Make a Real Working Speaker for Under $1.00!

Here's how to make a real working paper plate speaker for under $1.00!

Step 1: Watch the Video!

Comments

[m.m.m]

and sometimes we should sand paper the connections of the wire for troubleshooting.

[vibil]

cool

[The King of Random]

Thanks!

[deepak199527]

madarhod

[The King of Random]

Did you mean madarchod?

[farmerboyk]

In the video at 3:59, your FINGER is releasing fire. Magic!

[The King of Random]

Haha nice :)

[kbryson]

DUDE, totally put the goo on the plate and see what happens!!!

[The King of Random]

Haha, I like how you think!!

[indigo401]

If you hook LEDS up directly to the speaker NOT the speaker wire coming out of the receiver they will flash with the bass it's really neat you should try it

[The King of Random]

Nice .. I've been meaning to try that!

[tcollinsworth]

Great fun and awesome educational experience!!!

Just spent the last couple hours building a couple mid-range and base speakers with the wife and kids. Used small bowls for the mid-ranges and a large plate for the base. We have an old boombox with an equalizer and were able to easily test the frequency range of each. They worked beautifully. My 11 year old son is now building a tweeter out of a paper cup.

Spent the first hour taking apart a broken wall wart transformer plates to unwind the magnet wire. In the end we use only the larger magnet wire and spools I already had. It isn't worth the effort to salvage wire - way too much work and risk of injuring yourself. It was educational though.

[The King of Random]

Thanks for your great feedback! What inspired your awesome project, and will you have a video showing the result and the frequency range tests?

I'm curious to know what magnets you used as well?

Thanks again :D

[tcollinsworth]

I saw it on the weekly Instructables email and thought it would be fun to do with the kids as a family project. Sorry, no video this time. Nothing astounding on the frequency reproduction, The larger plate had good base (nice at reproducing the deep drums) but not very good at higher frequencies. The medium sized bowls had good medium freq' reproduction, but not too good on the deep base or higher twangy notes. The cup was the best and appeared loudest probably because it has more directionality.

The magnets were mostly of the black polished shiny variety and varied in size and shape. You find them in lots of stores as cheap toys. I also had a bunch of neodymium magnets of various sizes and shapes.

We also found the speakers buzzed as they bounced on the hard surface so we put a napkin under them and fixed the issue.

[james.m.k]

The paper cup was lighter too, allowing it to travel further in each direction, also creating a louder sound.

[The King of Random]

That makes sense. A plastic cup was the first thing I ever tried, and even hooked up to an mp3 player and a week fridge magnet, I could hear sound. Thanks for your comment James!

[james.m.k]

I don't recall how old I was, but once I plugged a microphone into a headphone jack and could very clearly hear the music. Proving to myself that speakers and microphones are simmilar enough that one can be used as the other, no matter how poorly they do it.

I thought that was funny as all get-out.

[The King of Random]

Exactly right! I've also done the reverse and used a headphone as a microphone. Although the signal has to be amplified to get much of an audible result. I've been thinking about doing that as a project as well one of these days.

[The King of Random]

Mr Collinsworth, I really appreciate your detailed reply. Thanks very much for sharing your experiences!

[tcollinsworth]

The paper cup worked the best and was the quickest and easiest to build - only about 5 minutes. He used two paper cups back to back and just a couple straight pieces of file folder cut about an inch wide and 8 inches long to connect them. No accordion necessary. He also used only about 25 turns of heavy magnet wire around a stack or cheap 1/2 inch common magnets - much less than we used on all the other speakers which ranged from 50 - 200 turns.

[The nerdling]

if you still have it put as muck power through it until it melts, while playing dubstep or some bassy music, film it and upload it if you do

[The King of Random]

I plugged one of these into a wall outlet and it evaporated the wire :) And yes I got it on film.

[The nerdling]

UPLOAD

[The King of Random]

Haha maybe some day. Makes a loud bang and a lot of smoke as well just so you know.

[james.m.k]

Hah! Genius!

Reminds me of when I "made" a phonograph when I was in 2nd grade. I was curious if the grooves in records were really just sound vibrations and an analog of what the air does.

I used a turntable (I couldn't make that), a straight-pin, and aluminem (sp) foil for the speaker. Wasn't loud, but it was clear!

My mother was not amused. ^_^

[james.m.k]

But yours is better!

[The King of Random]

Very cool!

[james.m.k]

I forgot, I also placed a record needle (attached to the player) on top of foil and made a microphone! I think that was the same day! Lots of fun for a little kid!

^_^

[M.C. Langer]

Awesome!!! Thanks for sharing!

[The King of Random]

You're welcome, and thanks for checking out another project!

[M.C. Langer]

Hey, you have simple but incredibly awesome projects! You become a great source of Macgyverisms for me! :-)

[The King of Random]

I'm really glad to hear that you found some value in them! I remember how impressed I was when I saw your work, and will probably visit them again!

[M.C. Langer]

Thanks! It will be great!

[Senior Waffleman]

Add colored water and LEDs?

[stubbsonic]

To get more sound (especially bass) you need to isolate the rear from the front of the speaker motion. What happens is the forward (pressure) pulses from the front of the plate are negated by the backward (vacuum) pulses from behind the plate. Perhaps mounting the magnet directly to an enclosure and having the diaphragm (paper plate) joined to the edges of the enclosure with some very flexible material (dental dam?) but forming an air seal would improve the bass response.

[The King of Random]

Thanks for your comment! I was thinking something like a cool-whip container might work? And the lid could possibly act as the diaphragm and just push on into place. What do you think?

[basementhacker]

That is so awesome! Where do you get all the ideas for all your projects?

[The King of Random]

Thanks for asking! I first saw the concept for this in a book in a science store. It involved a screw, a plastic cup, a magnet and a wire :)