The $5 Cracker Box Amp

The new issue of MAKE is out. MAKE, the magazine that costs like a book: $14.99 for 192 pages. Luckily it only comes out once in a while, or maybe it’s just that it’s hard to find so sometimes I miss it entirely. But whenever I come across it, I gotta have it. It fuels my fantasies of actually creating something, and this issue, MAKE vol. 09, features “fringe” projects (a Hieronymus machine?), a panoramic pinhole camera, and a guitar amp you can make for just $5 worth of parts, depending, I guess, on how much an LM386N audio amplifier costs where you live. Plus you need an empty cracker box. I don’t know about your neighborhood, but a box of plain Ritz costs, like, over $3 upstate where we are. I got all fired up about building this cool little amp, until I bought the magazine and actually read the instructions, which say things like “Install the 0.01uF capacitor so one leg connects to pin 2 of the chip and one leg is in a 'proto row.' Flip it over and solder it.” I almost understand what that means. Kind of. They have other projects that look simpler, until you find out they’re assuming you already own your own cement mixer or something. But it’s still a pretty fine magazine, and at least they advocate making things, instead of just buying them at the store.

MAKE reminds me of Popular Mechanics, which my Uncle Bikey subscribed to. When I was little, whenever we visited our cousins, I’d always check out the Popular Mechanics collection. I don’t remember if Uncle Bikey ever made any of the featured projects, but he could have. My dad and my uncles could do all that stuff, which is something I’ve always admired. My great and abiding love of pinball comes from watching my dad restore an old Gottlieb Flying High  machine that we played with for years afterwards. My dad could’ve made a $5 cracker box amp, for sure.

MAKE also has a sister publication, CRAFT. I’m a sucker for that one as well. I do like knitting—I even started a little knitting club at my dayjob, and we made felted squeaky dog toys as a group project and I finally had to learn how to use double-pointed needles, and now all I want to do is knit felted tams in blinding colors because I really like little hats. So I’m actually more likely to make some of the stuff in CRAFT, even though lots of times they show you photos of cool things and then don’t include patterns. But when I saw Liz McGrath’s faux taxidermy in CRAFT vol. 02, I thought, “That’s for me!” I already have a collection of appalling real taxidermy, but the idea of making my own specimens opens up many new possibilities.

If you’re really gung-ho to make the $5 amp, the instructions are here. And If you want to check out back issues of MAKE and CRAFT, you can order them—and many other cool things—here.
As for me, I guess it’s time I broke down and actually got subscriptions to both of those fine magazines.

Thanks for reading my blog post this time, and may God bless.

Comments

[Ed Word]

I thought I had seen that schematic before its called the Little Gem, http://www.runoffgroove.com/littlegem.htm there is a PCB layout on that site which will make it easy for anyone to make. They do sound surprisingly good for what it is, especially when pushing a large speaker. People seem to really enjoy making these (or its sister the Ruby amp) in odd enclosures such as small tin cans and tea boxes. http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=36392.msg283902#msg283902
http://ampage.org/hammer/files/T-tone.jpg
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=36392.msg291629#msg291629

[K.]

Hey IF,

Much like sex, an insanely detailed set of instructions is a lot less helpful than some hands on experience. Rather than use PC board, try that funky breadboard stuff. You just jam the wires in and if you mess up, pull them right back out.

Back in the day, there were all kinds of technical project magazines. They slowly died out as the idiocracy began to assert itself in earnest and we ( collectively ) were all converted from fully functional human beings into consumers. The net has revived the form somewhat but the price of MAKE should clue you into just how rare the animal is that can make things. BTW, the dude in the picture really needs to tin his soldering iron....I'm just sayin'

Also, putting that big honking variable resistor on the output side of the amp is just stoopid. It's only 1/2 a watt as it is; why waste what little power you have? Just drive the speaker directly, and put a smaller variable on the input side if you really need it.

[syed]

the physical computing people at ITP have a nice intro to 'electronics and shiz' page setup to help those who don't hold EE degrees and like to blink LEDs. http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Intro/HomePage