Easily Modify a Classic (retro) Telephone Handset for Use With a Cell Phone; Bluetooth Optional. (NO TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE NEEDED)

This project is EASY and does not require Technical knowledge. 

If you ever wanted to use an old Classic (retro) Telephone Handset with a cell phone/smart phone, follow this Instructables Project. NO TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE NEEDED!

For Bluetooth modification, refer to the last section of this project, below.

You can find cheap knock-off's of the classic "retro" handset on Ebay and other sites. They are made of cheap plastic and the sound quality is often poor. But the strangest thing is that nearly EVERY one you find on Ebay, the coiled cord is actually on the top side of the handset. It's upside down! The part that goes over your ear is different than the piece that you speak into. And those are upside down.

This project assumes you can buy a set of earbuds (with microphone) and that your phone also has an audio jack on your phone to connect the earbud to. Typically, it's 3.5mm connectors.

If you want to make this project a Bluetooth handset, you DON'T need to have a 3.5mm audio jack on your phone, but you will need a set of Bluetooth earbuds that are of similar size and type. Refer to the last section of this project, below.

Five Below has a good selection of quality earbuds.

You can usually find a classic telephone handset at a thrift store or flea market for a few dollars.

You will need:

One classic telephone handset such as Western Electric, GTE, etc...

Hot Glue Gun

One set of Earbuds (either 3.5mm connector, or bluetooth earbuds, whichever way you want to proceed)

You may need some common hand tools: needle-nose pliers, etc... depending upon how particular you want the handset to be modified.

It's your choice if you want to remove the Speaker And Microphone from the phone. It will make the phone less heavy. I decided to put in extra work cutting up the microphone and earpiece i.e. removing the guts of those pieces but keeping basically the shell, as you see in the photo. This allows the phone to remain heavier and thus a more "original feel". Of course, you will need hand tools to cut out the center of the speaker and microphone. It's not fun cutting up those parts, but it is optional. As you will see, cutting up and keeping the original speaker and microphone from the handset provides support to hold the speaker and microphone of the earbuds.

Once you remove the original speaker and microphone from the handset, you might find cotton-like material in the center of the handset. You will need to pull that out. At this point, you can fish the earbud through the handset. Since you really only need one of the earpieces from the earbuds, the other earpiece can be shoved it into the center of the handset and left there.

After fishing the earpiece and microphone through the handset, I noticed the silver colored stem on the earpiece wouldn't allow it to fit properly in the original speaker shell. I just pried it off carefully so as not to damage the fine wires inside. That silver colored stem will then just slide down the outside of the white conductor wire and can then be left in place hanging on the wire. You might not have to worry about that depending upon the shape of the earpiece, if you use a different set of earbuds than the one I used.

Next, you need to secure the earpiece and microphone to the handset. I chose to use a glue gun to do this as this is very easy. You could use a glue gun, epoxy, or any other glue that works for this application.

If you choose NOT to keep the original, cut up, speaker and microphone from the handset, you will need to stuff some other material into the handset where the earbud microphone and speaker are to be placed in order to secure them.

Through my testing, I found that there is some trial and error needed for the placement of the earpiece. It should be right up against the plastic cover that screws on over it. I even placed the earbud speaker on the side as you see in the photo because the sound was actually slightly better/louder when placed that way. But I also cut out some of the plastic in the earbud itself to make that hole slightly bigger.

The microphone does not need to be placed right up against the cover.

The completed handset has sufficient volume. I cant complain. You can always turn up the volume or install a volume booster app on your phone if you need it louder. The one thing some people find annoying is that unlike the original landline telephones which operated in duplex mode, you will not hear your own voice through the handset when talking on the phone. Cell phones don't operate that way. You will be essentially using a set of earbuds when making a call. It's just stuffed into a different housing.

BLUETOOTH HANDSET MODIFICATION:

You can also apply the same process of this Project to modify the handset for use as a Bluetooth handset by simply buying a set of Bluetooth earbuds that are of similar size and type and basically doing the same modification as laid out in this Project.