Video Intro:

Summary:

I wanted to create an innovative way to reuse a water bottle and I needed a set of portable speakers for my ipod so it seemed like a marriage made in heaven. In this instructable I will walk you through how to build a set of Water Bottle Mobile Speakers that easily fit into any cup holder, backpack, or bottle holder on your bike to help take your tunes on the go. It is my first instructable so any commentary and or suggestions are welcome.

Parts List:
-one water bottle (arrowhead brand in this case)
-portable speakers purchased from CVS for $14.95 (had a set from before but these fell out of my backpack when i was riding my bike breaking the plastic, so I needed a new case anyways)
-8 x 1 inches of Velcro
-8 x 1 inches of Aluminum sheet metal
-2 regular playdough container tops (PLAY-DOH brand in this case)
-cord from cheap earphones (one that contains 4 strands of enamel wire)
-4 AAA batteries
-paint (optional)

Tools:
-soldering iron
-modeling knife
-scissors
-hot glue gun
-paint bush (optional)
-dremel tool

Step 1: Disassembly

-cut your waterbottle in half with the modeling knife

-take apart your portable speakers without damaging any of the electronics inside. If you have to cut a please make you sure label it to recall where it was connected.

-pull the tops off of two playdough containers

Step 2: More Disassembly:

-Unsolder the speakers/battery box while documenting or noting the connections

-Place a speaker on the underside of the playdough top and mark the size, and then cut out a slightly smaller circle with the modeling knife.

-Cut down the battery holder to a small enough size that fits in the bottle with the dremel tool

Step 3: Let's Put It Together

-place the speakers on the underside of the playdough tops and use the hot glue gun to fasten them down centered over the hole you created in step 2

-drill a small hole through the playdough tops and feed the headphone cord through

-place the circuit board in the inside of the bottle and move the controls towards the top. When the board is placed toward the plastic outline the controls with a marker and then use your modeling knife to cut out the plastic until your board controls come through the plastic.

Step 4: Time to Start Up the Soldering Iron

-solder the speaker leads to two of the enamel wires in the cord (use hot glue to reinforce the connection of the cord to the speaker)

-solder the battery holder leads to two of the enamel wires in the cord (use hot glue to reinforce the connection of the cord to the battery holder)

-solder the 2 speaker leads from the cord to the speaker leads on the board

-solder the 2 battery leads to the battery leads on the board

-turn on your speakers to make sure all of your soldering connections were correct and everything is working properly.

Step 5: It Is Coming Together

-glue the board into the slot you just cut out of the water bottle in step 3

-glue the battery holder into the bottom of the halved bottle

-now snap the playdough tops onto their corresponding bottle ends

Step 6: Making It Stand

-cut one side of a Velcro strip in half horizontally and attach it to the rim of the playdough tops so that they butt up to each other.

-take the other side of the Velcro strip and cut it in half vertically

-take your aluminum strip and cut it in half vertically and attach the Velcro. You can then cut out a small bit of Velcro (same as the underside) and attach it to the other side of the aluminum to give the bottle somewhere to mount when you pull the stands off.

-bend your stands and connect the two bottle halves (pretty much done here, but you can go onto step 7 visual upgrades)

Step 7: Make It Look the Part

This step is up to you. I just painted mine and added informative labels to explain the controls. I took it pretty basic. You can do whatever you want with yours to make it fit your fashion and use.

I hope you found this useful and please let me know any suggestions you have to make this even better.