I’ve wanted to have a permanent stereo in the garage for awhile, but I’ve been using a clock radio. I had the idea to use an old car stereo mounted into the workbench and finally decided to do it. Since I had the old Alpine I removed from my wife’s car last year I wouldn’t need to buy one. Here is what I did.
First I marked the bench with tape to show the area to be cut-out.
Next I used Chris Brown’s sawzall (thanks Chris!) to cut the opening. Note the tarp below. I put that there to keep all the saw dust off my stuff under the bench. Being lazy makes one smarter IMO.
To keep the dust and metal shavings out, I bought a marine-type radio cover with a hinged lid and mounted it in the opening.
Of course I needed 12V power so I bought a power supply (not shown) off Amazon for $16. I wired it all up and slid the radio into the case.
With the cover closed it is water-tight so it should be safe from most of the shop carnage.
For FM reception I bought a marine antenna (just a long wire really) and have it mounted beneath the workbench. I had two old Kenwood corner-type surround speakers that I decided to use. I made custom brackets and attached them to the rear of the speakers, then mounted them to the pegboard as seen here.
It actually sounds pretty good and with the unit’s 35Wx4 power it’s plenty loud as well.
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