Cardboard Gramaphone Passive Speaker

Intro: Cardboard Gramaphone Passive Speaker

I’ve always loved the aesthetic of old gramophones and finally sat down and made one. It will boost the volume of your music only a little bit, but it sure looks cool!

STEP 1: Cut Out All Cardboard Pieces

Cut out all of the pieces of the SVG pattern. Add 2-3 inches to the 4 stem bits of the bell(the ones with the square ends). Add more if you want it to be taller than mine ended up being.

Lay out all the pieces of the template and cut out of cardboard. Make sure that all the pieces of both the octagonal bowl and bell are drawn on the grain of the cardboard so that they bend the way you want. The corrugated stripes are 90 degrees from the direction you want the pieces to bend. (See pictures)

STEP 2: Pre-bend and Compress Cardboard Pieces

On all the pieces for the bowl and the bell bevel the edges by compressing the side-saddle with a hard object. I used the handle for my scissors. This will make it easier to put the sides together.
Also pre-bend the curved pieces. You don’t want to have to do this while you’re taping them together. It won’t end well.

STEP 3: Make Bowl and Octagonal Base

Take the first 2 sides of the bowl and tape together starting at the longest side and working down. Repeat for all the other sides the same way. You will end up with a spiral of cardboard and will have to unwind it to tape the last side. Alternate taping the last side with taping the bottom of the bowl so that all the sides line up.
Once taped glue the inside of the bowl with a glue gun to strengthen it.
The tape the bottom and sides of the base together. Glue all inside seems. Do not attach the top yet. (my camera eat these pics sorry)

STEP 4: Score, Fold, and Glue Phone Platform to Top

Score all the fold lines with the tip of the scissors and then fold to match photos. Glue the back flaps down and then push up through the opening in the top until the flaps line up with the underside of the top. Glue down all five of the flaps on on three of the sides. (The flap on the bottom doesn’t get glued down. It just rests against the bowl once everything is glued up)

STEP 5: Put Together the Bell

Start with the center bottom piece and tape starting at the very edge of the bell working down to the base. Match up the edges the whole way down. The cardboard may fight you on this but it is possible to do. This is why you pre-bent thing earlier.
Then tape the bottom piece to the other side. Do this for the side pieces as well to end up with 5 pieces taped together. Once that’s done brace open the sides and glue along all the inside seams. Now tape the top center piece to the 2 upper side pieces and then press open and glue.
Now tape the 3 piece group and5 piece group and tape together along seems. This is the hardest part and it would be helpful to have an extra set of hands (or be an octopus)
Glue the last 2 seems in the bell and far down as your glue gun will let you and you’re done! Just square off the bottom so everything is even.

STEP 6: Putting It All Together

Slide the bowl into the base. It will be a close fit. Tape the bell to the square opening in the top and glue down. Then place top with bell onto the base and glue along all 8 sides.
And now enjoy your new cardboard gramophone!

The pattern is sized to fit an iPhone 6 Plus. The phone in the picture is and old iPhone 3.

Comments

[NSekinger]

I wanted to use this with my students, but .SVG can be tough to work with and the template sizes are kind of hard to print. I cropped them to 8 and 1/2 by 11 sized and changed them to .PDF format. This may impact how a phone fits? Thanks for the project, we are very excited to build it! (Just fixed the issue with file #6.)

[Nodel]

Wow that’s amazing! Yeah I know the template wasn’t all that great thanks for fixing it up! For it to be big enough to fit my behemoth of a phone it cut off a lot of edges when it printed.

[NSekinger]

You're welcome, thanks for sharing the project!

[Megaet]

All pdf files work, with the exception of "2B6sm". The file seems to be corrupt. Great work.

[NSekinger]

It should be fixed now. Thanks for letting me know.

[Lv5accelerator]

Phonograph+v7+Page+6sm.pdf（File corruption）

[camilaramirezap]

awsome!

[Aarvi Jian]

I wasn't able to open the SVG pages....help pls

[aylanna]

my pages wont load, the download for the svg

[mwilson2162]

I cannot seem to open the svg files, any suggestions?

[NSekinger]

I wanted to use this with my students, but .SVG can be tough to work with and the template sizes are kind of hard to print. I cropped them to 8 and 1/2 by 11 sized and changed them to .PDF format. This may impact how a phone fits? Thanks for the project, we are very excited to build it!

[marcio.g.rosa]

Thank you to share!!!

[NeilRG]

Very nice aesthetic. I could anticipate how it would improve the directionality of the phones speaker.

[OwenHe]

It's really good. It needs a little skill and patience

[attosa]

Congrats on your win! This is so cool!

[Nodel]

Thanks so much! I can’t believe how much everyone seems to like my project. I’m blown away!

[CraftAndu]

Classy!

[elizabethwebb]

Wow this is super cool. Great idea!

[Nodel]

Thank you!

[ltc1]

Hermoso,darle un acabado al cartón al gusto de uno,ya sea caoba o nogal .Beautifull.