[Cevisi]

There was a build somewhere in this thread u have to search for it

 

[et.haan]

Welcome to the first "I write about it so you don't have to waste your time and money" - Custom shell edition. I see a lot of misconceptions here, and I would like to work some of them out. No, I am not sponsored by any of these companies, but if you own one of them, feel free to PM. There is a lot of new guys here, so I figured I would post this.

First off, impressions. I like to take my own. Most people audiologists dont go past the second bend, as it isnt needed for hearing aids. Despite people on here not thinking it can, CIEM's can ABSOLUTELY be comfortable past the second bend. I write about this at the very end of this.

Please, stop giving the Earplug superstore DIY impression kit business, until they update their product. The impression material cures incredibly quick, and the oto-blocks they include are not great. You may get 1 (one) good impression from the four, even with the help of others.

I recommend the Westone Silicon singles, and the cotton otoblocks. The cotton otoblocks sit much deeper in the ear, and arent such a bear to put in. On a side note, putting it otoblocks yourself kinda sucks. You have to jam it in with a Q-tip, and hope its deep enough. As for the Westone Silicon, its great. It is much easier to work with, has a much longer cure time, and exerts enough pressure on the ear to not represent the pores inside your ear, which can be a huge issue.

As for curing them, without the (disappointing) purchase of a Earbud superstore kit, you will need a syringe. However, the do sell the syringes themselves. Wad up the material as quickly as possible. I like to roll it between my hands, so it becomes long, and then shoving it into the syringe. I dont want to type this all out, so heres a great video. Do ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING you see in this video, to a T, and you will have great impressions. (however, you can go without pushing the material deeper into your ear with your fingers. I had inconsistent results doing this.)

As for bit blocks, the farther open your mouth is, the tighter the seal of your impression is. I would say that closed-mouth impressions are not even worth a shot. Relaxing your jaw is very important. (I cant find my phone for a picture, so close your eyes and imagine this for a second) Visualize the impression in your ear, and know that when I say the "bottom of the impression" = the low part of your ear, closest to your toes. On the side of the impression that sits facing towards your eyes, there is a sharp bend, between the canal and the bottom side of your impression It twists and moves towards the bottom of your ear/jaw. The more stressed your jaw is, the more profound this line will be. Its not fun to grind off, either. I find that heavy removal of material at any part of the canal can easily ruing the seal.

As for trimming your impressions, most of what you see is right. However, on the impression, the cymba concha must be rounded out, or when it is transferred to a hard resin, it will be uncomfortable. Sand until it ends parallel to the canal. Make sure it is smooth. DO NOT CUT YOUR BASE! Cutting the part of the impression that sticks out of your ear is bad! There is no reason to cut it, and with Fotoplast, the top edge will cure with bumps that will need to be sanded out.

As for wax, wax is wax. I use the red dental wax on Amazon. A good rule of thumb, is that the hotter your wax is, the thinner the viscosity will be. Every wax has different harnesses at different temperatures, so experiment, and quit listening to other peoples recommendations. Besides, its really hard to cook impressions. (I kid you not, this was giving me bad impressions for weeks) With this, your waxing of your impression will be more accurate with a hotter wax. I get lumps (from it curing unevenly) from dipping my impression when the wax is too cool. Wax, no matter what, will eventually overly expand certain, random areas of the impression. This is why I think it is good to have a larger impression (from a larger bite block), than to overly wax. Waxing should be used mainly for bringing a smooth, comfortable finish.

I hot glue my impression to the cuff mold base.

Stop buying agar. Its garbage, or at least by itself. I know some of you have a positive experience with Agar + Gelatin, so go ahead, but I recommend Krystalloid, from Lightening enterprises. KEEP IT SEALED AIRTIGHT. It will dry out otherwise. For heating, just take your time. Only melt the amount of negative that you need, and heat it slowly, while stirring. Remove from the water while curing. Remove it from the pan, as the water you heat it in will cool faster than the Krystalloid itself, so it will lead to cold edges. Stir slowly, as the temperature falls. Pour at 110F, and wait. If you have bubbles in your krystalloid, you heated it too fast, got it too hot, or it just reached the end of its life. Probably one of the first two. Next, I let Hydrogen peroxide sit inside the negative for 15-20 mins. It will slightly corrode the inside of the mold, smoothing it out. The less sanding, the better.

Fotoplast. This one took a while to get the hang of. First off, shake the damn bottle, Then, set and forget. You can pour it an hour later. Any sooner, and you will get bubbles in the resin. Everybody's cure time varies, as we all have different lamps. Figure it out. I use (x) time for the first cure. I then pour the excess resin out, and pour in Glycerin. If you dont have glycerin/glysol, your're doing it wrong. I wasted an ungodly amount of Fotoplast by ignoring this. Fotoplast, when cured in oxygen, will have an ugly layer on it. You will not be getting it off of the inside of a shell, I have tried. Cure it, in the Krystalloid, with the Glycerin, for (2x) time. After this, take it out WITH PLIERS. Dont touch it. Then, dip it in a glycerin bath. It will float, so I stick a washer in it. Cure for 10 minutes.

After all this, take it, preferably with pliers, to the sink. Fill the sink with soapy water, and drop it in. Swish it around a bit, and then it is safe to touch. Wash it well nonetheless.

Then, I sand it, with a round bit on my dremel. Make sure to occasionally clear the surface with hydrogen peroxide, to make sure you actually sanded it, and that you arent looking at some dust. I then coat it in lack3/fotofix. I wrote about that back a few pages.

There isnt just one way to do this, and I would love to hear/see what you guys are doing.

As for going past the second bend, I am leaving this at the end, as it isnt necessary, but it is nice to do. I saw 64 doing it, so I knew I could do it. Just know, waxing will make you think it is impossible. I wax, cool the wax (in water) and try (then peel and restart) an impression 20-30 times before I am satisfied. Past the second bend is delicate work. You will have to learn how to cut it yourself, as I would only be speaking for myself. I dont endorse doing this with non medical resin, but if you get a an ear infection, I called it, and you now have to paypal me $5.

I would also not recommend doing this if you have small ears and are using multiple tubes. I read online that the asian ear has quite the bend to it, and getting tubing to contour to 2 bends like this could be quite difficult. This bend (imo) is why some companies have japan only IEM's (Unique Melody). I was blessed with big ear canals (which may or may not be permanently expanded from DIEM stuff) so I can fit 2 2mm tubes, and 1 1mm tube, all the way up past the second bend. Fit this deep is quite comfortable, and offers much more acoustic isolation. I imagine better (louder) treble from this as well.

 

[Cevisi]

Welcome to the first "I write about it so you don't have to waste your time and money" - Custom shell edition. I see a lot of misconceptions here, and I would like to work some of them out. No, I am not sponsored by any of these companies, but if you own one of them, feel free to PM. There is a lot of new guys here, so I figured I would post this.

First off, impressions. I like to take my own. Most people audiologists dont go past the second bend, as it isnt needed for hearing aids. Despite people on here not thinking it can, CIEM's can ABSOLUTELY be comfortable past the second bend. I write about this at the very end of this.

Please, stop giving the Earplug superstore DIY impression kit business, until they update their product. The impression material cures incredibly quick, and the oto-blocks they include are not great. You may get 1 (one) good impression from the four, even with the help of others.

I recommend the Westone Silicon singles, and the cotton otoblocks. The cotton otoblocks sit much deeper in the ear, and arent such a bear to put in. On a side note, putting it otoblocks yourself kinda sucks. You have to jam it in with a Q-tip, and hope its deep enough. As for the Westone Silicon, its great. It is much easier to work with, has a much longer cure time, and exerts enough pressure on the ear to not represent the pores inside your ear, which can be a huge issue.

As for curing them, without the (disappointing) purchase of a Earbud superstore kit, you will need a syringe. However, the do sell the syringes themselves. Wad up the material as quickly as possible. I like to roll it between my hands, so it becomes long, and then shoving it into the syringe. I dont want to type this all out, so heres a great video. Do ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING you see in this video, to a T, and you will have great impressions. (however, you can go without pushing the material deeper into your ear with your fingers. I had inconsistent results doing this.)

As for bit blocks, the farther open your mouth is, the tighter the seal of your impression is. I would say that closed-mouth impressions are not even worth a shot. Relaxing your jaw is very important. (I cant find my phone for a picture, so close your eyes and imagine this for a second) Visualize the impression in your ear, and know that when I say the "bottom of the impression" = the low part of your ear, closest to your toes. On the side of the impression that sits facing towards your eyes, there is a sharp bend, between the canal and the bottom side of your impression It twists and moves towards the bottom of your ear/jaw. The more stressed your jaw is, the more profound this line will be. Its not fun to grind off, either. I find that heavy removal of material at any part of the canal can easily ruing the seal.

As for trimming your impressions, most of what you see is right. However, on the impression, the cymba concha must be rounded out, or when it is transferred to a hard resin, it will be uncomfortable. Sand until it ends parallel to the canal. Make sure it is smooth. DO NOT CUT YOUR BASE! Cutting the part of the impression that sticks out of your ear is bad! There is no reason to cut it, and with Fotoplast, the top edge will cure with bumps that will need to be sanded out.

As for wax, wax is wax. I use the red dental wax on Amazon. A good rule of thumb, is that the hotter your wax is, the thinner the viscosity will be. Every wax has different harnesses at different temperatures, so experiment, and quit listening to other peoples recommendations. Besides, its really hard to cook impressions. (I kid you not, this was giving me bad impressions for weeks) With this, your waxing of your impression will be more accurate with a hotter wax. I get lumps (from it curing unevenly) from dipping my impression when the wax is too cool. Wax, no matter what, will eventually overly expand certain, random areas of the impression. This is why I think it is good to have a larger impression (from a larger bite block), than to overly wax. Waxing should be used mainly for bringing a smooth, comfortable finish.

I hot glue my impression to the cuff mold base.

Stop buying agar. Its garbage, or at least by itself. I know some of you have a positive experience with Agar + Gelatin, so go ahead, but I recommend Krystalloid, from Lightening enterprises. KEEP IT SEALED AIRTIGHT. It will dry out otherwise. For heating, just take your time. Only melt the amount of negative that you need, and heat it slowly, while stirring. Remove from the water while curing. Remove it from the pan, as the water you heat it in will cool faster than the Krystalloid itself, so it will lead to cold edges. Stir slowly, as the temperature falls. Pour at 110F, and wait. If you have bubbles in your krystalloid, you heated it too fast, got it too hot, or it just reached the end of its life. Probably one of the first two. Next, I let Hydrogen peroxide sit inside the negative for 15-20 mins. It will slightly corrode the inside of the mold, smoothing it out. The less sanding, the better.

Fotoplast. This one took a while to get the hang of. First off, shake the damn bottle, Then, set and forget. You can pour it an hour later. Any sooner, and you will get bubbles in the resin. Everybody's cure time varies, as we all have different lamps. Figure it out. I use (x) time for the first cure. I then pour the excess resin out, and pour in Glycerin. If you dont have glycerin/glysol, your're doing it wrong. I wasted an ungodly amount of Fotoplast by ignoring this. Fotoplast, when cured in oxygen, will have an ugly layer on it. You will not be getting it off of the inside of a shell, I have tried. Cure it, in the Krystalloid, with the Glycerin, for (2x) time. After this, take it out WITH PLIERS. Dont touch it. Then, dip it in a glycerin bath. It will float, so I stick a washer in it. Cure for 10 minutes.

After all this, take it, preferably with pliers, to the sink. Fill the sink with soapy water, and drop it in. Swish it around a bit, and then it is safe to touch. Wash it well nonetheless.

Then, I sand it, with a round bit on my dremel. Make sure to occasionally clear the surface with hydrogen peroxide, to make sure you actually sanded it, and that you arent looking at some dust. I then coat it in lack3/fotofix. I wrote about that back a few pages.

There isnt just one way to do this, and I would love to hear/see what you guys are doing.

As for going past the second bend, I am leaving this at the end, as it isnt necessary, but it is nice to do. I saw 64 doing it, so I knew I could do it. Just know, waxing will make you think it is impossible. I wax, cool the wax (in water) and try (then peel and restart) an impression 20-30 times before I am satisfied. Past the second bend is delicate work. You will have to learn how to cut it yourself, as I would only be speaking for myself. I dont endorse doing this with non medical resin, but if you get a an ear infection, I called it, and you now have to paypal me $5.

I would also not recommend doing this if you have small ears and are using multiple tubes. I read online that the asian ear has quite the bend to it, and getting tubing to contour to 2 bends like this could be quite difficult. This bend (imo) is why some companies have japan only IEM's (Unique Melody). I was blessed with big ear canals (which may or may not be permanently expanded from DIEM stuff) so I can fit 2 2mm tubes, and 1 1mm tube, all the way up past the second bend. Fit this deep is quite comfortable, and offers much more acoustic isolation. I imagine better (louder) treble from this as well.

Wow thanks i should get my shell making stuff this week i will try out your tips

 

[APSune]

I am trying to make the MASM 7 like the one on this page. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/home-made-iems.430688/page-684#post-15270230 However I do not know how to print the pcb please help!

 

[emil2099]

Hi guys, thank you for this great thread. Noob question on tube length here.

Do you cut the tube to exact length (eg 14mm for BS6+Zobel) and then glue flush with the shell or do cut it longer and cut at 45 degree angle so that it’s easier to get through the hole and then trim off excess? Internet seems to be unclear on this one. With either option, how do you fix the tube in the opening? Some resin inside the shell?

Also are there any pointers on how tube length affects the sound? I understand driver FR and dampers, but not so clear on tube config theory.

 

[et.haan]

Hi guys, thank you for this great thread. Noob question on tube length here.

Do you cut the tube to exact length (eg 14mm for BS6+Zobel) and then glue flush with the shell or do cut it longer and cut at 45 degree angle so that it’s easier to get through the hole and then trim off excess? Internet seems to be unclear on this one. With either option, how do you fix the tube in the opening? Some resin inside the shell?

Also are there any pointers on how tube length affects the sound? I understand driver FR and dampers, but not so clear on tube config theory.

Read: https://www.sonion.com/wp-content/uploads/Documentation_Designing_Earphones.pdf Explains tube length well.

Measure tubes. Mark them with ballpoint pen. Put them through IEM canal. Glue in place. Cut them. Put toothpicks in them, and then fill the canal with resin to be flush with the end of the IEM. Sand the end of the IEM, holding downwards for dust. Clean with Isopropyl on Q-tip with mild force.

Edit: Only fill the canal to however high you need with resin. 5mm should be plenty. More doesn’t hurt, but bondic yellows slightly. Just dont get any resin in open vents

Good luck!

 

[Cevisi]

Is it possible to mix colors whit food color or somthing like that ?

 

[eunice]

Is it possible to mix colors whit food color or somthing like that ?

Alcohol dye colors work as per others in this thread.

 

[eunice]

Hi guys, thank you for this great thread. Noob question on tube length here.

Do you cut the tube to exact length (eg 14mm for BS6+Zobel) and then glue flush with the shell or do cut it longer and cut at 45 degree angle so that it’s easier to get through the hole and then trim off excess? Internet seems to be unclear on this one. With either option, how do you fix the tube in the opening? Some resin inside the shell?

Also are there any pointers on how tube length affects the sound? I understand driver FR and dampers, but not so clear on tube config theory.

I cut the tubes some exact amount longer than needed, eg 5mm longer so 19mm. Then I can push the tubes through the canal so that 5mm stick out. If you mark them with a pen sometimes the ink is dissolved by the resin and makes an ugly stain, especially on transparent or white shells. That’s why I stopped using a pen.

Also, use some super glue to glue the tubes in place and then fill up the ear canal with resin. The resin is not really sticking to the tubes and sometimes the tubes move due to the pressure from inserting/removing the ciem. That’s why I started glueing the tubes in place with some time amount of super glue (I use loctite brush on) before filling the ear canal.

Good luck.

 

[sanekn]

Hello folks, just like APSune i'm going to try to make a MASM 7, unfortunately, my ear canals are somewhat "asian type", so very narrow. to this day i've managed to fit just one 3mm OD tube to it (stretched on the GK). when i've tried to fit 2x3mm it was a mess - both were squished.

So i'm thinking of making like one bigass 5mm tube and try to fit all stuff in it (bellsing 6 zobel + RAB, maybe with some Y solutions). Good or bad idea? What are options for guys with narrow ear canals?

 

[Cevisi]

I cut the tubes some exact amount longer than needed, eg 5mm longer so 19mm. Then I can push the tubes through the canal so that 5mm stick out. If you mark them with a pen sometimes the ink is dissolved by the resin and makes an ugly stain, especially on transparent or white shells. That’s why I stopped using a pen.

Also, use some super glue to glue the tubes in place and then fill up the ear canal with resin. The resin is not really sticking to the tubes and sometimes the tubes move due to the pressure from inserting/removing the ciem. That’s why I started glueing the tubes in place with some time amount of super glue (I use loctite brush on) before filling the ear canal.

Good luck.

You use that uhu 2 component one i read somwhere right. I didnt find that on in obi or marktkauf did you order it? I got now the uhu blitzschnell minis dont know if they will work well

 

[eunice]

You use that uhu 2 component one i read somwhere right. I didnt find that on in obi or marktkauf did you order it? I got now the uhu blitzschnell minis dont know if they will work well

The 2 component epoxy I use is "UHU Plus Schnellfest", it comes in two syringes and I got it from Globus: https://www.uhu.de/de/produkt.3996

That glue however you should not use to glue the tubes in the ear canal and for it to work good you need a rough surface - hard to do with the tubes.

To glue the tubes in the ear canal you can use any super glue, but be aware that most super glues give off a white powdery substance when drying. That is especially true for the UHU minis. So if you build a transparent shell, better use loctite 401 or loctite brush on and only use a tiny amount of glue. Loctite also gives off some white powder but not nearly as much as the blitzschnell minis. If your shell is not transparent, the UHU minis are a good choice.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

there was some update to MASM7
@stephensynanta16 would guide you through

 

[APSune]

I saw his guide however I do not know how to print the pcb.

 

[Cevisi]

I saw his guide however I do not know how to print the pcb.

The print data is linked on the post you can go to a 3d print shop locally to you or there should be internet services where you link the parts and get it send to your home