Introduction: Mic Shock Mount and Pop Filter Using Quilting Hoops

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I have seen many nice shock mounts and pop filter DIY designs, but not both together. Many of the PVC designs take  a lot of time and some stuff I don't have like 2" hole saws and drill presses. Tooling the PVC also is time consuming. So my design goals were build with a hand drill, a hack saw, and a minimum of work.

That the quilting hoops come in many sizes, wood and plastic in colors is also a real benefit. Because of this, the design is easily adaptable to smaller and larger mics without different tools. As long as the hoops are the same size, it will work.

Step 1: Items Needed

One of the primary goals was to cut down production time and tools needed. The other was cost, as I will be building many of these. 

Tools:

Hack saw
File
Drill with 1/8", 9/16" and optionally a 1/16"  drill bits 
Needle nose pliers
Razor blade knife

Consumables:

Paint Stirrer (Free from Home Depot)
Quilting Hoops 4" ($2.50 each at JoAnn's Fabrics)
Hair pony tail holders ($1 at Dollar Store)
Mesh Fabric for Pop Filter ( $2 at JoAnns Fabrics)
Optional Screw Eyes #216-1/2" ($2 at Home Depot)
Super Glue ($1 at Dollar Store)
Mic Holder. (I had many of these already)

Jo Ann's has a pretty nice selection of fabrics for the pop filter and will sell 1/8th of a yard and they have the quilting hoops also. For the fabric you want a shear nylon that stretches in both direction. I took a professionally made pop filter in the store and the nice lady went right to the matching fabric.

The pony tail bands come in several sizes. You can get them in more sizes at a big beauty supply box store. The dollar store had 3, 4, and 8 inch versions.






Step 2: Mount

The mount is a paint stir stick cut to length. I used one of the 5 gallon bucket stir sticks and there is a lot left over. You might you need  a few tries to get it right.  One way to get the holes to line up perfectly is to drill a few in the waste of the stir stick and use it as a template. To drill the holes, lay the microphone next to it and see where you want the elastic bands to rest on the body of your mic.

Holding the hoops on the top, mark your holes for the hoop tighten screws and drill the 1/8" holes.  Slip the mic stand mount over the bottom rail and mark then drill with the 9/16 bit for the mic clip pivot point.




Step 3: Test the Fit

Because the paint sticks vary in thickness there will need to be some test fittings. If the wood is narrower that the hoop retaining rings screw gap, you might need to cut the inner ring and file it down to reduce the circumference. Use the file to fine tune the size of the inner ring in respect to the outer ring when tightened fully.

The rear facing picture shows the cut in the inner hoop, which was super glued back together.

Step 4: Pop Filter

The pop filter is constructed by using a inner hoop that is cut and shortened. You will need several test fittings to fine tune the amount needed to be taken out  to shorten the inner ring with the fabric installed.  Super glue the ring back together and let is set for a few minutes until fully dried.

Stretch the fabric over the ring so the the waste is on the flange side of the ring. The flange side allows the ring only to be inserted into the outer hoop in once direction only.  Wadding it up and twisted the excess with one fist, until it was snare drum tight. Spin the ring  slowly while applying the super glue as far back from the face and close to the flange as possible, as it will wick into the fabric. If you need to take a second shot at it, super glue cleans up nicely with acetone.

Give some time for it to dry and remember, a little super glue is a lot. You might try using some super glue on some scrap fabric before applying it to the production piece to understand just how much glue to apply.

Using a single sided razor blade,  cut back the waste until the fabric is off the lip of the flange and all resting on the outside ring of the inner hoop.

Step 5: Optional Steps

You can just loop the hair bands around the hoops as many other designs have shown. I decided that with the heavy large diaphragm mic we were using and  with aesthetics in mind, that adding the screw eyes was simple and cheap.

Mark the positions around the outer rings at 90 degree intervals and drill the pilot holes from the outside in with the hoops tightened over the stir stick so they will align. You can see the silver magic marker I used to show the drill spots. 

Inserting the eyelets is done using the pilot holes from the inside. I used a small Allen wrench to turn them in. Once in, use the needle nose pliers to open the eyelets up so the elastic bands could go on. Once the mic is all adjusted, use the pliers to close the eyelets.

The other optional step was to cut the extra thread off the knurled knobs using the hack saw. Do so against the knob while it is on the machine screw so when you unscrew it, the knob will clean the threads and you don't have to use a tap and die kit. Use the file to sand them flush. 

After the pictures were taken, the decision was  to spray paint the friction knobs black. Seemed to make it look better. Black eyelets would probably help also.

Step 6: Conclusion

This was a pretty easy build and not a whole lot can go wrong. The only thing that needs improvement would be something that looks better than a stir stick.  I'm sure someone will have a better idea how to make this look a bit more professional. Maybe a 3D printed design someone wants to post on ShapeWays?