An (almost) Entirely 3D Printed Speaker

by Mattosx

18K9915

Intro: An (almost) Entirely 3D Printed Speaker

This isn't just a mass produced speaker in a 3d printed case, but instead the speaker itself that has been 3D printed. Over complexity has been avoided to make a fun, simple, and sturdy little speaker. When connected to an Arduino, it pushes out a decent amount of volume and sound quality for its size. .STL files are included in the last step.

Materials List:

  1. Very thin magnet wire, 30+++ gauge
  2. Six 6x32 half-inch machine screws, two 6x32 nuts
  3. Three 3x12 mm neodymium magnets
  4. 3D Printer :)

How it works

Three neodymium magnets create a permanent magnetic field. When an electric current passes through the coil, it creates a temporary magnetic field of its own which attracts the permanent magnet's magnetic field. If the current tot he coil is fluctuated over sound, it cause vibration which in turn is what we perceive as sound.

STEP 1: Connect the Base or Go Simple

This speaker has two versions:

Simple version

A simple speaker box that lays flat on a table. The wire is routed out the side of the box.

Parts needed:

  • Lower speaker box (shown in blue)
  • Upper speaker box (shown in white)

Cooler version

The speaker box is attached to the base with the two machine screws and nuts. The wire will be routed out of the back of the speaker box through the white stand.

Parts needed:

  • Lower speaker box ( shown in blue)
  • Upper speaker box (shown in white)
  • Aesthetic speaker girl that goes on the upper speaker box (blue)
  • Base stand (shown in white)

STEP 2: Wrapping the Coil

  1. Leave six inches of wire at each end of the coil. You may want to use some masking tape to temporarily hold the magnet wire taut so it doesn't unravel.
  2. Wrap a few hundred times until the total resistance is above 10Ω

STEP 3: Secure the Wire

Fish the speaker wire as shown below in the first photo. Sand off the enameled wire and connect (solder if you can) the magnet wire to the speaker wire. Tuck the wires as best you can as shown in the third picture.

STEP 4: Attach the Upper Speaker Cover

Carefully add the top speaker cover and the optional cool looking speaker grill :)

STEP 5: STL Files

Files Descriptions

Everything — contains all the STL files for the fancier version

BasicSpeaker — the bare minimum to make a speaker; upper and bottom case

BlueParts — the blue pants of the speaker

WhiteParts — the white parts of the speaker

13 Comments

ssashton 5 years ago

Have you ever made a ribbon speaker? It's quite easy for DIY and a one can make a really surprising full range sound. I think you might find it fun. The only less easy part is to wind your own transformer to match the low impedance to an amplifier, but a torroid core and some wire will do the job.

Gregg E. 5 years ago

This is a good proof of concept.

For more volume and better sound, make the front much thinner so it's more flexible. Mount it to the case with rubber O rings between it and the case and between the bolt heads and the face. Make the coil form a lot thinner so the coil is much closer to the magnet. The coil should also be wound smoother.

Could print a round recess and a thick cover plate made to sandwich a round sound plate between two large O rings.

To keep with the mostly 3D printed things, print any O rings used in flexible filament.

To make it more like a regular speaker, use ring magnets that are radially magnetized with one pole inward and the other pole outward. Finding two sizes of ring magnets with opposite polarization could be difficult.

Assuming such can be found, the center stack could be held together with a bolt through their centers while the outer stack could be pressed or glued into the 3D printed case. Might not even need stacks of magnets if opposite polarized ring magnets of nesting sizes are available.

Factory made speakers use an axially magnetized ring magnet with a washer on the front and a plate with a center post on the back. That makes a radial flux field across the gap between the front washer and center post.

Some cheap speakers use an axially magnetized cylindrical magnet in a steel cup to create a gap with a radial field across it.

Mattosx 5 years ago

Many of your suggestions were considered, but I was weary of creating something overly complicated. I wanted something most people could reasonably make with standard components without having to hunt for many specific items. I had some versions of the front cover that more freely vibrated, but it did not produce any more volume and actually didn't sound as good. So in the end I went for this simple and very sturdy design.

e5frog 5 years ago

Nice, nice color selection. Apart from the parts not 3D printed it really is an "Entirely 3D Printed Speaker". Perhaps "Almost Entirely" would have been better suited.
Very nice though, I usually use blue and white for my 3D prints as well.

ptipping 5 years ago

I wanted to see how he 3D printed the magnet, and the wire loop, and the steel screws. Alas, he doesn't.

ariekaptein 5 years ago

I think that the "Everything.stl" file is your Telegraph Key, not this speaker.
In the "View in 3D" mode that is; the file itself is the speaker.
Nice work!

Mattosx 5 years ago

Thanks for the tip! The thumbnail shows the speaker, but the file is re-directing to my other instructable file. Very odd. I uploaded another "everythingSpeaker.stl" file to be sure

Arbormakes 5 years ago

How did you design all that?

It's great!

Makerneer 5 years ago

Neat instructable, thank for sharing!

Penolopy Bulnick 5 years ago

This is a really neat idea! What did you use to design it?