A gramophone or funnel? Outdoor entertainment DIY

4th of July is full of entertaining, and we had plenty of family in town. We wanted to do some outdoor entertainment but quickly realized we didn’t have any convenient electrical outlets for a powered speaker.  We put this project together from a few found parts. Music from your iPhone is amplified through the base with no power necessary.

Since moving to FL I have been begging James to take me to the Restoration Hardware outlet in Vero Beach. So, finally this Thursday we went. I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to take me because he knew we would have more projects added to the list. And of course, I fell in love with this Restoration Hardware gramophone. (So, if DIY projects are not for you you can buy this gramophone by clicking the link.)

Finding project ideas is always the easy part, finding the materials for the projects – not so simple. We hit up flea markets and antique malls searching for a gramophone horn. And well, we found an antique oil funnel that actually has the same result as a gramophone for only $16. Needless to say, we were just excited to get this project started so we had to have it!

For the base we chose to use a cedar 4×4 that James had found in his Grandpa’s shop. James drew up some plans in his Field Notes and we got started.

We cut the cedar to length using a bandsaw. We decided to give the base a little something extra by adding tapered sides (also completed with the bandsaw). The cedar was rough cut so we sanded it smooth on the belt sander. If you choose a different type of wood you may not run into this issue.

Now, we had to make our holes for the iPhone dock and for the gramophone horn dock. We used a drill press for both.

After the top was cut how wanted, we had to take it off in order to add a channel through the center of the wood so that the music from the iPhone could get to the speaker.

The music channel connects the gramophone to the iPhone and was made using the drill press in a similar fashion to how the iPhone dock was created.

We used a file to smooth everything out before putting it all back together. We had planned to use wood glue to piece it back together, but due to our impatience and the fact that we didn’t have any on hand we decided to rummage through some old hardware in his Grandpa’s shop to find 4 matching rustic screws.

We predrilled and countersunk holes for the screws, so that they would sit flush with the base.

We liked the color of the cedar, but it just didn’t really look finished. So we decided to add a coat of Danish oil. The base really turned out great.

This project was so simple and very fun. It took less than 2 hours of work to put everything together and we’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it in our house! It’s a great talking piece and is a super easy way to have outdoor music when you don’t have an outlet or wifi connection.

Here are a few more detailed shots of the project! I hope you enjoyed reading the blog and as always please feel free to like, share and comment! We appreciate all the love and support!