Fun winter project. Make your own Quality Metal Detector headphones

[dirtyJohn]

Another TNet member was kind enough to share a tutorial on building your own Metal Detector headphones.

The Headphone manufacturers use these same shells for Grey ghosts, Killer Bees, Black Widows, etc that these various ear protection companies make. I got a set that looks just like the Black Widows shell. They're stuffed with foam that you need to complete the making the headphones. The speakers are 600 ohm and sound every bit as good if not better than my grey ghosts! The guy who shared the tutorial said they sounded like his ratphones. I bought most of the parts from Mouser Electronics online.

I made them with volume controls for each ear and installed a toggle switch as a kill switch so I can hear my hand held pinpointer. I used heat shrink tubing to secure the cables to the headset and vinyl grommets to protect and waterproof where the cables enter the earcups. I also cut a vinyl grommet in half and used each half to seal the holes where the volume controls are tightened on. Of course there was also a lot of soldering

The earcups are deeper than my Grey ghosts and have more padding to make for slightly less ambient noise getting through.

This was a totally fun winter project even though I had to wire them slightly different from the tutorial in order to get them to work with my detector but for about $30, I made a $100+ set of quality headphones.
Thanks for reading
HH
John

[d-dub]

Great job, John. They look great!

[ThTx]

Nice looking headphones.

[dirtyJohn]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to put in the pics after I wired it up. So here they are. I also forgot to mention the cord is detachable (guitar cable). I put a headphone jack in the headphones. Thanks for reading
HH
John

[Lookn4Seated]

Sweet!

[d-dub]

The detachable cord sounds like a great feature. I can't count how many times I've gotten mine hung up on a tree ripping them right off my head.

[Lowbatts]

Put together a few sets myself John. You can also use RJ11 jacks and phone cord.

I put mine together for about 10 bucks, using speakers from some of those old walkman style headsets and other small phones.

[watercolor]

Nice job John!

If you're thinking of trying them out this winter, a pair of ankle socks
(with a small hole on the toe end) will keep your ears toasty warm )