The Can Can?

They say that life turns on a coin and you can never be sure where you're going to be and what you're going to be doing next year or even next week.

Sometimes I find myself doing things I never imagined I would such as owning a Classic Car or becoming a DJ at the age of 49! Or building Vintage Bluetooth Speakers! Like a lot of things in life, it's just how things happen.

I picked up an old can at a vintage market one day and my Wife thought I was nuts, it was beat up and rusty and when she asked me what I was going to do with it I told her I was going to make it into a Bluetooth Speaker, this only confirmed to her that I was indeed nuts because she knows that I'm not an electrician and at that time I didn't know the first thing about making anything Bluetooth, I mean is that even possible, to just make something into a Bluetooth speaker?

I have to admit when I said it I did have a few ideas, none of which would ever work as it turned out. So I started researching the technology required to make my can sing!!

After a few failed attempts and a few tweaks I managed to get all the components I needed built into the can and it worked, I think I was more surprised than anyone else at just how well it worked.

It was then that I thought about trying to bring an old Stella Radio, that had been given to us a couple of years earlier and after giving up trying to get it to work it had just sat on the shelf for decoration, back to life.

Using the same components as I had used for the can,

except instead of using old second hand speakers I used the original speaker that was still in good working condition, I set about retrofitting my old Stella.

After removing the back and seeing about 50 years worth of dirt and dust I realised I was going to have to clean it completely. As you can see it was worth all the work that went into it.

Our sorry looking Stella now looked good as new and with the Bluetooth fitted sounded as good as new.

That was it, I was hooked. I managed to pick up a few more radios, and the odd rusty old can! gave them the same treatment and found them new homes.

As we run a 50s clothing and accessories stall we were always out visiting Flea Markets and Antiques fairs, quite often we would see an old radio and both comment on how nice they looked, even the modern "retro" styled radios don't have that flare and style as the originals, but we used to just leave them there saying "I wish I could think of something I could do with them" Well we rarely pass one by now without taking it home unless it's badly damaged, some things aren't so easy to fix.

I was getting lots of good feedback from people at shows saying what a great idea it was, taking something that had seen better days bringing them up to date and usable as well as looking very cool.

Not so nuts now!!