Noise Blocking In-Ear Headphones
What would you do with epoxy putty laying around?
The process is simple - mix up some epoxy putty, jam it in your ear, let it mostly harden, take it out, drill holes for sound, and mount normal earbud speakers to them. Et voila!
This article may have one of the best disclaimers ever:
WARNING - This tutorial advocates jamming things in your ear which are not made for earal consumption. Some people are allergic to epoxy (or develop an allergy after working with it) and may experience an allergic reaction that could conceivably involve a swelling of the ear canal and/or complete anaphylactic shock, maybe even death (hey, it could happen). You may also have a specific hooked form of ear that prevents you from removing the epoxy once it hardens. You might also, perhaps, have some sort of seizure epilepsy that makes you throw up uncontrollably when you stick things in your ear. Please consult your otologist before attempting this procedure. I take no liability for emergency room bills, ICU bills, coma support, or any other expenses incurred from actions resulting from the reading of this article. - Link
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Dec 18, 2006 03:11 PM
DIY Projects |
Permalink
| Comments (8)
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Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
| Posted by: MikeCat on December 18, 2006 at 11:58 AM |
You could also take an ear mold with non-setting putty, and use it to make a negative mold. With that mold, then you can pour in the setting epoxy and not risk earal domination.
| Posted by: natetrue on December 18, 2006 at 12:02 PM |
I dunno - ear molds without the risk of permanent hearing loss? It just doesn't sound exciting enough.
| Posted by: ctrl-alt-delete on December 18, 2006 at 1:41 PM |
I keep getting a non-existent url message. Does anyone have a working link or a mirror?
| Posted by: jovino on December 18, 2006 at 2:27 PM |
Good job Make, post an idea that is REALLY stupid and has to potential to send people to the emergency room to have hardened epoxy removed from their ears. If people are like me, they have small hairs inside their ear canal. It is extremely likely that the epoxy will bond to these hairs and make removal painful, if not impossible.
:::sigh:::
| Posted by: -soapy- on December 18, 2006 at 2:38 PM |
I did this with silicone, which is probably about a million times safer, given how epoxy often bonds to your fingers and leaves residue. I modelled the way I did it on the way NoiseBreakers are made (http://www.noisebreaker.co.uk/product%20info.html) at the hearing specialists.
They get a bit of thread and tie it around a bit of sponge before carefully filling your ear canal, then pumping your ear full of quick setting silicone. This makes you realise what being profoundly deaf must be like. 60 seconds later it is removed. Emtec (who make NoiseBreaker) then drill and scuplt it into a very effective hearing protector that allows normal speech.
I've had mine for over ten years, and still they are EDC and used, often many times a day. If you want to try it, use a soft silicone and you can wear them for hours. Please also refer to Bre's disclaimer, it counts here too!
| Posted by: natetrue on December 18, 2006 at 5:22 PM |
The epoxy does bond to the hairs. But hairs come out.
| Posted by: rehorstmark@netscape.net on December 18, 2006 at 7:40 PM |
This is a bad idea. Epoxy is unhealthy stuff. Don't stick it into your ears, don'ttouch it with your bare skin. Don't breathe the vapors. Read the MSDS on epoxy and you'll get some idea of the sort of nastiness you're dealing with.
MR
| Posted by: natetrue on December 18, 2006 at 9:59 PM |
A. EYE CONTACT: Contact may cause eye irritation.
B. SKIN CONTACT: Prolong or repeated skin contact may cause irritation. Contact with product at elevated temperatures(>150¡É)can result in thermal burns.
Yeah, stay away from that stuff. You might get 'irritated'.
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