DIY Simple Pallet Speaker

What inspired me?

Pallets. What can't you make using a piece of wood and a few nails. The endless possibilities have resulted in sheds, pieces of art and many pieces of furniture. And I decided to mix it up a bit by creating a mildly easy pallet speaker. I wanted this to be a very rustic piece. I love to make basic phone holders as I believe them to be an easy way to develop hand processes such as sawing and sanding. I decided to incorporate this into the speaker to make it into a phone docking station speaker thing…I hope you enjoy the project and I hope you attempt it. Good luck.

What will you need?

-Pallet wood (either four pieces of at least 250mm or one long piece adding up to more than 870mm)

-Speaker kit

-Hole Saw 50mm

-8mm Drill bit

-4mm Drill bit

-5x 25mm screws

-File and sanding block

-Orbital sander

-Jig Saw

-Drill Driver

First, I grabbed a length of pallet woof from the pile and measure on 250mm top and bottom after squaring one side up. I then drew a line straight down top to bottom to ensure a 90 degree line. I then found half way and placed my phone on this line, 20mm from the bottom. I traced around the phone and increases it by around 5mm. Once this was all marked out I then drew two circles on the sides of the length measured with a 90mm diameter circle. Using the jig saw, I began to cut each piece out. This left me with a single length of shaped pallet wood. I then found the centre of the circle and made a cross on both circle centres. I used a 50mm hole saw to then create two holes on these marks. These need to be smaller than the speakers.

I now had to make the centre piece. To do this, I traced the first piece onto a separate piece of pallet with a pencil. I drew around both speakers and increased it by around 5mm so I knew for sure the speaker would fit. I then used the 8mm drill bit to drill four holes on each circle around the circumference. The drill bit needs to be larger than the width of the jig saw blade. I then used the jig saw to roughly cut this out.

The next piece to make was the back piece. I traced the middle panel onto another piece of pallet wood. The back piece needed a large 100mm by 5mm rectangle in the centre of the piece. This is where the components, circuit board and 9v battery will stay. I used the same drill bit to drill four holes in the four corners before cutting it out using the jig saw. The finish doesn’t really matter as another panel will be made to ensure all of the components will be secure.

I then had to cut a piece that was 70mm high and 120mm long. I used this piece to secure all of the components in place. I used the jig saw to cut this piece out and used the sanding block to get rid of the burs surrounding the piece. On top of this I used the 8mm drill bit to drill an 8mm hole in the centre of this panel so the AUX lead could be threaded through.

Once I had made each of the four pieces, I decided to screw it all together and sand the edges. I place the first and second panel together and then fired two screws into the wood, ensuring to counter sink then to ensure they wouldn’t stick out. I then placed the third panel on top of the second and used two screws to hold this in place. Using the file, sanding block and orbital I then began to sand the curved edges to get a great finish. However, I didn’t want it to clean as I wanted a very rustic, unfinished look to it. Once the entire piece had been sanded, I then deconstructed the entire thing and then started to insert the speakers, circuit and battery. Whist completing this, I found the depth of the speakers to be 22mm. This mean that the speakers were 2mm too thick, so using a forstner bit, I drill two 3mm holes in the third piece to allow room for this 2mm over hang. This made the entire piece fit together very nicely. Finally, I threaded the AUX cable through the back panel and then used a single screw to fix it in place. I used the 4mm drill bit to crate pilot holes for each screw in case I split the wood.

Thank you so much for reading this Instructable, even if you clicked onto the by accident thank you. Every view counts. I love these mini projects as it gives you people, my viewers a quick and simple project to try at home, please feel free to comment, follow and favourite for more amazing Summer DIY projects like this one.