A (Not So) New Drawing

I've finally gotten around to posting the googlewhack drawing I finished a couple of weeks ago - for details about this series of drawings, please see my earlier post. Anyway, this one is titled vishnu hayrides. The outer edges are a bit wobbly in the photo - I photographed it where it has been tacked up to the wall in my workroom for several weeks and the recent humidity (it's been a wet weekend in Sav) has warped the vellum a bit. It should be fine once it get it in the flat drawers with the AC on.

Overall I think I'm happy with it. It started out as vertical with four rows of broken text but it just wasn't working & I couldn't get the right balance of letters/open space (ie. figure/ground). I cut it up & went for a horizontal orientation instead and I think it works better. We'll see - I'll put it away and not look at it for awhile, then hopefully see it with fresh eyes.

vishnu hayrides. 2010.
crayon and enamel on vellum. 17 x 29 in.

Cigar Box Megaphone Amp

So my latest diy project was to build another megaphone guitar amp, this time using a 10 watt megaphone that I picked up at Harbor Freight (they were on sale for $5.99 so I picked up two, one of which I trashed in a fit of impromptu circuit-bending... but that's another story). I decided to use an old square cigar box for the housing. Here's some pics of work in progress:

out of the box

Disassembled megaphone with cigar box.
Rather than using four "C" batteries for juice I attached a 9v power supply.


tricked out box interior with center panel for holding the speaker


Front of box with pilot hole drilled for cutting circular opening for speaker.
I had to first replace the front panel (which was cracked) with a piece salvaged from another old cigar box.


Inside of box with attached speaker (which I spray painted black), battery, and 1/4" input jack. The back of the speaker is bolted to the center panel, with a piece of wire screening (also spray painted black) glued to the inside front panel. My original plan was to somehow mount the circuit boards with the on/off button and volume control so that they poked out either the top of the box, or the back - easier said than done...


finished box - front



finished box - back
I stuffed the circuit boards back into their original housing & cut a hole in the back of the box, then slathered with airplane glue to hold in place - not pretty, but it works (nice buzz from the glue, though).


input line on the right, output line on the left.
running a line out to another amp/speaker creates tons of fuzz and distortion



interior of finished box - battery is held in place with velcro so it doesn't rattle around.
side panel is secured in place with two screws.