BTW, since many of us are using Knowles dampers with the Audiosense earphones, I wanted to share how I made my own damper tool in case anyone would like to save money and make their own.
While the official tool is nice...
...I don’t like buying something I can make for free. Plus it gives me purpose
I looked through a box of random nuts/bolts/screws I had, and was able to find one that screwed perfectly into the Knowles dampers.
The screw wasn’t long enough to be able to get a good grip on it though, so I wanted a way to add a handle to make it easier to hold and use. I removed the push button top from an old broken clicky pen I had. It looks
similar to this one:
I then drilled a tiny pilot hole in the center and screwed the screw into the inside of the button, so that the screw poked out the other side.
Next, I sanded the sharp point from the bottom of the screw, so it does not tear the fragile filter inside the dampers. This is very important, because if you look at the official damper removal tool, it has a smooth rounded bottom for this same reason.
Here’s what I had so far:
Finally, I took a touch screen pen that no longer worked because the rubber nub was torn (you know, one of those really POS dollar store ones). I ripped out the remaining rubber tip and jammed in the pen tip portion. It was a tight fit, so no glue needed.
Here’s the final result:
Total cost, $0.
Total time, ~10 minutes.
FYI, some sellers are selling M1.7 taps as knowles tools, but when I tested my own M1.7 tap, I did not like the fit. Also, being tool steel with a cutting surface, it has the capability to wear or damage the knowles dampers with repeated use. If I was to use my own M1.7 tap as a tool, I still would have had to grind the end flat as well as make some sort of handle (as it’s hard to hold a tiny M1.7 tap). My tool works better and is safer to use than a tap.
