Need noise? Print a pair of headphones
The spoils of owning a 3D printer get even sweeter now that you can create a pair of working headphones.
Design firm Teague knows a thing or two about making things. After all, the company's design portfolio includes (among many other creations) the Polaroid camera, the Xbox, and even the UPS truck.
John Mabry, a senior industrial designer at Teague, believes we're entering an age where we can print out working consumer electronics instead of buying them from major corporations. Built around the concept that we live a "life in beta," Mabry freely offers plans for a working pair of headphones that anyone can print with a MakerBot Replicator 3D printer.
"This project started as a thought piece around printed consumer electronics and the idea that they could be as easy to turn into working product as they are to print," Mabry says in a description about the headphones. "Meaning that once off the print bed, such an object could be assembled without any tools, and be made functional by readily attainable components."
Aside from the obvious requisites of a 3D printer and material to print with, creating the 13:30 headphones only requires less than a $20 worth of components (speakers, cables, etc.) to assemble.
The unusual name 13:30 derives from how many hours and minutes it took Mabry to print out the first pair with a Dimension 1200ES 3D printer. To further complement the aforementioned beta concept, Teague posted the design on Thingiverse and hosts the 13:30 headphone CAD files, meaning that anyone can take this design and make it their own.
