This is where you get to turn your pile of electronic spaghetti into a real drum machine. As said before, what you do here is up to you. Just about anything which makes a noise when hit can be used, and is where you can really transform your project into something unique to you.

I had a good rummage around my home for ideas for the drums which provided the beer bottle, can, shaker, bottle tops and spoons. The fishing net was found on the beach, and the desk bell and crocodile castanet came from eBay. I found a broken up piano in a skip, this provided the hammers for the bottle and can, along with wooden dowling to hold the bell in place and metal rods to pivot and hold the spoons in place.

I made each drum a standalone component, so if one breaks or I am not happy with it, I can switch it out with another without too much fuss.

The solenoids come with bolt holes requiring M3 bolts. Drilling the holes into the wood was a bit tricky as you have to get the positioning just right, but found holding the solenoid in position then marking the holes with a bradawl before drilling worked well.

I mostly used 6mm MDF (offcuts from my local DIY shop) for the drums along a few bits of scrap wood, held together with either glue or screws.

The hammers on the can and beer bottle are probably unnecessary, as you could get just a good hit straight from the solenoid, but I wanted to get as much movement in the machine as possible to make it visually interesting.

Housing

The housing is a simple rough and ready box made from 3.6mm plywood, 18mm MDF and some stripwood. I wanted thin plywood for the front of the box so it would resonate when hit with a spoon, but the wood choices were mainly driven by what I already had in the shed and the scrap wood section in my local DIY shop. I made a platform at the bottom of the box to keep the electronics, and another platform to hold the drums. To make the box:

1. Cut 2 equal sizes of MDF to make the ends

2. Cut 4 pieces of stripwood (I used 34mm x 12mm) 50mm shorter than the desired width of the box

3. Nail the stripwood to the 2 MDF ends to form the box shape. Put the stripwood about 1 cm away from the top and the bottom of the box.

4. Cut 2 pieces of plywood to match the width and height of the box. Attach these to the front and back of the box by nailing to the mdf and stripwood.

5. Cut a pice of plywood to fit inside the box and place on the bottom pieces of stripwood to hold the electronics. I made mine about half the length of the box.

6. Cut another piece of plywood to attach the drums to. This sits on the top pieces of stripwood.

7. Cut a hole near the bottom platform to feed the power cables through.

Painting

To paint, I used Acrylic Primer Undercoat followed by Crown Matt tester pots. The tester pots are a good way to get a variety of colours at a cheap price.