Recycled Ipod Dock

This forum has fueled my want for my own home Tiki Bar for years, so now that I’m finally pulling the trigger, I thought I’d start sharing my progress from the beginning.

Needless to say, there are some MASTER BUILDERS on this site, and their work continues to inspire me, (I truly thank you) My stuff will not compare to theirs, but I’m sure there are others like me, those with almost zero budget, people who rent their homes, etc., who might get ideas from mine. I hope "sharing the love” lights a spark for someone else, just like mine was started here.

This entire project will be primarily built from "found items", such as this. I had an old video game chair that you can wire to your television, it’s all set up with simple input/output plugs, same as any IPod would use. The chair was just taking up space in the sight of my future Tiki Bar (corner of my garage). I could never bring myself to toss it because the sound from this thing was fantastic! But I never used it, and I needed the space for the bar, so I decided to cannibalize the speakers before pitching it. Once I dug into it, the light bulb went off. Years ago, I got one of those cheap battery operated tiki heads (from party city I think) as a gift when I first started talking about a Tiki bar. Sure, it’s a little tacky, but it was a thoughtful gift, so I held onto it. A little hack and slash later, I made a surprisingly loud IPod dock. Using existing hardware from the chair, total cost to me was $0.00!

This will be a nice addition for two reasons. 1)I won’t be able to purchase a new sound system right now and 2)This being an indoor garage bar, artificial flame is always a good idea! haha.

The pic doesn’t show it well, but the sound board is hidden so it is accessible from the top of the lantern, and when its powered up, it illuminates the eyes with a dim blue light, without taking away from the color of artificial flame. Looks super cool in low light. It sounds great, but it isn’t so loud that it will drown out conversation, nor wake the neighbors! Once the bar is built and decorated, I might paint it to match whatever it ends up being next to, maybe add some things to make it more of a "Frankenstein". I plan on it being nestled on a wall shelf, behind the bar. I’ve got a 5ft male-to-male cord that docks IPod itself, so we won’t have to stand up from the bar stool to change the music!

Thanks for reading! hope someone might catch a spark form it. I'll continue to post cheap/free ideas as my little garage getaway progresses.

Great job!
I love findin old stuff and makin new stuff out of it.
Been looking for a small fake flame like that for some time now.

TIKISKIP: Maker of TIKI bar lighting, Let me make one for you.

Really Skip?

They're super easy to make. Get a computer fan from Radioshack, and Orange/Red/Yellow Silk.

Use a 12V power supply for the fan, and cut the silks to look like a flame. Glue the silk to the back of the fan. If the air is blowing the wrong way, reverse the wire. Voila!

Also, if I'm not mistaken, isn't this a foam lamp from Spencer's? I think I have one of these kicking around somewhere.

EDIT: Nope. Different lamp, same idea.

Good luck on the construction! There's lots of temporary bars under home bars. Or at least, ones that are built into apartments.

[ Edited by: Hale Tiki 2013-02-27 12:43 ]

Thanks Skip!

Yeah, the poster is correct. I've seen these things all over the place. Spencers, party city, oriental trading, etc. And this one is actually plastic: I know I've seen them for as little as $12 over the years.

I dig the radio shack route for sure! And I have plan that will need artificial flame elswhere as well. So weighing the cost vs quality factor, I'll probably head to radio shack, or just buy some more of these cheap guys and rip out the fans.

Canibalizing the would be very easy, just four scews on the bottom of the lantern. It can be powered by 4 AA's (I'm using recharables) or a typical 6V wall plug. But fair warning if you decided to do this, the fan does have an audible hum to it, not too loud, but noticable. Since the speakers I installed drown it out the sound, and it will be placed overhead and realitivly far from ear shot, I didn't worry, but consider this for your application.

Will it annoy if there is nothing else going on in the room? The radio shack option might be your better choice if so

[ Edited by: JamesDanger 2013-02-27 13:01 ]

Oh yeah, or batteries if you need them to not have a cord.

Skip, if you need some made up, lemme know. I can do them at work when I'm bored. Hahahaha.

"They're super easy to make. Get a computer fan from Radioshack, and Orange/Red/Yellow Silk"

You know should have thought of that.
But then I could not spend hours, days, months, YEARS looking in thrift stores.
And heck some of the time you can find it lots cheaper at flea mkts/ thrift stores
than you can at Radio shack.
My business runs on pennies.

On 2013-02-27 12:41, Hale Tiki wrote:

Good luck on the construction! There's lots of temporary bars under home bars. Or at least, ones that are built into apartments.

[ Edited by: Hale Tiki 2013-02-27 12:43 ]

Thanks for the luck Tiki Hale! My whole plan for the bar revolves around building the bar to be retrofitted later, once it finds its permanant home. Only investing money on the parts I won't want to replace later, like the bar top, true tiki art, etc. Again, you guys are great! Thanks