iPod / iPhone -- Passive Speaker project

Art Mulder

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Location
London, Ontario
Quick, Simple, Fun project — build it in a few hours.
Make a gift for your kids (I did) or …



My kids sometimes play music directly from the "speaker" in their iPods. I discovered "passive speakers" online and decided to build my own for them. This was a prototype which I threw together in an evening, and it worked surprisingly well. So I made another, documenting some of it as I go.

Basically, there is a funnel cut into the wood beneath the iPod. And a few blocks glued into the funnel to prevent the iPod from sliding in too deep.



Started with some pieces of spalted maple, to glue up and be the core. As well a piece of cherry was resawed and planed down to about 1/4" to make up the sides.



I took dimensions off the protytype. In fact I don't think I did any careful measuring at all with this project, I just eyeballed most dimensions. For the 2nd one, I took markings off the original, as well as off of the next iPod, and freehand drew a funnel on the side of the maple core.



Here the funnel was cut out of the core on the bandsaw. I then sanded the inside of the pieces, as that is the only time you can get at them.



Here are the parts for the new one, compared to the original Prototype. This should make clear how it goes together. The side pieces were then glued on.



A couple small blocks were glued in place inside the top of the funnel, about 3/4" down from the top, to support the iPod. I used 5 minute epoxy to make this step as easy as possible.



Several coats of spray lacquer and it was all done!



If you’re interested, here is a 5 minute build video. I don’t have a great studio sound system, but at the beginning I demonstrate how the audio is focussed and improved using the prototype.
 
Cool idea, Art. :thumb: I'll bet you could do a stereo version, too. And make it look better than this one:

BsdqP7BCMAA0mZp.jpg:large
 
yeah the koostik is gorgeous, Rob. I saw those also. I admit that mine is kind of boxy. It started as an experiment, and I was surprised at how well it worked, so I just kept it simple. It's not going to get huge use anyway. :)
 
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