LENSto be able to get away with leaving it in
original condition. So, I compromised and
allowed myself to modify it, while trying to
keep such modifications to a minimum.
That meant drilling holes for mounting
potentiometers and other hardware was OK,
but cutting a big opening for the speaker was
not. Instead, I chose to mount the speaker
face-down to the bottom inside of the box.
This reduced the volume of the output, but it
also used the wood of the box as a resonator,
softening up some of the harsher sounds
from the synth. Again, this required some
CAD work. I whipped up a design for a
speaker-mounting flange and 3D-printed it.
OUR LOYAL FRIEND, HOT GLUE
Now I had all the parts needed for final
assembly, which made liberal use of one of
my favourite tools, the hot glue gun. The
speaker and its flange were glued to the
bottom of the box, and the Nano-amplifier
board got glued to one of the inside walls.
I slipped three of the potentiometers
through the holes I drilled in the walls of the
box and secured them with their nuts.
The pink LEDs were glued to the inside of
the skull, so they would light it from within.
By the way, bones make gorgeous diffusers
for LEDs. The skull got glued down on top of
the speaker, mostly hiding it.
To complete the synthesizer, I attached a
holder for a 9-volt battery to the inside of the
box and then attached the limit switch so
that when the lid of the box is shut, power to
the synthesizer would be turned off.SO, UM, WHY?
When I show this synthesizer off to someone
new, the first question out of their mouth is
usually, “Is that a real skull inside?” When I
affirm that it is indeed a real skull, their next
question is often, “Why?”
I can answer a lot of questions about my
projects, but explaining why I made a
synthesizer with a roadkill raccoon skull
inside is not easily explained. The honest
answer is I don’t really know. It just seemed
like a cool thing to do, and now I’m probably
the only person on the planet with a
pink-lighted, electronically screaming raccoon
skull in a box.Animal Bones
Some of the very earliest tools were made out
of animal bones, and they’ve been a staple
material for makers for millennia. It’s only
in the past hundred years or so that they’ve
started to be seen as an unusual material.
However, making anything with biological
materials carries hygiene risks that you need
to understand and mitigate. Working with
animal parts isn’t necessarily dangerous,
but can be. Make sure you know what to do
before someone turns up on your doorstep
with a dead raccoon.Above
Candles are a
recommended extra