Altoids Speakers!

If you want to hear music in bed but don't want to fall asleep and get choked by the 'phones or 'buds, here are some mini speakers for you.

I warn you the sound isn't great but it's pretty good for an altoids tin. Besides, if it's quiet in your room it's good enough.

Supplies:
*Regular size altoids tin(1.76 oz)
*Headphones you won't want back(cheap ones)
*felt(for the inside of the tin)
*small paperclip
*Scissors or other cutting tool(optional, but recommended)
*Foam adhesive(better and neater than tape)
*Glue

Step 1 Headphone surgery

Take your cheapo headphones. I'm sorry i couldn't provide a picture, but it's fairly simple. Take the soft pads of the earphones(keep 'em for later). Then use pliers to remove them from the head set. The 'phones usually are latched in. The latches must be broken, but they are plastic so it's easy. Wear goggles in case the plastic breaks off and hits you in the face. Safety first right? After this step you will have the "speakers" and the earpads. Throw away the headband part.

I finished this before the instructable, so I am showing you the finished version. You can get the idea either way. Hope it's not confusing. This is my first instructable so comment.

Comments

[Father Christmas]

this is less effective than just turning the headphone volume to max...

[Guitarmanandy]

BAH HUMBUG!!

[kroq-gar78]

look up altoids tin speaker. it already has an amplification circuit in it, and just plug a male to male audio cable into the output source and tin. i, also, have found that earphones or headphones are much more efficient at volume, or at lest they produce more sound with the same power (that's how it is for me with a lot of things)

[notoriouss]

Lol, i like how they call them "Male" and "Female" parts, cuz the male component goes in the female one XP

[Father Christmas]

well, I think that depends on the headphones in use. I have a pair of extremely poor quality headphones that are better called speakers. At a maximum volume setting, they sound much better than otherwise.

[Derek Vigil]

What I did with mine was put the speakers on the bottom part of the can so that the wires didnt bend or anything. Thanks, this instructable did help.

[sjoobbani]

 if you take EARBUDS and put them into a PVC tube, might need some cutting, get 1/2 INCH kind, and then you have super loud stuff, BUT YOU NEED to experiment with lenght, depending on ur general music type to get rite, because it WILL screw the sound if YOU DON't.
Sorry CAPS lOck kEy is beinG reaLLY WEIRD

[Atlas22]

this rocks!

[Chikara]

it is "Curiously Musical"

[rayleee]

you should turn the speakers around because this will stop the sound from being absorbed by the can

[spikelea]

I have made it and find that it is a pretty good idea. it produces about as much sound as iphone speakers, but is a great accessory to carry with an ipod

[socool1998]

why do we need to put felt

[iwant2lern]

cause without the felt the can will vibrate and make the sound sound crappy. so with the felt it kinda of acts like a sound absorber and makes the sound sound cleaner =)

[Wafflicious]

looks better

[fireruler12]

i did it and i didn't hear it barely.

[fatfoohy]

i did a similar on but i wound the cords up in the bottom and just drilled a hole in the side of the can and put the jack out there. its alot easier and less messy

[quesoman]

couldn't you cut holes the size of the eatrphones in the top of the tin so you could have it all the way closed and still get good sound???

[kimball100]

I like the idea of them being in the tin because it is small and can fit in to your pocket

[Sk8erCk4Life]

DUDE alsome instructable. I tried it but instead put one bigger speaker in there and taking a twenty foot wire and hooking the audio plug up to it and add a battery in there so that it will have enough energy to go through the cord.

[fearme36]

mmm... mint flavored music... yum

[fuzzy29]

"And for all those who think "why don't I just buy a speaker system?" Ok I know this doesn't get great sound. Come on. It's just cool to make." I agree. The main idea of these sort of things is to enjoy building them. :) Great idea with the paperclip.

[dvnfntn]

pretty cool idea dude

[MisterMissanthrope]

i think its a good idea all in all, sure like people said it could be worked out more but thats nothing, you did a great job, and its very interesting, but what i would do is either build a retracter, or get those headphones with a retractor. The only problem with my idea is that i think the only ones with retractors are buds, and im questioning the sound output of buds. Anyway just what im thinking

[Tmbo17932]

Can i use ipod earphones instead of those big things?

[Derin]

i think so but you are then willing to solder to thin and shielded wires

[dz0004455]

I made a similar thing a while ago, but I used some speakers from an old laptop, it was WAY to quiet, but I never thought to use it to go to sleep to... By the way, don't try to drill holes in an altoids box, it doen't work that well without very much effort, and this is supposed to be easy. Cutting the box like you did is a much better strategy!

[TheMoonMaster]

I made this but with two differences. I used and icebreakers case because I didnt have any altoids and two I used the cheap earBUDS that came with my cd player. The're way louder.

[fire bat]

dude this is soooooooo cool

[sajada]

This is an awesome instructable guy. You dont have to keep apologizing, it deserves better.

[yodasoda6]

Thanks for the comments. I agree, but I didn't have a computer speaker. Thanks, I'll try it. And cutting the hole for the wires is so they can stick out when the tin is closed.

[GorillazMiko]

A nice idea I guess. I was just going to say most of the stuff Firebert010 said, but in a different way though... nice job, it's a good idea kind of.

[Firebert010]

I'm not so sure about this one. It's a decent effort, but taking out the speaker from a computer speaker and putting a plastic cup over it would produce a better result, especially because you can get old computer speakers anywhere. Decent 'Ible, but the idea is lacking.

[xtank5]

Isn't cutting a hole for the wires to go through kinda redundant? Seeming as how you prop open the tin anyway you wouldn't need to put the wires through that hole. Other than that, nice work. I might make one of these from some of those free Air Canada earphones they give out on every flight. (I have tons of 'em)