[TopPop]

I apologize that this is a repost from an earlier thread I started in the Portable forum, but I've very curious about this, and I'm finding very little information in the archives.

I have a friend who is an audiologist, and I asked her the other day how much it would cost to have her do ear impressions for me, just out of curiosity.

Her answer has now made me much more curious...

I'm wondering if I would be able to make a mold of the impressions, and then pour in my own material to make tips for my RE0. I imagine the mold would be easy to make with plaster, and then I could make several pairs of tips to experiment with what diameter/angle works best for drilling a sound tube. Is there another material I should use instead of plaster?


So, a few questions:

-What type of material do you think would work best for the mold and for the sleeves themselves, and where can I find it? I'm wondering if there's some sort of rubber I can buy at the local hobby store, or something.

-Has anyone actually done this yet? How did you fare with the endeavor? Any "tips" on how to properly make the mold/tips? If you have any pictures of the mold and/or the sleeves, I would be extremely grateful if you would post them!

-How in the world do you make the friggin' sound tube??

 

[Bilavideo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TopPop /img/forum/go_quote.gif I apologize that this is a repost from an earlier thread I started in the Portable forum, but I've very curious about this, and I'm finding very little information in the archives. I have a friend who is an audiologist, and I asked her the other day how much it would cost to have her do ear impressions for me, just out of curiosity. Her answer has now made me much more curious... I'm wondering if I would be able to make a mold of the impressions, and then pour in my own material to make tips for my RE0. I imagine the mold would be easy to make with plaster, and then I could make several pairs of tips to experiment with what diameter/angle works best for drilling a sound tube. Is there another material I should use instead of plaster? So, a few questions: -What type of material do you think would work best for the mold and for the sleeves themselves, and where can I find it? I'm wondering if there's some sort of rubber I can buy at the local hobby store, or something. -Has anyone actually done this yet? How did you fare with the endeavor? Any "tips" on how to properly make the mold/tips? If you have any pictures of the mold and/or the sleeves, I would be extremely grateful if you would post them! -How in the world do you make the friggin' sound tube??

I'm no expert, just somebody with a similar interests. Over on the DIY forum, there's a discussion going on - right now - about how to make the earmolds.

The customs you hear so much about are mostly made with acrylic plastic. As you probably know, impressions are made with foamy material (harmless goo that hardens to a foam impression within minutes). When the impressions are sent in, customs manufacturers use a variety of methods to create a mold from that impression. The high-tech way to do it involves a plastic-injection machine with a "plastic copier." There are machines that use lasers to take 3-D impressions from the foamy impressions sent in. These become CAD-like renderings of the object, which are then used to tell the machine how to make a plastic molding from the specs provided.

The low-tech, kitchen-sink method is to take that same foamy impression and use it to make a silicone-rubber mold. The mold can then be used when you mix acrylic resin with a hardener to create a molded facsimile of the form, but one made out of acrylic plastic.

I'm not a big plastic-mold guy, so I've had to psyche myself up to fabricating plastic, even though I did something like this when I worked as a fabricator for Owens Corning. The materials involved are pungent, toxic and fumy, requiring good gloves, plenty of ventilation and a willingness to learn from your mistakes (Don't forget the safety goggles). Because I have a four-year-old who gets into everything, I've been slow to commit but I'm getting tired of sitting on the sidelines. Great drivers are available for reasonable prices. Soldering may be tricky but it's feasible. It's a thing that needs to be done.

One choice I've been looking into is carbon fiber, which comes in strips that have to be laminated by a similar resin/hardener mix. What I liked about carbon fiber is the relative ease of molding the strips to create matching parts that can be fitted together as a pair. I'd like to have shells that can be reopened for adjustments.

There's a kid who, a few years ago, skipped the "ear impression" step and went straight to epoxy. He made a ball of epoxy, with the hardener mixed in, and popped the composite into each ear. Having prepared his ears with an oily release, and using a slow-hardening formula, he was able to safely create hard epoxy shells, which he then wired up to create his own cool customs. He later went back and created acrylic shells, but when he did, he went with rubber molds (He wasn't going to let acrylic cure in his ears). His results were quite good.

 

[TopPop]

Thanks so much for your help, Bilavideo! And thank you for your response on the first thread, as well.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilavideo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm no expert, just somebody with a similar interests. Over on the DIY forum, there's a discussion going on - right now - about how to make the earmolds.

Is that a separate forum from this one? I posted here because I thought this was the DIY forum.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilavideo /img/forum/go_quote.gif The high-tech way to do it involves a plastic-injection machine with a "plastic copier." There are machines that use lasers to take 3-D impressions from the foamy impressions sent in. These become CAD-like renderings of the object, which are then used to tell the machine how to make a plastic molding from the specs provided.

I actually have one of these that I can have access to at my university, believe it or not. I'd doubt they'd let me use it for something like this, though! lol


Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilavideo /img/forum/go_quote.gif The low-tech, kitchen-sink method is to take that same foamy impression and use it to make a silicone-rubber mold. The mold can then be used when you mix acrylic resin with a hardener to create a molded facsimile of the form, but one made out of acrylic plastic.

This seems more manageable. Where might I be able to buy these materials?


Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilavideo /img/forum/go_quote.gif One choice I've been looking into is carbon fiber, which comes in strips that have to be laminated by a similar resin/hardener mix. What I liked about carbon fiber is the relative ease of molding the strips to create matching parts that can be fitted together as a pair. I'd like to have shells that can be reopened for adjustments.

I've read about this, but I'm still unclear as to how this actually works, to be honest. It comes in "strips"? Do you lay the strips into the two half-molds?


Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilavideo /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's a kid who, a few years ago, skipped the "ear impression" step and went straight to epoxy. He made a ball of epoxy, with the hardener mixed in, and popped the composite into each ear. Having prepared his ears with an oily release, and using a slow-hardening formula, he was able to safely create hard epoxy shells, which he then wired up to create his own cool customs. He later went back and created acrylic shells, but when he did, he went with rubber molds (He wasn't going to let acrylic cure in his ears). His results were quite good.

Sounds incredibly dangerous. No thanks! lol I can get the impressions done for free by a professional, so I think I'll take advantage of that.


Also, any thoughts on how to make the sound tube? Drill the tube after the material is hardened? Put in a small tube to be remove once the material has hardened?

 

[Lou Erickson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TopPop /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've read about this, but I'm still unclear as to how this actually works, to be honest. It comes in "strips"? Do you lay the strips into the two half-molds?

For this, I'd make a positive mold, and lay the carbon fiber over it, but a negative mold can work too. It's a flexible material which hardens once it is exposed to it's resin. It's more like fiberglass than epoxy.

MAKE Magazine showed how to work with carbon fiber in issue 09, p165. (It is at makezine.com: Working with Carbon Fiber if you have the digital version.) The introduction page also features some lovely vintage Koss headphones.

 

[TopPop]

Thanks to both of you, seriously. Thanks a lot.

Any other thoughts/ideas/opinions/tips/etc. ?

 

[TopPop]

Just a comment here... not being impatient, by any means... just an observation/quandary:


It seems that not many people have any opinions or experience on making custom IEM sleeves. If this is the case, I'm very surprised. I find next to nothing in the forum archives, and this thread isn't really seeing much discussion.

Why is this not a popular DIY topic? It seems that people would be all over this! It seems relatively easy to do, and the cost/benefit would be very high, especially considering the price of commercial custom sleeves... and those seem to be selling quite well!

Is there some sort of inhibitive factor in making custom IEM sleeves that I'm failing to recognize here?