Introduction: Wooden Earphones Housing With Bone Cap
I bought a nice Cooler Master HC-300 in-ear headset. Cooler Master HC-300 official page.
It is really nice, comfortable, sounds good. But the cheap plastic housing is way fragile, it breakes easily without any force.
So it's an out of the box chance to create something better.
Step 1: The Situation and the Idea
So it is broken, but can be save the driver unit with its black housing. There is a little chamber on the back, I decided not to create to achieve larger inner volume. The base material is beech wood out of an old table leg and beef leg bone from a delicious soup. :) (So it's made completely out of legs. :D)
Step 2: Tools and Materials
- eye protecting glasses
- dust filter mask
- various sandpapers
- drill bits: 8mm, 2mm, 1mm
- various needle files
- nail polishing sticks
- diamond grit nail file
- small saw
- fretsaw
- rotary tool with sanding drum
- caliper
- Philips screw
- chisel
- superglue
- needle or toothpick (to apply glue)
- piece of wood
- beef leg bone
I made the plan in Sketchup (fafules.skp) and Corel Draw.
Attachments
Step 3: Apply the Template and Start Sanding
Glue on the templates with superglue. Start to raw saw. Drill thru at the center point with an 1mm drill bit to point out the center on the other side. Now You can center and glue the opposite side template simmetrically.
Step 4: Drilling the Holes
Drill the main hole from the bottom with 8mm drill bit. Measure and indicate the place of the cable then drill it with 2mm drill bit. Be careful, it must be perpendicular to the side. Start sanding the outer cone mantle and the inner side.
Step 5: Fine Work, Needle Filing
Now comes the final shaping with needle files and with the rougher nail polishing sticks. At this phase the wall thickness is 1mm and less on the bottom (cap side). The original plastic cap is wobbling, since I succeeded to make the sidewall thinner than the original ones.
Step 6: The Bone Cap
Next step is the bone cap at the bottom. I made it out of beef leg bone. It was a delicious soup, and after that came the degreasing process with boiling then soaking in lighter fluid. Good article about bone cleaning. Cut the tiny pieces with fretsaw then round with rough sandpaper.
Glue the template to the buttons with superglue, then this whole to Phillips screws. This serves as an axle to mount in the hand drill clutch. Now it's like a mini lathe, You can make the inner flange with diamond grit nail file and the concave surface with the rotary tool and a round grinding stone. Be careful, wear protective glasses! And wear a filter mask too (I forgot to mention here), thanks the reminder to NanoRobotGeek! When finished simply snap off the bone from the screw with a chisel.
Step 7: Put It Together
Now You can fine the bone caps, glue in with superglue and round it with nail polishing sticks.Then solder out the drivers from the plastic housing, put it to Your brand new wooden one, solder in and glue it together.
Step 8: End Result
Now You can enjoy Your brand new wooden earphones! It sounds better than previously with the cheap plastic housing and looks really great and feels great. You can apply some linseed or citron oil to it and finished.
If You like it please vote for it! Thank You all! :)

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44 Comments
8 years ago on Introduction
Time to hit up my hunter friends for bones and antlers so I can try all these cool carving instructables. Very professional looking final product.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Thanks DIYDragon!
Go for it and have fun!
8 years ago on Introduction
Shared this on tumblr and I favorited it for future use. I will be using your tutorial to do the same thing with antler to my buds. :)
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Wow, glad to hear it! I bet it will be nice with antler. Please show it us when You make it. :)
8 years ago on Introduction
Sweet. I like seeing consumer items made from wood, even if it is only a housing. Wood is so nice to the touch.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Thanks, I agree, definitely feels better! And in this case also sounds better.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Recent page, I'd thought you were somehow turning these on a lathe, like the way some people do coffee/measuring scoops.
I have a couple set of buds that unsurprisingly failed at the strain relief that I use to make a set like yours. It's gonna be cold and snowy here over the weekend, so maybe I have my busy work project :-)
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Finally I see how and what You mean ringai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSmBzJjq0cI
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
:-) Yeah, Carl's video taught me how to do them!
He's a great turner. His videos are good and he provides all of the information and details on how he's doing things.
Reply 8 years ago
Sadly I've no lathe, so I can do small things only with this method. But it's not really a problem for me because I enjoy to create such a tiny things.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
I turned the bone caps only. But in a next project I will try to turn the wood body too. It can be done from two truncated cone, then glued together.
Go for it and please show me, us Your project. :) I'm really curious about it! Have fun! :)
8 years ago
Wow crazy work! Looks very good! Love it
Reply 8 years ago
Thanks, I love it too. :)
8 years ago on Introduction
this is really good but it is incorrect to state that things break without any force, they will only break when an external force is applied.
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Believe me, it breaks out of the box.
There may be force from inside around the claws, and when it snapped together on the assembly line. You can see both are broken at the same place, same shape, same way. It is unlikely to brake accidentally the same way...
I found some other reports to this modell on the web with exactly the same fault.
Technically You're right.
But in this case there was nothing minimally extra force which would justify the breakage at the first use. I handle my gadgets, gears and stuffs much much more care, than the average.
Just for the specialty, I show You my 100% working (in collector grade good condition) Sony WM20 Walkman from 1983. Here I just change the driving belt.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AttilaCsongorKiss/posts/GL1XPyAGisF
8 years ago
amazing one did you try more than once
Reply 8 years ago
Thanks, this was the first try but I want to make another one out of something different wood with nicer woodgrains.
After that I want to try a different making method.
8 years ago on Introduction
this is awesome great job
Reply 8 years ago
Thanks Madman146!
8 years ago on Introduction
These are really something - well done! I'd considered doing something similar with my headphones previously, but wrote the idea off as unfeasible but I might have to revisit the idea now I've seen it done so beautifully.
(You could also scale up your design and have a nice range of pipes!)