58 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
58 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
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title = 'Thanks to 3D printing, my headphones are fixed!'
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date = 2025-04-18
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Earlier this week, one of the hinges on my headphones broke. One moment it
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works; the next moment it flops around and doesn't sit right on my head.
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Like many other times where expensive things break, I initially got pretty
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bummed about it. It's easy to blame myself for being too rough with things
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because, well, I am. Regardless, sooner or later, everything _will_ inevitably
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break in some way. Quite often, something that should be a cheap fix will
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cripple a device because of a lack of spare parts.
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But now, unlike most of my life, I have the power to do something about that! 3D
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printing technology has become way more accessible in recent years. Replicating
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plastic parts to a reasonable level of precision is so much easier and cheaper
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(once you put in the initial investment of at least a few hundred USD).
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I was lucky to find a printable [model] online, so I didn't need to do any
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modeling myself this time. It printed in less than half an hour without much
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hassle, besides a few blemishes from support material that weren't too difficult
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to clean up.
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[model]: https://www.printables.com/model/167047
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Thankfully, these headphones seem to be designed to be taken apart. Getting at
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the hinge was just a matter of a few screws that were easy to reach, and a
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couple of plastic clips.
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The most annoying part of this process was actually getting the original hinge
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out. A cable needs to run through the hinge to get to the other ear. In the new
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part, there's an open channel for the cable, but in the original part, it
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completely surrounds the cable - it is stuck on there like a bead on string.
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I ended up taking flush cutters to the part to free it from the cable, but I
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nicked the cable in the process. It still works for now. In hindsight, I now
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know that it would be way easier and safer to open the ear assembly and desolder
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the cable in there - then it could be unthreaded more gently.
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Whew. After all of that, we are so back.
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These headphones have lasted me almost 3 years before needing repairs. It would
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have sucked to effectively lose $100 because of a piece of plastic. I'm
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fortunate to be able to fix it for just a few cents, plus a model provided by
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the collaborative efforts of a massive online community.
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It's not often that my printer pays out dividends like this. But this is one of
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its greatest and most satisfying superpowers - singlehandedly improving the
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repairability and longevity of many devices. I'm hoping that it continues to do
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so for me and for many others.
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