Customizing your Milwaukee Packout Stack with Smart Mods and Labels

About a month ago I wrote up a post about Milwaukee’s Packout system and how it’s a boon not just for traditional tool guys and gals but for DIYers as well. Back then little did I know that the amount of aftermarket customizations available for Packout products is absolutely insane. From custom drawer and bin inserts specifically made to hold certain tools perfectly, to add-on side tables and mounts, to custom labeling for every storage area, there are a lot of options depending on your needs. I’ve interacted with a dozen or so companies/folks offering these products, and there is plenty of enthusiasm driving new options and product developments.

I think perhaps my favorite of the products are the 3D printed tool trays for the Packout bins and drawers. These are primarily available for the 3-drawer boxes and make your tools look as neat and tidy as Stewie’s arsenal in Family Guy. I found that Samuel from Toolitek that operating on Etsy offered perfect fitting options that look excellent. There are options available for M12 and M18 tools and batteries, including drivers, drills, impact wrenches, detail sanders, die grinders, and other items. The trays are printed in red and black for a perfect match to your Packout gear.

Tool and battery trays from Toolitek

For the 3D printed trays that fit inside the Packout bins, I’ve had good luck with 10Spot tools. This shop offers the Jonah Pope designs for reasonable prices, as well as other options such as the smaller trays for the bins with inserts that can accommodate drill bits, Dremel discs, jigsaw blades, and other items.

If you are looking to make your Packout stack more of a work center, there is a robust amount of side mount offerings. These mods were likely not predicted by Milwaukee as you will need to turn a drill on your precious bins to temporarily remove the side-bars, but I found it was well worth the trouble. At the top of each metal side bar, there is a round plastic protrusion that secures it in place. You can use a screwdriver to try to provide enough clearance to slip it out, but people have cracked or damaged the surrounding plastic doing it this way. The better way, in my humble opinion, is to drill away this plastic and use the rail caps offered by these companies to replace it. This allows you to secure the bar with a screw instead of pressure. Should you wish to change your side configuration in the future it will also be infinitely easier to remove the bar from the case.   

Aftermarket rail caps (top) and original caps (bottom)

My selected provider for the side rail offerings is PackibleTools. They have clearly spent a lot of time and attention on their products, and while they are more expensive than others, they exude quality. The primary reason I selected Packible over other offerings is the metal rail brackets. Given the nature of 3D printing adding plastic layers one by one, it can lead the plastic to split under pressure. In addition, utilizing plastic rather than wood for the side table reduces the weight when you need to reconfigure your stack, and the “juice grooves” are handy for catching small screws before they roll off the table. If you’d prefer a wood or steel side table, Dirt Church Industries has some nice looking options, and like Packible, offers the rail caps. Also I gotta admit it's a cool company name. 

Side mounted table and mounts from Packible

Side table and mount in upright position

Now if you want to customize your Packout stack to the tilt, there are folks offering 3D printed plastic handles and latches so you can note what you have in each drawer. Etsy sellers like Chris at TaylorCustomEng, 10 Spot Tools, and CustomToolKits each offer unique options customize and enhance your stack. You can label your drawers, label the side latches, label a handle, customize the square logo, the sky is the limit. I will say that getting the metal loop off of the latches is a PITA, but it looks so good afterwards I think it’s worth the hassle.

Finally, I’ll be discussing the custom trays for the Packout bins. The trays that come stock are perfectly serviceable, but if you’d like to arrange your bits and bobs in a more organized fashion you can order custom trays that hold the standard Milwaukee Shockwave bit holders. Simply yank them out of their organizer and pop them into the bins, easy peasy lemon squeezy. These trays are available from Michael at PolymerPrintCo, 10 Spot Tools, and MWReclaimed offers a similar solution that includes the hex bit holders.

Also, a special shout out to Michael at MWReclaimed. I had purchased a battery holder tray from him designed to fit in the Packout bins. It was a very nice product, but he actually redesigned it to keep the batteries from tumbling out if you are travelling out and about with your bins and things go horizontal and he sent me the new version free of charge. It caps the batteries with a tray so you can fit even more items in your bins, a super smart design. I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with! 

MWReclaimed battery storage tray, the left tray snaps on top, awesome design

Bottom line, the sky is the limit when it comes to configurations for this storage system, so whatever your DIY hobby or profession, there is likely one that would work perfectly for you.   

More images to come in the next few weeks!

   

Modding the Sega Game Gear with McWill Screen, New Caps

The classic gaming industry seems to be enjoying the same explosion of popularity as the revitalized vinyl album market. With various catalysts such the low cost of production for small, single-board computer systems and the proliferation of cheap LCD panels, we've seen many interesting solutions hit the market in the past couple of years. Some of my favorites have been the NES and SNES Classic, the SNK Mini, the C64 Mini. Many fun new home-brew options are also now available such as 3D printed cases wrapped around Raspberry Pi boards housing thousands of classic games. Technology these days is incredible.

An example of a mini console with Raspberry Pi inside

One of the things about emulation is sometimes a game works well, and sometimes it can run a little funky. Situations like this can leave you yearning for that original hardware… back when times were simple and you could slap a big plastic cartridge in an over sized toaster-like device and everything worked perfectly. You might even dust off your old systems to see how they've held up over the decades. That’s when you realize hmmn… some have not aged as well as others.

If you showed any youngster a Sega Game Gear today, they’d think it was a piece of junk, and I suppose they’d be half right. I was a huge fan of the Sega Game Gear back in the day, and for days when you’re getting shuttled around in the family van, it was like living in the lap of luxury. Having a color screen on the go was revolutionary, and you had to save your allowance for quite a long time to get not only the Game Gear, but a $50 rechargeable battery pack to boot.

The jumbo-sized Game Gear PowerBack

Why was the battery pack necessary? That puppy would eat six AA batteries in four hours flat. It was as inefficient on juice as a Hummer is on gas. Much of that was being drawn from the 160x144 pixel color screen with back-light. Compared to LCD screens today, the screen looked like someone took several layers of Saran wrap and window tint and covered it up. Everything is faded looking and slightly blurry… and this is even on the newer, better Majesco screens.

As you can see, he doesn't like it very much

Not only is the screen lackluster by today’s standards, but the capacitors in the unit are also ready to give up the ghost. Capacitors are little tubular parts that store energy in a circuit, you’ll find plenty of them from the earliest circuits in existence to your cell phone today. Electrolytic capacitors tend to be one of the first things to die in old electronics. These are typically the first items to be replaced in most older electronics which are being refurbished, such as popular amplifiers from the 1960s. The Game Gear caps are getting to be three decades old, so they’re on the way out if they haven’t started leaking already. It doesn't help that caps during this time were especially poor quality either. If you're curious about capacitor degradation, Quora has a nice article about it.   

The innards of a typical capacitor

So what is one left to do with a poor old Game Gear that no one loves anymore? Fortunately, you have options. Many sellers on eBay will sell you a batch of capacitors to replace all the caps in your system for $5-10. They come with directions too. If you’re handy with an iron, this is a pretty easy task and will take 1-2 hours to replace them on all three internal boards (the power board and sound board are mounted separately). At the end of the day though, you’re still stuck with that crappy screen.

An example of a Game Gear Capacitor Kit from eBay seller GeekTronics

Fortunately, a gent named McWill offers a mod so that you can install a fresh new LCD screen in your game gear. It’s not a cheap mod, $120 as of this writing, but given the niche market for something like this, it seems reasonable. It also comes with a VGA output, so that’s a value-add right there. The difference of this screen is amazing… bright and crisp. Night and day compared with the old screen, and the new screen uses much less power to boot. So where’s the fly in the ointment?

McWill Game Gear mod available from Console5.com

I’m a hobbyist and I like to tinker with things and enjoy soldering PCBs with through holes parts. This, however, is not a fun mod… it’s more like work. There are minuscule SMD resistors which need to be moved/bridged and soldered to, and there are very small traces underneath, which if damaged would be difficult to find a trace on the board to fix… you’d be digging around for a schematic, and I don’t know if one is out there for the Game Gear… especially since there were 5-6 versions over the years.

My suggestion: unless you are very confident with your solder skills, I recommend you have someone else handle this mod for you. Your first time through will likely take 5-6 hours if you like to check your work, and the prices people charge on eBay for the install are a bargain (assuming they do good work, I can’t vouch for that).  

While you're in there (or someone else is), another nice cheap upgrade is replacing the stock plastic screen with a new glass one. They can be found on ebay for around $7 and offer make the image even clearer. They are flat though, compared to the bulbous plastic screens, so they change the look of the game gear slightly. The glass screens can also be installed without opening the game gear, but it is a bear to get it off and you can damage the surrounding plastic. 

On another Game Gear, I tried using the typical plastic tools to get under the lip without success. I ended up epoxying a wooden dowel to the screen which I slowly leveraged up to get the plastic screen separated from the unit. 

Below you can get a looksie at the internal mod on a Magic Knight Rayearth red Game Gear using 24-gauge silver plated copper in PTFE hookup wire.

Adjusting the white balance so you can see the screen quality better

Given the McWill Atari Lynx installation is quite similar, I wanted to include photos of that as well:

I hope you enjoyed the write-up. Please keep those wonderful handheld systems alive! 

Is Milwaukee's Packout System the DIYer's Dream Come True?

In terms of consumer products there hasn’t been much that’s really impressed me lately. The current trend has been that large corporations looking to cut costs are charging more for progressively inferior products, with the only solution being to pay a ton of money to smaller companies that still actually care about what they put on the market. While it's great to support small businesses, people generally don't have the coin to only buy well-crafted artisan products. 

Fortunately, Milwaukee, while being a large corporation, still seems to care about providing excellent performing tools that often win the various tool showdown videos on Youtube (now you know how I waste my spare time 😅). Do we all need a brand-new hammer drill with 1,400 lbs. of torque and an auto-stop feature that kills power when your wrist gets caught in that torque? No, but for those of us that do, it makes punching metal easier, and the auto-stop will be worth the money the first time it activates.

Similarly innovative is Milwaukee’s Packout system. Initially I brushed it off as a way to sell more cheap overseas plastic products to consumers. Given many Milwaukee tools are brushless I clearly made an error /dadjoke. On second glance, the Packout gear is a gamechanger for a variety of purposes, and it’s obvious why all the other brands are desperately trying to catch up.

Slim Packout tray with organization compartments

My use-case is probably outside of Milwaukee’s main audience, but it makes sense. My workroom is on an upper level, and while one of those big metal toolboxes (think Craftsman or Husky) would be really nice, getting an awkwardly sized 200lb. box up the steps is a deal breaker. The metal toolboxes also tend to pick up dings and dents on their way to the hardware store or your house which would dampen that serotonin hit when you buy a fancy new toy. Instead of a rolling metal toolbox, how about a rolling sturdy plastic one that largely works the same way and is much lighter? 

The tower of power

What if it’s modular so you can pick and choose which drawer configuration you’d like, and you can pull off a chunk of it (or all of it) and throw it in the car if need be?

Removable work surface

This is the genius of the Packout gear. It can be configured for a variety of needs and easily moved about the workroom, garage, or transported when needed. You do pay for the privilege though, as the Packout gear is priced at what I consider a premium, but it often goes on sale at Home Depot, so I’d advise waiting for a deal and using a cashback app to get a few bucks back.

Internal dividers are handy for organizing small parts

This system will definitely tickle the fancy of anyone who’s obsessive or has a touch of anal retentiveness, as Milwaukee offers some of their tools conveniently in Packout cases. The ¼” and 3/8” socket sets, hole saw sets, Shockwave bit sets, etc. that lock right into your gear stack. 

Mechanics socket set in Milwaukee brand trays

There are customizable foam inserts so you can get your tools arranged just the way you like them. More excitingly, though is there is a contingent of folks on Etsy making custom 3D printed inserts that fit your tools perfectly. If you are lucky enough to own a 3D printer there are files floating around you can print off as well.

3D printed battery tray for tool batteries

There are other modular items that pop on as well, like wet/dry vacs, coolers, work lights, etc. so it really caters to a variety of needs, so long as you can cover the cost of admission. 

Sorting my equipment knobs on the work surface

Given all the unique benefits, I think we are witnessing the next logical evolution of the garage toolbox that just so happens to be perfect for the DIYer in a workroom too.

 

Steampunk Modified Bottlehead Crack DIY Headphone Amp

If you're here you're probably a fan of steampunk, DIY audio, or hopefully both. I wanted to show off my buddy Greg's absolutely beautiful Steampunk themed Bottlehead Crack. I guess technically you might not be able to call it a Crack anymore given nearly every piece of the kit has been swapped out, but the amplifier section of the circuit the same, a simple tube buffer design. 

The Bottlehead Crack has been a popular staple for aspiring DIYers thanks to the lowish price and accessible build. Bottlehead includes step by step directions with pictures so you don't need to know how to read a schematic (although it's fairly easy for tube amps as they are typically simple circuits, so I recommend learning if you can). The stock Crack has very few parts and lacks output transformers so most can complete it in a single evening. 

That being said, many users like Greg like to customize their Bottlehead gear, so bespoke wooden bases or unique paintjobs aren't uncommon. Others choose to modify the internals to enhance performance.You will see the frequently replaced electrolytic capacitors with big honkin' film caps. Greg also designed a lovely pair of custom brackets to nestle around the Clarity Caps. 

Lots of audiophile goodies inside

You will see a small power filter near the power IEC socket, then a CRCRC high voltage power filter with Nichicon electrolytics, and near the front switch is a rectifier board. The stock crack has you mount the rectifier circuit on solder tabs around the transformer so this is a nice little improvement. Some people also elect to install ultra-fast diodes as another option. The tube sockets are replaced with the high quality CMC Teflon PTFE sockets which can help dampen tube vibration. These were directly soldered to however you can find PCBs on eBay or AliExpress to make things a little easier. CMC is also now making Bakelite versions of the socket if you are feeling especially vintage.

The stock Alpha potentiometer has been replaced by a higher quality Audio Note version, and Greg let me know he has ample real estate there to mount a larger stepped attenuator. You'll notice this Crack does not have the Speedball upgrade. While the Speedball enhances the performance of the amp as a constant current source for each channel, some people prefer the more "tubey" sound of the stock circuit. I can tell you they are two different flavors and each have their charm. I prefer to mate a Crack with the Speedball upgrade with some warm tubes and a I feel like it's a nice compromise.     

While there are plenty of improvements on the inside of the amp, the outside is the bee's knees. You'll see a polished copper chassis adorned with brass acorn nuts, a custom copper heatsink, the obligatory steampunk gears, and an old fashioned double pole knife switch. There is a reason why knife switches have been relegated to Frankenstein films and not household electronics; they are inherently unsafe and can arc when connected to high voltage. A shame as they look bad ass. This one is just for show.  

You will also notice there transformer is a little larger above. In fact Greg installed a dedicated heater transformer for the tube heater pins rather than requiring the single transformer from the kit to do all the work. 

An earlier version of the unit before the heater transformer was added

The whole unit is a work of art and has great personality. Despite being Steampunk, there were unique choices. For one much of the copper and brass is shiny and polished vs. aged/scuffed. I think it's great to not force yourself into one line of thinking; make it unique, make it you! Now Greg might have to make a pair of headphones that look equally amazing.    

For more steampunk related audio gear, check out this post.

Creator's Bio: Greg Ritacco started mis-wiring audio kits in the 1980's. Gradually fire became smoke and smoke became music. Encouraged by this, Greg briefly pursued a career in audio, first building speakers and later working for Threshold in the "lab". Family pressures and a desire to have his own back yard caused Greg to become more "serious" about his career, and as audio became the stepchild to home theater, and CD's washed vinyl away, Greg gave up and bought a Walkman. These days, he has rekindled his love of LP's and exploding electronics, built a few projects, and he and his daughter share their discoveries of new artists.

Please remember that building/modifying circuits can be dangerous to you and/or your surroundings and should only be performed by a certified technician. The owner of this blog and all associated parties can not / will not be held responsible if you attempt a build or modification posted above and cause physical harm to yourself or your surroundings. Many electronics contain high voltages that can kill, and mods, if performed improperly, can be a fire hazard. 

Overnight Sensation DIY Speaker Kit Assembly Step by Step

In this post I’ll be building Paul Carmody’s Overnight Sensation DIY speakers from a kit. The Overnight Sensations are an extremely popular DIY bookshelf speaker for a few different reasons. One, cost; they are a mere $120-140 a pair at the time of this writing. Two, they sound great. It’s hard for me to recall hearing such dynamic sound from a diminutively sized form factor. Three, the build is super easy. If you have some basic tools and know how to solder, you’re all set. This post is going to be written for a beginner in mind, so if you are already experienced feel free to skip along.

There are three places I know of to get a kit. Partsexpress which includes the full kit with wood panel flatpack and accessories, MeniscusAudio which does not include the flatpack but comes with tweeters with screw-in frames, which I feel is preferable should one need to replace them down the line, and DIY Sound Group, which appears to have a similar kit to Partsexpress.

A typical Overnight Sensation kit

What will you need besides the kits? Each one is a little different, so pay attention to the parts list, but you will likely also need a set of binding posts, 5/8” black wood screws, sandpaper, wood glue, wood filler, and solder. Optionally, you will also want sealing caulk, polyfill or similar solution, and either paint or staining supplies depending on how you’d like to finish the speaker. Tools you will need include bar clamps (or trigger clamps), soldering iron, electric sander, and a power drill.

If you don’t already own clamps, they are going to be a bit of an investment. You ideally need 6 or so and they run about $15 each, so potentially check with a friend to borrow a set if that’s a problem. If you decide to buy a set, get a couple that are longer than you need as well so they’ll be around when you go to make a bigger speaker later 😉   

If you purchase a unit with a flat pack, the wood will be trimmed for easy assembly. You will simply add wood glue between the joints, clamp the enclosure together, and wipe away any excess wood glue with a wet paper towel. Ideally you will leave one side open so you can finalize the internals before sealing it up. Some people also prefer to only screw-in the rear panel with a few modifications, that way you can get in there later if need be. If you follow this route, be sure to find a good solution to seal the edges so only the port is allowing air out of the chamber. Some people also like to mount the crossovers outside so they can modify them later. If that floats your boat, the world is your oyster.

For my assembly, I found a set of crossover PCBs on eBay which I believe are made by DIYSoundGroup. They are very reasonable, and I highly recommend them as they make things so much faster and easier than drawing out the arrangement from the schematic, figuring out a good layout, gluing the parts in place and then wiring everything point to point. 

PCB Crossover for Overnight Sensations

Populated Crossover

That being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with going that way, and you have more freedom to use larger caps if desired. Some will also say point to point sounds better than going through PCB traces, but that subject is better left for squabbling on audio forums somewhere.   

For my build I chose to assemble the crossover first and mount the PCB on the bottom panel. The Dayton caps are solid and work perfectly well here. I prefer Mills wirewound over sandcast resistors, they're worth the extra if you can swing it, and I had a pair of surplus Mundorf capacitors for the 0.22uF position, but sticking with all Dayton caps is fine too. This is a budget build so you won't get too much yield from bumping up the parts quality. The interior of the other panels is adorned with Dynamat-like sheets for internal damping. There are plenty of brands out there at different price points, but try to get thicker ones for the purpose of adding mass. I personally like to use a staple gun to really keep the sheets on there. Not necessary, but low cost insurance they won't move. It’s important to not completely cover the panels as wood glue, then later caulk will be used to ensure all the corners of the cabinets are sealed. 

Once the panels are all prepped, then they can be glued and clamped. The low-cost Titebond wood glue in the red and clear bottle works well and is inexpensive. For clamps, generally I like to leave them on overnight while the wood glue completely dries, however with most brands you can disassemble after about a half hour or so, so long as you aren’t putting any pressure on the panels.

The more clamps the better!

I left off the front baffle so I could get my hands in for the removal of excess glue and caulking of the corners. The binding posts I’m using are Partsexpress’ gold heavy duty ones along with the nice-looking mounting plates. Normally I use Cardas copper billet posts however this is a more affordable build, so I wanted to keep it that way. Most binding posts are gold plated brass so will sound pretty similar; however, you don’t want anything flimsy that will fail overtime or loosen up inside as once the speaker is sealed. Once it is, you’ll have trouble getting back in there to fix anything.

Partsexpress Heavy Posts

Measure before drilling as the plate takes up some real-estate.

Also, while the speaker is still open, I ran wiring from the PCB to the areas where the drivers and binding posts will be. Again, it’s important to get the lengths and connections right as it will be difficult to access later. You don’t need thick wire as the lengths are going to be short so the resistance is minimal. I used 19 gauge for the tweeter and 16 gauge for the woofer and binding posts.

Wires running from the PCB

Note placement of damping sheets

When everything is ready inside, the front baffle can be glued and clamped in place. 

Once dry, now is a good time to sand where the panels meet to ensure the transitions are smooth. Start with rougher grade sandpaper (60-80 grit) and working your way up. Using finer than 100 grit can sometimes cause issues with this type of wood taking stain, so consult the kit manufacturer if you are staining the wood. There will be small gaps in some cases where the wood touches. This is fine and can be fixed by using wood filler. There are plenty of varieties out there like Elmer’s, Minwax, DAP, etc. and all work well, but if you are staining, you will want a stainable filler.

Sanded down after filler has been added to gaps

Given I hardly have time for personal projects these days, getting the finish done quickly is a major boon. I like to use a product called Duratex from Acry-tech. This is a paint that’s similar to truck bed liner and covers up any surface imperfections with a texture. It dries quickly (about 3 hours) and provides a durable finish. Two to three coats are all that is needed and there is no sanding required between coats. Because these speakers will be in my workroom, there isn’t much point in giving the speakers a museum grade finish, but the Duratex looks nice and is very serviceable. You can either buy Duratex from Partsexpress or directly. Custom colors are available direct, like this nice bright orange.     

Speakers with a few layers of orange Duratex coating

If you’d like to add internal fill, now is the time to do it. I used two handfuls of fluffed Acoustastuf per speaker. The drivers can now be soldered in and placed. The HiVi mid-drivers come with foam surrounds that stick in place, be sure to use these for a good seal. The tweeters will require a little bit of effort to do right and should be handled carefully. First, if any paint or stain ended up in the cavity for the tweeter, you may need to lightly sand to ensure clearance as the fit is very tight. The tweeters do not include a foam surround so a very thin layer of caulk should be placed between them and the wood cabinet to create a seal. On the back the binding posts can be soldered and the plate can be drilled in place.

Drivers soldered in place

Finally, we can plug them in and have a listen. Most speakers have a little bit of burn-in time where the drivers settle in. This is highly dependent on the driver. I found the Overnight Sensations didn’t need much time at all to sound great. The sound is fun and large, full, and on the warm side, but there is a good amount of detail. Given the cost, these are insanely good. Despite a sensitivity rating of 83/dB, they are sensitive enough to get quite loud with my Dynaco ST-35 running in either 17.5 watts per channel push-pull or ~9 watts triode mode in a smallish room.

At the end of the day, there are plenty of great sounding speaker kits out there, and many will sound better than the Overnight Sensations, however I think the price-to-performance ratio and ease of the build makes them a tremendous introduction to first time speaker builders who are looking to get their feet wet in the space. If you’re looking to add some handmade speaker cables, try out some silver-plated PTFE surplus wire, it’s a nice value. 

As always, thanks very much for checking out the blog. If you are looking for custom audio cables, headphone cables, and line or headphone switchers, please check out Zynsonix.com. Until next time!