DIY Bullet Headphones

Dear DIY Fans,

This little Project is about crafting your own Bullet Headphones. They do not just look unique and stylish but also sound pretty well. It is a weekend project, wich is not expensive at all, but it requires some basic crafting skills.

I produced an aesthetic video, that will guide you through the main steps and hopefully will be some Inspiration.

If you like my very first Instructable, please vote for me in the FIRST TIME AUTHOR CONTEST 2016.
Thank you!

Use 2 caliber .45 ACP cartridge cases and drill a hole (2mm drill bit) diagonally among the rim below.
I recommend clamping them into a vice to assume maximum stability during the drilling process.

You can use a puncher to create a little dent for the drill bit, but it is not strongly necessary as long as you start with a low drilling speed.

Useful advice:
Make sure to protect the jaws of your vice to avoid damage on your cases.

Saw the cases down to a length of 7 - 10 mm and sand down the edges roughly by using a course sanding sponge. I shortened them down to a length of 9mm in the video and i think it is the optimal size.

Useful Advice:

You can also use sandpaper to clean the sawing edges but a sanding sponge is not very expensive and will produce a smoother result.
(You could also use whats called a "debuting tool" from gun stores, to clean up the edge after it is cut off. Thank you H2Okee for giving this advice down in the comments!)

Use a 9mm drill bit to increase the internal space to create room for the copper wires and to lower the weight.
Keep drilling until you can see a circular hole on the bottom and make sure to check the depth a couple of times during the process to avoid drilling through the bottom.

I recommend to attach a wooden staff with a thickness of 10mm and a length around 3-5 cm into your screwdriver and to stick the cartridge case on it. Now use a fine sanding sponge to reveal the shininess and the golden color (satisfaction guaranteed). I took a few centimeters of my grandmas wooden cooking spoon (she was okay with it). It turned out to work just fine for my needs.

Useful Advice:

I highly recommend using this method for polishing, because of the speed and the even result.

Varnish the cases to protect them from external influences and to retain the metallic shininess.
I recommend using Zapon Lack. Small varnish lines during the daub process will disappear within drying.
Also varnish the inside to create a thin isolation-layer .

The exact model number is Panasonic RP-HJE120E1R. These Headphones are pretty affordable and they have really good sound (literally thousands of positive amazon reviews).

Clamp the ear buds into a vice (with good protected jaws) and lift them softly out of their shell (watch the video in minute 3:26). You can now cut off the copper vires from the ear buds but I advice doing a quick photo of the connections at first. It will be easier to match each wire to it`s contact on the ear bud later in the soldering process. You can finally remove the old Shells.

Remove 1cm of the rubber isolation of the cable wire to reveal the fine copper wires. Then cover the end of the cable wire with shrinking tube (1cm long and 2mm thick). The picture above will give a good idea of the exact distances.

You can now stick your prepared cable wires through the hole of the cartridge case until you can see the black shrinking tube from the inside. A drop of superglue in the inside will provide final fixity.

You can now finally resolder the wires to the contacts on the ear buds. Make sure to match the cables right. The photo you took a few steps before will help you with that. Time for a quick soundcheck.
You can now push the ear buds into the cases by hand or with a vice. They will stick together perfectly, even without any glue. You did it.

Attention:

Soldering is more difficult than it looks. If you do not have some experiences with it, I recommend to ask a friend.

I just want to thank you for reading my DIY Post. I hope I could inspire you for this little DIY project. I love these Headphones and I felt like I had to share it within an equally aesthetic video. If you want to support me and future projects, please subscribe to my Youtube channel and give me some feedback in the comments.

Please send me a picture if you could successfully rebuild the Bullet Headphones.

NOTHING IS BETTER THAN HOMEMADE!