Way back in June, I was Building a Simple Radio Receiver that was intended to be solderable by kids, low-cost, and almost guaranteed to work the first time, owing to its simplicity, requiring no adjustments or trimming.
Unfortunately, other work got in the way and I didn't get around to building an enclosure for it until this weekend.
This short blog post covers this final assembly. The 3-minute video here covers it since there's not a lot to this!:
I decided to use a metal sweets tin to try to make it look nice (since the radio was intended to be a gift for a child). I originally got this tin box from Bletchley Park gift shop (the actual manufacturer is Tin Treats).
Holes for the volume and tuning knobs and the power button were drilled and then expanded to the correct size using a Q-Max 8-mm hole punch.
For the speaker holes, I used Polydoh to pad out the underside of the lid (the inside of the lid needs to be well greased! – I didn't, and had a lot of issues clearing up the consequences of that).
Whatever speaker-hole design is desired, can be stuck on and then drilled with ease. Some filing or turning with a countersink bit will still be needed, to clean up any sharp edges.
The metal box had plenty of room, which was great. The on/off button circuit board was held vertically with more Polydoh. A 3D printed bracket could be another option. I color-coded the connectors with permanent markers, so that it can be re-assembled by anyone if the kid ever gets curious and disassembles it.
For the antenna, a 2mm banana socket was used. I preferred this to a telescopic antenna, which the recipient (a young kid) may accidentally break. The croc-clip on the end of the antenna wire has no electrical connection. When not in use, the antenna can be disconnected and stowed inside the tin box, since there is enough room for that.
I gave the radio today, and the kid seems happy! At least, he danced to some music : )
Thanks for reading.
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