Wireless earpiece...Project Post-Apocalyptic

[burntheland]

We're taking on several jobs at the same time, as inconvenient as it may be, but this is my personal project I'm doing in the evenings at home. I'll be doing a cross between the two images with a little bit of my own spin.

My dog went ape-sh** on my headset one day...it still functions, but it's a pain in the rear to turn the volume up or down. Prime candidate for tearing apart I think.
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5632/xbox360wirelessheadset.jpg (http://img245.imageshack.us/i/xbox360wirelessheadset.jpg/)
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/1557/xbox360wirelessheadset2.jpg (http://img245.imageshack.us/i/xbox360wirelessheadset2.jpg/)
and this is what really gave me the inspiration to mod it out in the first place...
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/2018/steampunkheadset.jpg (http://img260.imageshack.us/i/steampunkheadset.jpg/)

I like the ideas of the clock gears...plus that's kind of a popular scheme at the moment. I'm thinking about doing a hard rosewood shell and somehow work in some leather and brass rivets. Then where the gears are the idea is to install a few small LED's jumpered off the CB and kind of hanging out in the gear housing for a sweet backlight effect. I'm thinking amber color for the LED's to compliment the shade of the wood and the copper/brass of the clock gears. The only thing I'm not sure about yet is really what I want to do for the piece that goes around your ear and holds it on your head. I know I could just paint it, but how boring is that? Ideas?

[x88x]

Interesting. You should know though, what you're describing doesn't fit into the 'post-apocalyptic' genre. It would be steampunk, possibly crossing a little with cyberpunk with the LEDs. Great idea though, personally I love them all. :D

As for the ear-mount-thing, you can't go wrong with brass. :D

For post-apocalyptic, think along the lines of Fallout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_%28series%29) and rat bikes (http://www.ratbike.org/). Basically, think what it would look like if your dog had just torn it apart..then it sat in a box for a decade..then somebody stepped on it...and you had to fix it with random bits that you happened to have lying around.

[burntheland]

Ah, thanks for the clarity! I hadn't heard of the other two so I pretty much just lumped them all into the same category. As long as it looks like it may have been crafted by another species I'm in. lol

I lumped it in like they lump Metal music together. ie: death metal, black metal, goth metal, heavy metal...blah blah blah

hmmm....maybe that's a project I should set aside for my mid thirties? I could go buy one now and have the dog chew on it tonight, step on that bad boy in ten years and BAM. and with the 2012 thing you never know...it may actually BE post-apocalyptic! haha.

[burntheland]

So I got my tamper-proof bits in yesterday. Anyone know what that means? An evening in the MANCAVE! Since I just bought a house I'm still kind of going through the 'junk' that the older gent left there for me. It's quite a process but as soon as I get everything rearranged and dusted off I'll be sure to post pics :D

I finally got the headset disassembled after about an hour of being super careful not to destroy it, as I'm infamous for. Now that I've got it down to brass tacks it's time to get some dimensions and start fabricating my design. I took a picture of it totally disassembled but unfortunately I forgot my camera today, so I pic I jacked from google images will have to suffice for now.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3371/headsetscratch.jpg (http://img696.imageshack.us/i/headsetscratch.jpg/)

For the piece that encloses the speaker and the battery, I would really like to do something in a stained wood. Cut into to two sections and fitted together and bonded via wood glue, a clamp, and 24 hours. And on the side that actually has the speaker, I was thinking riveted leather and maybe a really old school speaker cover. This will be a little bit of a challenge as I'm sure it'll be dang near impossible to find something that will fit that's already been premade....but that's half the fun. There is a certain feel I'm going for here, I want the vintage look, something kind of like this...
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/7594/skeakercover.jpg (http://img46.imageshack.us/i/skeakercover.jpg/)

Here is where I'm stumped right out of the gate...or at least have some important questions. I wonder what a good kind of wood is to use to cut to close to dimension, and whittle and carve the rest out by hand.... also, I don't know anything at all about leather working, but for some reason I just don't think this project will be complete without it. If anyone knows a good tutorial for leather working with rivets on a very small scale, please drop me a link. As for now I'll keep cruising google for some info.

[x88x]

For the wood, I would recommend a tight-grained hardwood, maybe oak or cherry. Look around in a hobby shop or hardware store till you find something you like. :D

As for the leather, I really can't help you with that. I think Mach may have said something about it in his Berserkergang thread (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19902) though. ..incidentially, if you haven't read through that worklog yet...do. :D

I gotta admit, this thread started me thinking, and now I really want to do a post-apocalyptic mod...maybe that's what I'll do with Faust... :think:

[burntheland]

I like the look of anything that looks like it's been run through the gammot. I'm not much of a carpenter so I appreciate the input on the wood selection. A hardwood is what I had pretty much concluded for a prime candidate, but thanks, you sealed the deal. I will definitely hit up that thread for a read. I just got finished reading all of the r e f l e X i o n build and wow.....I mean wow. I plan on taking a note from that guy and taking my SWEET time on this mod. DETAILS FTW!

[burntheland]

BRIEF UPDATE:

Finally got some time out in the shop and got to get my new scroll saw all setup. Going to try and sell my guitar and the rest of my music equipment and see if I can afford a table router. I found one on eBay with a "buy it now" for under 200 bucks! But anyway, I also picked up some lumber at Lowes and I decided to go with Oak. Partially because of the limited selection. Picking up my calipers tonight so I can start getting some accurate dimensions and start bringing out some of the pieces.

I'm also expecting to get several tools in today. My dremel, dremel bits, and my wood carving bits.

Tonight I hope to get the mancave re-arranged tonight to help out with the functionality. There is a lot of potential in that little shop, I just have to get the time in out there to get her all cleaned up. A lot of junk just needs thrown out. Other stuff definitely needs to hang around. I should probably just take a massive inventory count so I actually know what I have. But for now the "pick and choose" process will have to do. More to come shortly.

[x88x]

Not to discourage you from buying off eBay (idk, it might be a great deal; depends on the make/model), but one of these Bosch models would probably be good. I should note, I haven't actually seen/used either of these, but Bosch makes good quality stuff.

Lowes: Bosch (no model # listed): $170 (http://www.lowes.com/pd_131779-353-RA1171_0_?productId=1132353&Ntt=router%20table&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?firstReferURL=http://www.lowes.com/SearchCatalogDisplay?storeId=10151$langId=-1$catalogId=10051$N=0$newSearch=true$Ntt=router%2B table$x=0$y=0$newSearch=true$zipCode=20707$Ntt=rou ter%20table$URL=StoreLocatorDisplayView$selectedLo calStoreBeanArray=[com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStore Bean@7752cf14,%20com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.b eans.LocatorStoreBean@77718f14,%20com.lowes.commer ce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStoreBean@749e0f14,%2 0com.lowes.commerce.storelocator.beans.LocatorStor eBean@74bc8f14,%20com.lowes.commerce.storelocator. beans.LocatorStoreBean@74dc8f14]$y=0$x=0)

Home Depot: Bosch RA1181: $190 (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh7/R-100466926/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)

[burntheland]

If I had the money....I'll have to agree. I cross referenced lowes, home depot, and my local hardware store after what i thought was a "deal" on ebay. However, I cant really spend the money right now, and for this particular project the router wouldn't really come in handy. This is going to be a little soldering, a little metal fab, and a lot of really cautious wood work on my part.

However for any other number of projects that I'm taking on I can see how a router would obviously be extremely beneficial. Let's just say that I plan on being a good boy and maybe Santa will get one for me ;D