[axtran]

 
Use solder...

I ended up soldering! I then used some heat shrink. Mostly because I like how it looks.

 

[musicfan145]

I've been having trouble printing the earpad ring and baffle without the curling up (no heated bed on my printer), so I decided to order the parts from a local printing service in ABS. Since I knew the service would be using a better printer than mine (and removing supports for me) I decided to try this: I used my super-fancy 3D modeling software (tinkercad.com

) to merge the two files together and have them printed as one. This eliminates gluing, guarantees alignment, and ensures an airtight seal. I haven't assembled the headphones yet, but I can't think of any reason this wouldn't work. MrSpeakers Alpha pads fit them great, so I know the earpad groove is big enough. The STL file is included below if anyone wants to try it or give feedback. 
 
 
 
 

 

 

[axtran]

  I've been having trouble printing the earpad ring and baffle without the curling up (no heated bed on my printer), so I decided to order the parts from a local printing service in ABS. Since I knew the service would be using a better printer than mine (and removing supports for me) I decided to try this: I used my super-fancy 3D modeling software (tinkercad.com

) to merge the two files together and have them printed as one. This eliminates gluing, guarantees alignment, and ensures an airtight seal. I haven't assembled the headphones yet, but I can't think of any reason this wouldn't work. MrSpeakers Alpha pads fit them great, so I know the earpad groove is big enough. The STL file is included below if anyone wants to try it or give feedback. 
 
 
 
 

 

Pretty cool! Did you print one of these yet?

 

[musicfan145]

Pretty cool! Did you print one of these yet?

I had two of them printed in ABS, and they seem like they are going to work fine. (I gave up trying to print the flat pieces in PLA on my Makerbot Replicator.) If I were going to print them myself, I might flip them over so the ear side is down. That would give a smoother surface for the driver to seal to.

 

[axtran]

I had two of them printed in ABS, and they seem like they are going to work fine. (I gave up trying to print the flat pieces in PLA on my Makerbot Replicator.) If I were going to print them myself, I might flip them over so the ear side is down. That would give a smoother surface for the driver to seal to.

Sounds good! I wonder why they weren't Printed as one piece to start with. Dan can probably chime in on it whenever he checks this thread, I'm sure.

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

Sounds good! I wonder why they weren't Printed as one piece to start with. Dan can probably chime in on it whenever he checks this thread, I'm sure.

My guess is the space needed for the pads in between the two. 3D printers can't print over space, plastic droops. I can't imagine the nightmare of trying to get the supports out of that small gap.

 

[musicfan145]

Instead of ordering from Shapeways, I used 3Dhubs to find a local printing service that I could pick up the parts from without paying shipping. This was not only faster and cheaper, it also gave me the option of having them printed with lighter infill, which is apparently key to the isolation of the Alphas. (MrSpeakers has said that he gets no financial benefit from the Shapeways orders, so I used some of the savings to purchase Alpha pads from his site.)

For those who want to try 3DHubs, here is a referral link that will supposedly save you some money off your first order (and save me some off my next order):

http://3dhubs.refr.cc/F3RTNFZ

 

[musicfan145]

My guess is the space needed for the pads in between the two. 3D printers can't print over space, plastic droops. I can't imagine the nightmare of trying to get the supports out of that small gap.

That was my first thought as well, but I had these printed in ABS and they came out fine. I didn't remove the supports, so I can't say for sure how difficult it was, but the parts I got didn't really even need sanding in the pad groove. (Printing it yourself might prove to be more difficult.)

I haven't assembled the headphones yet, but I tried the Alpha pads and they fit in the groove just fine.

 

[musicfan145]

That was my first thought as well, but I had these printed in ABS and they came out fine. I didn't remove the supports, so I can't say for sure how difficult it was, but the parts I got didn't really even need sanding in the pad groove. (Printing it yourself might prove to be more difficult.)

I haven't assembled the headphones yet, but I tried the Alpha pads and they fit in the groove just fine.

Based on the "grain" of the parts, it's possible that the service I used may have printed these vertically (on edge) with little or no support. They came out very nice.

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

That was my first thought as well, but I had these printed in ABS and they came out fine. I didn't remove the supports, so I can't say for sure how difficult it was, but the parts I got didn't really even need sanding in the pad groove. (Printing it yourself might prove to be more difficult.)

I haven't assembled the headphones yet, but I tried the Alpha pads and they fit in the groove just fine.

That's good to hear. I may have to out my pass over the cups anyways do to how I had to stretch them to fit my current pair :l

I'm sure from Shapeways with the type of 3D printers they use, it could be done just fine since no supports are needed

 

[axtran]

That's good to hear. I may have to out my pass over the cups anyways do to how I had to stretch them to fit my current pair :l

I'm sure from Shapeways with the type of 3D printers they use, it could be done just fine since no supports are needed

The Shapeways-made cups are definitely extreme high-quality. I haven't seen 3D printing like this before (which doesn't mean much, I guess).

 

[Wuthoqquan]

If I were going to print them myself, I might flip them over so the ear side is down. That would give a smoother surface for the driver to seal to.

This might actually be the downside of printing the baffle and earpad ring as a single part. It gets much more difficult to have a smooth finish on both sides, which raises the bar of the technical features/specifications of the printer to be used, since it is generally the norm that the side facing down will be rougher and require more post processing.
In the case of the baffle, particularly, it is imperative that the side where the driver is mounted be as flat and smooth as possible, in order to ensure a perfect seal.

That's why the original MrSpeakers design, with the baffle and ring printed separately, should liklely give much less headaches since it is then just a matter of gluing the two pieces together. With the right glue the bond is absolutely perfect and permanent. It took me some time to find the right one, but once I got my hands on the glue generally used by plumbers to connect PVC/ABS pipes together, I was really impressed by the final result. Once again the advice/indications by MrSpeakers were spot on!

Would you post some pictures of your printed baffle/ring assembly? Thanks.

 

[TeskR]

What do you guys rate the difficulty of this as an essentially first time DIY audio project?
 
I have soldered and such before, but not recently, and have not really ever built anything like this before. Are there any points that are really unforgiving on errors? If I make a mistake, can it be relatively easily undone?

 

[theweezle]

What do you guys rate the difficulty of this as an essentially first time DIY audio project?

I have soldered and such before, but not recently, and have not really ever built anything like this before. Are there any points that are really unforgiving on errors? If I make a mistake, can it be relatively easily undone?

Aside from melting a piece while soldering, I can't think of any step that posed any difficulty or couldn't be undone.

Just don't touch the iron to the plastic or heat up the driver too long.

 

[musicfan145]

This might actually be the downside of printing the baffle and earpad ring as a single part. It gets much more difficult to have a smooth finish on both sides, which raises the bar of the technical features/specifications of the printer to be used, since it is generally the norm that the side facing down will be rougher and require more post processing.
In the case of the baffle, particularly, it is imperative that the side where the driver is mounted be as flat and smooth as possible, in order to ensure a perfect seal.

That's why the original MrSpeakers design, with the baffle and ring printed separately, should liklely give much less headaches since it is then just a matter of gluing the two pieces together. With the right glue the bond is absolutely perfect and permanent. It took me some time to find the right one, but once I got my hands on the glue generally used by plumbers to connect PVC/ABS pipes together, I was really impressed by the final result. Once again the advice/indications by MrSpeakers were spot on!

Would you post some pictures of your printed baffle/ring assembly? Thanks.

 
Here are the the top and bottom views. I've done a little sanding and acetone rubbing, mostly on the mating surfaces. In the first photo, look at the surface between the driver mounting area and the cup alignment ring; it's pretty much untouched.
 

 

 
Here are some side views. I did some sanding in the groove (mostly because the Alpha pads cost me 10x what the rings did--I didn't want to scratch up that marvelous sheepskin!) They did not mate perfectly to the cups at first, but that was because the cup alignment ring needed a little cleanup. The mating surface was as true (flat) as you would hope.
 

 

 
As you can see from below the roughest edges were all on the surfaces facing away from the notch. This leads me to suspect that the printing service printed vertically on edge (notch pointing up), which would require very little support. The ear pad groove is so narrow that it probably required no support in the groove..
 

 
 
Again, I don't know if this will be useful at all to those printing the parts themselves on less capable printers. I only started down this avenue when I realized that my printer was not capable of printing the baffle and ear pad ring without them curling up. Also, I should make clear that I am in no way second-guessing MrSpeakers design. All of his designs are extremely well-thought out, and he obviously had reasons for every design decision he made. I'm just offering an alternative for those like me who had trouble making the parts on their own printer.