Customizable y-mold for headphones

thingiverse

This mold was created to repair headphones with a broken connection where each earbud met the main wire. Once the damaged connection is fixed, print this mold and cast a new one from SUGRU. If you've never worked with Sugru, check out their videos - it's a siliconized rubber that can be molded like putty but cures overnight into an extremely durable rubber. Print Settings Rafts: Doesn't Matter Infill: 30% Notes: An infill of 30% is good. The better the resolution, the higher the quality on your finished product. Custom Section HOW-TO Materials: Sugru Petroleum jelly, vegetable oil, shortening, etc. Headphones Bolts (M3x30 work well for this mold) Busted Headphones Small clamp (optional) Procedure: Cut away the damaged wire segments with good sharp snips. Carefully solder the wires back together - most headphone wires are enameled and difficult to solder. I've had great success by making a solder "pot" from a large blob of molten solder. a. Melt a large blob of solder with your iron (I heated my Weller unit to ~700C). b. Dip each bundle of enameled wire into the molten blob until the enamel starts to boil and burn off. Test! Make sure they work before moving forward - make sure there are no shorts and that the solder joints are good. Use a bit of hot-melt glue to insulate the soldered strands, keeping them electrically isolated and providing some mechanical strength. Measure up your wire, cable thickness, and customize and print the mold. The default settings worked well for cloth-coated, 4-conductor wire for earbuds - YMMV. Clean up the mold with a file and sandpaper and make sure it fits together well. Wash it well to remove any dust. Coat the inside of the mold with a thin layer of petroleum jelly or vegetable oil - this acts as a release. Coat the flat faces of the mold too - Sugru is good at sticking to uncoated surfaces. Wash your hands! Sugru hates fats and oils, so if you fold oil into your connector it will fall apart. Insert the guide bolts. Knead the Sugru and warm it up. Form it into the rough shape of the Y-Mold - use a bit more than needed to ensure the mold is well filled. Insert the rough form into the mold. Close the mold using the guide bolts, aligning and pressing hard with a clamp or your hands. Count to 10 while pressing. Carefully pull apart the halves and gently remove the Y connector from the mold - try not to touch it too much. If you foul this up, you can try pushing the two halves back together and fixing your mistakes. Hang it to cure over the next 24-48 hours - longer curing is recommended as the central sphere is quite large. After curing, use a hobby knife to clean up any flash that squeezed out between the mold halves.