cut off with a dremel from the backside.

Grill retainer bezels with tweeters installed, ready to be assimilated into the kaboom.

Nichicon Muse bipolar crossover caps are very highly regarded and are used/installed. I tried much more expensive HiVoltage Polypropylenes but didn't hear any appreciable difference so I settled on these. Weeks before, I had the kaboom drivers and these tweeters set up on the bench with an amp and an external CD player testing the various cap values to yield the best value. 3.3uf passed only the highest of highs and anything larger than 4.7uf yielded no appreciable difference so rather than pass frequencies to the tweeter that were inaudible, I settled on these. They were carefully selected for this application.

 

[redbenjoe]

so glad you tapped and screwed the bridges on --
or else the great kaboom bass -
could vibrate them to rattle-

and --amazing is how many color choices and combinations
are now available to you

 

[Superduper]

OK, HERE IS WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR:
AND HERE IS WHY YOU WILL SEE WHY I HAVE NAMED IT THE RACOON KABOOM.

The sound with the tweeters is simply far far improved from before, all I can say is I'm tremendously happy with how it came out in terms of sound, appearance, and it all looks 100% factory -- maybe better! Anything that was lacking in the sound is now there. The sound is finally complete.
Same kick azz bass. But now, the treble is clear as a bell, the stereo separation seems much improved, probably due to the improved treble reponse. The sound is detailed and very pleasurable to listen to. I now feel EVERYONE needs to do this exact same modification. Especially IF you own a kaboom. As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to be doing this to EVERY one of my kabooms. Once you've heard this, there is simply no going back to the original kaboom.

Here is why I called it the Racoon Kaboom

RACOON KABOOM. IT KICKS ASSSS. IT'S SIMPLY PHENOMENAL, ENJOY! ...........

 

[redbenjoe]

the tweeters look spectacular in there --
and the racoon look is THE bomb

congratulations on your extreme & professional accomplishment --

you must feel GOOD !!!!!!

 

[Superduper]

Thanks Ira. I really am proud of this last project. And the sound is such that I literally can listen to it all day.

As for the tweeter mount bridge, yes, I tapped and installed the stainless screws (you can see em from the front behind the grills and if you look carefully you can see where I dremeled off the excess from the backside) but in reality, I think the hot melt glue would've been fine since I really yanked on them afterwards and they did not budge. Hardly doubt they would work loose but as you say, an ounce of prevention........

 

[redbenjoe]

some of know that a few yanks does not equal constant pounding

USE NYLOCS

 

[GHETTOBLAST]

DDDDDDAAAAAMMMMN ! lot of work, well worth it. The final product looks awesome! CONGRATS.

 

[Superduper]

some of know that a few yanks does not equal constant pounding

USE NYLOCS

The nylocs are built in. See, what I did was carefully thread through the metal. But anyone that knows taps knows that the tip of the tap is beveled for easie starting. So I stopped the tap before it went through the plastic bezel which is actually quite thick. So the bezel is a very tight inteference fit and equates nyloc. It takes force to turn the screw -- it's not gonna vibrate outta there.

 

[redbenjoe]

norms got
auto-nyloc-tapping skills :super: :superduper: :super:

 

[Superduper]

It was the only way to do it Ira short of using rivets, which I don't think is as attractive as the torx head stainless jobs. I tried nylon nuts already and they were too thick and did not allow the bezel to sit flush. So it was forced ingenuity.

 

[Strānj-Bōōmbŏks]

HOLY CRAPPOLA MR. NORM!!!!!! DAAAAAAAAAANG.... I'M FLABBERGASTED!!!!!!!

 

[Superduper]

i think you should go back and get a $ refund from the $20 seller --
tell him it was sooooo much work

Ira. Dude. You didn't pay attention to the original post. Remember the whole story, about the trip, then the guy was snoring and didn't wake up til I got back home? I eventually got it for FREE, remember?

 

[sonicteambronx]

WOW..just WOW... GREAT JOB

 

[Superduper]

HOLY CRAPPOLA MR. NORM!!!!!! DAAAAAAAAAANG.... I'M FLABBERGASTED!!!!!!!

Thanks Stranj fellow.

 

[redbenjoe]

ooops
now i remember --the guy made you wait in his bad neighborhood