Build Shit - DIY - What's On Your Bench?

[FAP]

An idea I had for a while but didnxe2x80x99t have enough space on the springboard to implement it. Cobbled together in about an hour with junk I had lying around, using as little xe2x80x9cnewxe2x80x9d materials as possible. For example, the enclosure has a bunch of holes drilled in it from a previous failed project; all of the screws and hardware are salvaged from God knows where; the pickup is actually a small speaker (I couldxe2x80x99ve ripped out a Piezo from one of like ten pre-made contact mics I have, but this one definitely was not worth the effort and I wanted a 1/4xe2x80x9d jack anyways). Itxe2x80x99s a little harder to amplify than a standard contact mic but otherwise Ixe2x80x99m quite pleased. Therexe2x80x99s a lot of xe2x80x9ctechniquesxe2x80x9d you can perform with just this chain lock mechanism: Ixe2x80x99d give it a solid recommendation for anyone diving into a new shaker box build.

Note: these photos were taken prior to hot gluing the wires [among other things] in place and sealing it all up.

[¾ dead]

This hardly qualifies, but our long-suffering microwave of the past ~26 years finally shit itself a few days ago.

Tonight, I unceremoniously pried the interface panel off of it with the aid of a hammer so that I could harvest the piezo element inside. In some small way, our grimy old Sharp will live on as a contact microphone.

[logorok]

Spring reverb, with an LM386

the breadboard is the prototype

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[JUBOO120MG]

Just done with this one. a friend asked me to circuit bent his old home telephone. Just a mic with a volume pot. I add a two way switch, the first connect to the mic and the second is nothing (aka noise/buzz). Not much to it really but it is still fun when played with pedals.

Could pull more fancy stuff if I add preamp into it but I'm doing this for free so I will not fucking waste my precious preamp on this one.

PS: I'm not a fan of Full of Hell and Eyehategod btw. Merely adding it to add some aesthetic value to it (my friend like these type of bands). If you are not able to make crazy circuit-bendy stuff then might as well make it fancy looking nut

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[FAP]

This one sounds better than it... sounds. Let me explain:

This is two door alarms, each with their own 1/4xe2x80x9d output and toggle on/off pitch pot. Leaving both on and running at their normal pitch means they eventually fall in and out of phase which is pretty neat in itself, though adding pitch pots adds more possibilities. Kind of wish Ixe2x80x99d tried a stereo pot or some kind of setup where two pots are perpetually calibrated to one another, instead of two independent pots, since one pot doesnxe2x80x99t seem to get as low of a resistance as the other (ergo one alarm will always sound faster than the other when both are at full speed).

Of course the main head scratcher is bound to be the RCA inputs: simply put, these are meant to be body contacts for controlling pitch (as an alternative to the pots). The idea is to plug in an RCA cable into one of the inputs and now the other end of that cable becomes the contact. The negative (xe2x80x9cbarrelxe2x80x9d) of the inputs are left unconnected, however in this application I believe one or more of them erroneously made contact with the metal enclosure, yielding results that were unanticipated.

Overall, Ixe2x80x99m not too happy with the build, but I knew going in therexe2x80x99d be problems. The concept is good, the build is bad. I consider this one a fancy-looking prototype (I bought some new/different alarms for a future project).

[Soloman Tump]

I was the only person at work today so obviously I used my time wisely and made a weird marimba type thing out of scrap stainless steel.



just had a play around with it... Sounds pretty good actually! I guessed 6 different notes by curling the plate around to different diameters. Added some weight underneath the support plate to keep it stable.

Stuck on a contact mic and plugged into my effects chain.... Job done.

Might drill the tips of the fingers and bolt some weight to the underneath of them to see if I can get them bouncing at all.

Made a brush mallet thing for it by tying some cable ties together. Sounds pretty sweet actually. Happy day at work for once!

[logorok]

White and pink noise generator for my noise-/dronebox

[FAP]

Rediscovered this while digging through old files. It was a cheapo walkman with a magnet attached to the play head; pushing down on either of the beer bottle caps made these repetitive clicking sounds, either low or high-sounding, come from the output. Long gone now, though maybe worth investigating again if I come across a beater walkman in the future.

sample here:

[FAP]

Phew, glad to get this done. And reasonably pleased with it, too.
This is a circuit bent pest control... thing. On itxe2x80x99s own it has three different patterns and three volume settings (obviously I tend to leave it on LOUD), but I also added a volume pot, power starve, pitch knob and a patch bay of 17 banana jacks. Now not every combination is a winner, but with the patch bay this thing is almost like a primitive drum machine; all the patterns are predictable loops wherein a patch could add or subtract from them. A bit of a rough build given the exposed battery leads, though I kind of intended it to be that way.

Video coming soon.

[FAP]