[noorudeenshakur]

Hi there,

I'm a new UM2 owner and love the sound of the shure yellow foamies with them. The thing is is they dont last very long and are kinda expensive to replace if you buy them from shure.

I worked in construction for a few years and couldn't help but notice that they are just construction earplugs cut in half with a little plastic tube in the middle.

If you go to shure you get 10 pairs for 20 bucks, if you buy construction earplugs by the box you get 200 pair for the same price, since construction ear plugs cut in half make 2 pair of foamies you would get the equivallent of 400 foamies for 20 bucks.

Yeah you have to take the tube's out of your dead foamies, or purchase 1/8th tubing and cut the construction ear plugs in half and then make a small incision through the middle but thats pretty easy to do. A tooth pick our hot pin would do the job pretty well I think.

I was just wondering if anyone has done this around here, or even noticed the similarities?

I know its what Im going to be doing for my replacements. Cant beat that price, and I love my foamies!

Take a look, do you guys see the similarities? They are the same thing! The pictures arent to scale but in reality they are the EXACT SAME SIZE. (the shure are just a construction plug cut in the middle.)

construction ear plugs

shure foamies

Anyhow, if anyone has done it how did you make out?

I ordered a box of construction ear plugs for 20 bucks and will let you know how well they work when they get here. Since they are the same thing, I cant see why they wouldnt work just as well.

Yeah Ill take the 400 foamies and do a little work for 20 bucks, plus it will bring the relationship with my UM2's that much closer........

Westone UM2.... the new love of my life......

(don't tell my girlfriend)


Ok,

I thought I'd turn this into the poor man and happy experimenters thread for replacements tips. So heres some more stuff for ya.

If you like the round end of the UM2 Complys you will be better to order the rounded construction ear plugs. You can even get cool looking funky styles in these ones.

They come in different softness too, from super soft like the UM2's original comply... see the top ones that are the same colour as the UM2's as these are the same thing as UM2 comply's for softness (or very close anyways)

The 3M foam ones are stiffer (light orange ones) I dont know about the others but I think they are just really cool looking!

The original UM2 Comply's

the super soft constuction ones (very very similar feel)

The firmer 3M

other cool ones

Here's some tri flanges. They may even provide better sound, we need to test and experiment to see. They can be easily modified with a hot thin wire to make the hole. at (1.50 a pair its hard to go wrong even if you mess one or 2 up)

and these just look cool to experiment with

You think they borrowed from the construction industry just a bit?

Me too.

This thread isnt for people who are too stuffy to think that good sound couldnt be had out of anything but original product tips or have the cash to spend on originals. You guys stick with your originals and be happy.

This thread is for the poor guys like myself who save up all their cash just to blow it on an more expensive piece of audio equipment and cut corners where they can, without sacrificing sound. It's for the guy who loves to "Tweak" things, experiment and build things on his own stuff.

When I find the exact same size of silicone tubing I will post back here. It reminds me of the same stuff that is used in the medical industry for things such as IV runs, in some small pumps setups Ill stop by the medical supply store. I will find it eventually, and we will then be able to really have some fun experimenting with tips.

Cheers!

oh and happy manufacturing and experimenting!

 

[mr.karmalicious]

Good luck man. Haven't tried it, but sounds like it should work.

 

[CookieFactory]

i'd be interested in hearing about the results.
btw where did you buy the construction foamies?

 

[steel102]

how would you go about removing the tubes from the old foamies? aren't they glued in? Once you did remove them, how would you secure them in the new home-made foamies? superglue or something?

 

[noorudeenshakur]

The tubes arent glued in at all in the originals they pull right out!

You could even make the holes smaller and thus provide a tighter fit on the tubes when you make your own. I find that the tubes often start poking forward after a few times between the fingers, so the homemade ones may be better too.

Do a google search on "ear plugs" you will find all of them there. I bought the box with 200 pair of yellow ones off of ebay. Free shipping too!

Cheers!

 

[steel102]

let us know how it goes with the foamies, I have a bunch of those "Contruction" foamies that i bought for using while mowing the lawn, and would be glad to convert them to shure-compatible foamies.

edit: as for the triflanges, you can buy something called "earplanes" at your local pharmacy for about $5. I had them on my e3's for a while.

 

[noorudeenshakur]

Those earplanes would make nice tri flanges too. Gald to see others have played around with this stuff too.

 

[tucker71]

I use/used the universal fit IEMs by FUTURE SONICS and, yes....I have made my foamies out of over-the-counter earplugs on more than one occasion.

Sometimes, I'd run out of the FS foamies, or I would "loan" some some new ones to another member of the band.
When that happened, I would take some good ol' earplugs (brown foam or the smoother orange ones...doesn't matter) and cut them to the same length as the stem on the IEMs.

Then, I would take a clean (finishing?) nail from my roadies' toolbox...poke and twist...and then pop it on the IEM. Bob's yer uncle. I had myself a brand new foamie.


I still prefer the official foamies from FS but, hey...the show must go on.


NOTE:
As a live bass player, I would often make the earplug just a liiittle bit too long which would sorta cover the stem hole of the earphone. This would keep a majority of the treble/hi-end out of my ear. When onstage with a bashing drummer, a loudmouth singer, and two wailing guitar players....the last thing I wanted was more hi-end firing directly into my ears. It also seemed to emphasize my bass, which meant I could turn down my mix and hopefully, keep my hearing for a few more precious years.

 

[Dunbar]

I tried it with my E2's, used a soldering iron to burn a hole in the earplugs. Never really seemed to stay attached, sadly not worth the effort IMO.

 

[noorudeenshakur]

Well I would think you made the hole too large with a soldering iron you only need to make a small hole, and a soldering iron would melt it way too large I would think.

Did you ever try it with a tooth pick?

There isnt any glue holding the tubes in place, at least I dont think there is as they come out very easily. If you wanted to get super fancy and make a precise duplicate you could use a leather tool hole punch to make the same size hole right through the middle just like the shure originals but I dont think that tool is necessary to make a good working product. It would be great for makign an exact duplicate; but like I said, I dont think its necessary to make a good working finished product.

Theoretically speaking, if you make a smaller hole than the originals it should hold the plastic tube in place even better than originals do. I think I will have sucess with this when the earplugs come in.

I'll post pics of the final result for you guys to look at. Ill even play around and try to make an exact copy with the leather tool hole punch just for fun.

 

[dura]

I tried it with the yellow foames (which, BTW, are of a different material then the Shure foams) but you can't get a good fit on the nozzle without the tubes.

Quote:

I'm a new UM2 owner and love the sound of the shure yellow foamies with them. The thing is is they dont last very long and are kinda expensive to replace if you buy them from shure.

Wash them when needed with warm water and a mild detergent and they last for months! Then there's no financial need to DIY.

 

[noorudeenshakur]

Edited to stay on topic.


Getting back to your point about the tubing

Go grab one of your dead foamies and pull out the plastic tubing.

Now all you need is a pair of construction ear plugs and you are back in business with brand new foamies.

The most important thing here is that little plastic tube from your dead foamies. Thats what makes them work. You wouldnt get any quality sound without that piece of tubing.

Like I said Ill find out where they sell that silicone tubing too. Its just medical silicone tubing its very easy to buy that, then you dont need to be bothered removing the dead tubing from your old foamies you can use that to make brand new ones.

Cheers!

 

[dura]

Quote:

The material is the exact same PVC foam trust me. Im very familiar with it.

I've both lying here in front of me, and the material is clearly different; you probably use different earplugs then I do.
But nevermind, since foamies are not disposable and can be used many months there is no economical reason to DIY.
BTW nowadays I use the black ety-foams on my E4, I started it because, to be honest, I found the yellow looking nerdy when they are dangling on my chest, but they also are longer and better stay put, and the material is more rubbery which makes them slightly more comfortable as well.

 

[Mano]

Well i was planning to do this a long time ago but didnt gave time to make them, fairly easy too, but in the case of the E2cs its a bit more complicated since the stem is wider, and i think shorter than the other Shure models, i used this ones:

Its not only more difficult because you have to heat a wider metal than a regular wire, but also because the size BARELY can keep up with the stretching/melting, i used a soldering iron too (perfect width for the E2cs, gives it a tight fit), but you have to insert the soldering iron into the little hole the ear plugs have, then start heating up very slow and unplug the soldering iron when its still warm, not hot.

then you have to insert a wire roghly the same width as the little circle print in the smaller flange (mould mark), and heat that up slowly too, after doing that you insert the cold soldering iron again this time into the hole made on the small flange, and just warm it up a little, then leave the ear plug in the soldering iron to cool off.

If you dont follow those steps, the earplug will simply break (due to quick temperature variation) and if you take it off the soldering iron before it cools a bit, then the earplugs will be bent out of shape.

if everything goes fine it will end looking up like this:

Made it bi-flange because in the E2c the third flange makes the earplug too large, larger than the stem, and the biflange is more comfortable and as far as i can tell isolates like the triflange.

hope this helps

 

[Sugarfried]

Edited out.