Drvnbysounds Projects / Introduction

I wanted someplace to put various pictures of the large array of projects I have worked on as well as those that I will be working on in the future. I like to share these pictures to get feedback from everyone as well as maybe being able to give others ideas on doing their own work as well.. Hopefully someone can gain something out of what I post .... some stuff is obviously basic, but all in good intentions...

Approx. 8 years ago, while I was in college, I started my own sole-proprietorship business doing car audio installations, over the years I continued to expand the "business" as I wanted to both better my knowledge of all things, along with the caveat of getting equipment at dealer pricing... Over the years I expanded the business to doing small home audio jobs, vinyl lettering / decals, heat pressed shirts and clothing, window tinting, and really just any DIY work I thought I could do myself. I received my bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering the fall of 2006 and have practically stopped all of the business, as I just value my "off work" time too much to be working on other peoples stuff..

Anyhow, I just wanted to give a brief introduction as to why you will see such a large array of pictures of VARIOUS stuff..

My wifes previous car (2000 Honda Civic) completed in 2005:





H2 Hummer completed 2006:



My dad is a big Stealers fan, I did this decal for him a couple years back..



My brother-in-law is a Gators fan..



NOTE: The decals are die cut with a plotter, each color individually cut and applied in layers.

I also got into doing heat-pressed transfers.. such as shirts for car clubs, novelty t's, sports uniforms, etc.



ON TO THE HOME WORK....

Samsung LCD TV Wall Mounted (2007)



Samsung LCD TV Wall Mounted w/ in-wall speakers (2007)



Whole Home Audio - Kitchen Speakers (2007)



Whole Home Audio - Outdoor Porch Speaker ... many people have seemed to like how this turned out..



Close up view of the last picture..

My home (living room wiring).. ~ DEC 2007



Just moving in... ~JAN 2008



My current living room setup...



Garage - Shutter / misc. wood storage



I just build this cabinet last weekend - This will go under our washer and dryer. The LG ones are $200 each, so I figured I would build my own and raise the washer and dryer all the way up to the cabinets that are above them. I'm planning to build the 2 drawers for it this coming weekend.

I deleted my post so it stays together.

Man, that Civic must have "thumped"

I just build this outdoor game (Wahers) for a friend up in New Jersey.



The underside of the board also has built in storage for the washers:

sic0048 said:

Man, that Civic must have "thumped"

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Yes, unfortunately, my wife (we weren't married at the time) decided she wanted to sell the car when I was ~75% through with the build. I made her keep it for another couple of months so I could finish up the job, get some pictures of all the time, effort that I had put into it, and to show off to some friends, etc. So, I really only got to enjoy it for a short period of time. I still have all of the panels - dont know if I should bother trying to sell them or just trash it :-\ Its pretty rare to find someone that wants to give up there entire trunk for an audio system.

All looks good, I too really like that patio speaker setup very clean.

CollinR said:

All looks good, I too really like that patio speaker setup very clean.

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Thanks. In a couple of cases that I have been able to do that now, I basically just put a 1/2" piece of plywood up there, and had the vinyl guys put the J-channel around it. Then I come back and put a piece of ABS plastic painted to match (usually always white up there). It was the best way I could come up with to have a solid and secure mount. I have seen other guys cut straight into the siding and mount the speaker to it, but I was always worried about the fact that the siding is not a flat surface at all, and how bugs and/or moisture would be allowed in without something better. What you see was the best idea I could come up with.

This is the only picture I could find trying to detail it more. Again, that is a 1/2" piece of plywood attached the existing plywood that makes up the "ceiling" if you will... 1/2" was mainly selected because it ends up being pretty flush with the vinyl.



Then I just got a sheet of 1/8" ABS plastic and cut it to the same size (12" x 12") painted with either some ColorBond or SEM (both plastic bonding paint). I usually also use some liquid nails to give the plastic a good seal to the plywood for the bugs/moisture reasons above.

My wife (all 115 lbs of her - which made it FUN) and I moved the washer and dryer around today - got the cabinet put into place, and lifted the washer and dryer onto the new cabinet..





Now I just need to make some drawers for it

So I made drawers to complete the washer/dryer cabinet about 2 weekends ago, but had yet to take any pictures...




I also started another cabinet project - a cabinet / workbench for the garage...



This cabinet is 8' long, 40" tall, and 16" deep.

I am hoping to get the drawers, 2 shelves, and the doors completed next weekend.

After this is complete, I'll be done with any misc. home improvement, and hope to begin acquiring equipment for a smarter home

I need to build the same thing, is there anything you would do differently if you had to do it all over again? I was thinking about adding a lip, in case the machine gets out of balance, and the spin cycle starts moving it a little. Looks great tho!

Dan (electron) said:

I need to build the same thing, is there anything you would do differently if you had to do it all over again? I was thinking about adding a lip, in case the machine gets out of balance, and the spin cycle starts moving it a little. Looks great tho!

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I actually thought about it, but just decided not to. It's obviously a good idea though.

As far as I know, its pretty though for a front loader to get out of balance - unlike top loading washers, where you physically put your clothes around the agitator and you could accidentally put more clothes on one side than the other. The operator doesnt really have any control over that with the front loader, obviously as all the clothes rest at the bottom. So I assume there is a considerable system built in to help alleviate the problem - we have had the front loaders for about a year now, and while it was on the floor never had a problem with it "walking".

There was 2 reasons I decided to build my own: 1) Price - the LG ones would have cost $400 ($200 each), 2) the LG ones are ~13" tall, and I built mine to be ~20" to eliminate the gap between the washer/dryer and the cabinets above.

Even the LG ones dont have any external lip on them, but they do have some particular pieces to hold the feet into place:



It would have been easy enough for me to use a Forstner bit, before I attached the top, to drill out holes for the feet to rest in:




It would be tough to go back and do this now, because you would need to do it on a drill press in order to get the depth of them equal - ensuring the feet all sat level.

I hope I wasnt too basic, but I generally like to explain in this way, so if someone else comes along and doesnt know anything about wood working they should be able to follow along and understand some of the process.


I do want to be completely honest in saying that the spinning of the washer does move the dryer about a 1/4" after about 4-5 loads. Its not much, but if I were to forget about it - would be a problem. The reason I think it does it is because its a single stand, and the slight vibration from the washer through the stand, slowly vibrates the dryer. I have been thinking about trying some sort of non-skid material under the feet of both to see if it alleviates the issue at all. Right now, I just check to see how plumb the dryer is with the cabinet about 1x a week - the washer doesnt seem to move at all - its also considerably heavier.

My front loader doesn't get out of balance either, but I know the wife isn't too happy with the smaller size compared with the top loaders. I looked at those plastic LG models as well, and they really are overpriced. It's also a good thing you went taller, as I was told that regular size soap bottles do not fit in those plastic drawers. Thanks for the info!

Dan (electron) said:

My front loader doesn't get out of balance either, but I know the wife isn't too happy with the smaller size compared with the top loaders. I looked at those plastic LG models as well, and they really are overpriced. It's also a good thing you went taller, as I was told that regular size soap bottles do not fit in those plastic drawers. Thanks for the info!

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Im certain the various soap bottles are difference sized, but I did measure the Gain bottle pictured to be ~12", and my drawer actually allows for something ~14" to fit so I have plenty of room.

I would believe with the LG cabinets being ~13" tall, its practically impossible that they would allow a 12" bottle to fit. Not to mention their ridiculous price tag.

I believe I have approx. $75 invested in mine total. Some of which was simply because I did make mine a single cabinet, which meant I had 2 pieces (top and bottom) that had to be cut out of seperate sheets of plywood to accomidate. If I had made 2 seperate cabinets, I think I could have made the physical cabinet from a single sheet of plywood. I made the cabinet itself out of 3/4" MDF, and made the drawers out of 1/2" MDF.

Dan - if you build something similar, I'd recommend drilling the holes for the feet. Not only does it help keep the machine from walking, it would also lower the machine some to hide the space between the bottom of the washer and the top of the cabinet. I guess you could also adjust the feet to reduce this space too however.