Mag Lites for Mic Bodies...

[frais_cafe]

Hi. I've been trolling for a while after talking to Soundguy (Dave) about some preamps - he recommended that it'd be better for me to DIY than to buy some from a certain make and it piqued my curiousity.

Anyway, I figured it's about time that I contributed something, even if I haven't built anything yet. I came across this:

http://www.innertubeaudio.com/mm2000.html

Figured since so many people were having trouble with making mic bodies for the G7 and whatnot that this might be of some use. They're using a Mag Lite body, looks like the "2 through 4 C-Cell" type. You can check out the product line here:

http://www.maglite.com/productline.asp

They're made from Aluminum, so they should be easy-ish to work on if you need to machine them at all. The only problem that I'm seeing is that they're anodized inside - would that affect being able to solder a grill assembly to the body at all?

Anyway, thought this would be of help to someone.

 

[BYacey]

Aluminum normally doesn't solder well at all. Special fluxes are needed and even then I haven't seen satisfactory results. The anodizing renders it completely unsolderable unless the oxide layer is scraped off. This is why brass, steel or copper are the materials of choice for DIY.

 

[fum]

Even with the above stated, it's still looks cool. :grin:

 

[alk509]

[quote author="fum"]Even with the above stated, it's still looks cool. :grin:[/quote]

Heheh... I think it looks like ass! :razz:

Peace,
Al.

 

[soundguy]

[quote author="alk509"][quote author="fum"]Even with the above stated, it's still looks cool. :grin:[/quote]

Heheh... I think it looks like ass! :razz:

Peace,
Al.[/quote]

me too.

when you offering mic bodies al?

dave

 

[alk509]

[quote author="soundguy"]when you offering mic bodies al?[/quote]

Soon, David... Soon....

:green:

Seriously though, I haven't found a cost effective way to make them. Machine shops want upwards of 50 bucks per body, plus the price of materials. And although I now have it down to where I can have a body ready in less than two hours, a dremel and files can only get you so far in terms of the precision of the cuts, the straightness of the lines, etc...

The bottom part I designed is expensive too (~$25 ea.), and I don't have the funds right now to order a bunch of them...

And then you get into the individualities of each mic design, like PCB vs. point-to-point-, PCB size, type of connector used, etc., etc., etc., which when combined make it really hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution...

But have no fear... I'm working on it! :thumb:

Peace,
Al.

 

[AudioJunkie]

Hey Al,

What machine shops have you contacted? I've given up on Houston area shops. No they all say, "sure, send us your drawings and we'll get back to you with a quote" Then i never hear anything back. So I may have to try some shops elsewhere.

Daniel

 

[alk509]

[quote author="AudioJunkie"]What machine shops have you contacted? I've given up on Houston area shops. No they all say, "sure, send us your drawings and we'll get back to you with a quote" Then i never hear anything back.[/quote]

Yeah, that's happened to me too, but some of them have answered back. I think if you're trying to get onesies and twosies made, they might be less inclined to help you, but I've asked for quotes for 20-50 bodies...

So far I've only contacted local shops (Northeastern Mass), and emachineshop.com.

Peace,
Al.

 

[fum]

[quote author="soundguy"][quote author="alk509"][quote author="fum"]Even with the above stated, it's still looks cool. :grin:[/quote]

Heheh... I think it looks like ass! :razz:

Peace,
Al.[/quote]

me too.

when you offering mic bodies al?

dave[/quote]

Oh, come on! If the mic sounded ****** great, what a conversation piece! Sure it don't look like a work of art, but in a pinch, you could rip it off the stand and deck the crazed groupy tryin to bum-rush you in the studio :wink:

ju

 

[fum]

[quote author="al"]Seriously though, I haven't found a cost effective way to make them. Machine shops want upwards of 50 bucks per body, plus the price of materials.[/quote]

I guess it depends on what you call cost effective. To me, <$100 for a nice mic body is cost effective. :grin:

ju

 

[Guest]

Hmm... that is the ugliest damn mic I've seen in a while... Maybe it sounds good though.

 

[Emperor-TK]

I too am in the "looks like ass" camp. I saw these mics a couple of years ago before I was into DIY and I laughed my ass off. I don't care what it sounds like, I would never make a client sing into a flashlight, no sooner than I would make them sing into a large rubber phallus. At that time, the marketing hook was that the flashlight body was a cost saving measure, so you would get more mic for your money. Now with whole mics costing $79 they cant make that argument anymore. I smell a marketing gimmick.

Bear in mind, I am the guy who built my alembic bass pre in a fruitcake tin. I have totaly different standards for DIY and commercial products. Gus lent me a mic that has a power supply built into an electrical junction box. Totaly cool. If Soundeluxe wanted to sell me a power supply built in a junction box, totally uncool.

-Chris

 

[soundguy]

thats good news al, looking forward to getting one in the future.

A mic in a flashlight is one thing to build yourself I guess, but to offer from an established company for $2k is just sorta BS. I have no problems with the stuff *I* make looking all quirky, but to spend top dollar for someone elses quirky POS is a jagged pill to swallow. How about this, charge me $2250 and get a decent body for the damn thing...

dave

 

[alk509]

[quote author="fum"]I guess it depends on what you call cost effective. To me, <$100 for a nice mic body is cost effective.[/quote]

$8 for the body material.
$50 for the body work.
$25 for the bottom endcap.
$6 for powder coating everything.
$15 for two aluminum bars, a top plate to mount the capsule on, a tube socket holding thingy, a grill, conductive epoxy and screws to hold everything in place.

That's about 105 bucks. And these are discounted prices (buying enough materials for about 20 bodies). As you can see, it adds up pretty quikcly. And I'm not even taking into account the cost of shipping all these materials to me, the cost of my design work, the cost of the work forming the grill and gluing it in, the cost of my (limited) space,the cost of sending the body "kit" to customers, my profit, etc...

When I talked to Dave about offering bodie for sale, a figure of $100/kit came up, and I thought it was too much... but the more I look at it, the more it seems like even that would be too little... $150-$200 would be more like it!

So what I'm working on right now is trying to drop the costs of materials and labor to a point where I can actually offer these body kits for $100, give or take a few dollars. Wish me luck! :roll:

Peace,
Al.

 

[fum]

Ok,

I'm in agreement on that point. Mic in a flashlight for DIY is cool, but not for a commercial product.

I guess my perspective is a little skewed anymore. I spend so much of my time holed up in my little lab cooking up ****, that I don't think on these things much :roll:


ju

 

[bcarso]

"I don't care what it sounds like, I would never make a client sing into a flashlight, no sooner than I would make them sing into a large rubber phallus."

I see potential here---a whole line of adult novelty mics.

When H*rm*n started making that three-piece Soundsticks system, targeting Apple customers, I was sure the satellites were going to show up in a porn flick, and not just providing background music.

Seriously though, re-using materials that are recognizable can be a mistake if image is important. I did some designs for pipe locators and foolishly signed up for a royalty as compensation. I did eventually make some money, but because the company owner had a very bad sense of how much appearances counted, the first models were poorly received---you could look at them and figure out what hardware store pieces were used for the construction, making the whole enterprise look like the shoestring garage shop operation it was.

 

[Emperor-TK]

LOL! Those look like they can be fun for both girls and boys...

"Uuum doctor, yeah, I have a subwoofer stuck on my thingy. I've also lost all my low end response..."

 

[frais_cafe]

LOL! Looking at those satellites I can see how image is everything ...

Didn't know about the aluminum being bad for soldering - figured with rack cases being aluminum it should be ok. Whatever.

I was thinking, though, that some of the smaller ones might make great small condensers (if you can find some capsules). You might even be able to rig it for changeable capsules. (cardioid, omni, etc.) Or you could use the smallest one for those TapeOp mics (like Brad's Avensons). After all, it is DIY.

Al: $100 would be cool for a mic body. It's not a "German Reissue Body," but look at what they're asking for those. $100 is more than reasonable in my boat. It won't be a flashlight, but I'll live.

 

[Consul]

I actually had the thought once of using a Maglite for mic bodies. My idea, though, was to use the smaller AA-cell Mags as bodies for simple electret mics.

I don't think I'd buy a $2000 microphone made from a Maglite, but it does seem to lend itself to being a decent DIY solution. Last I checked, the larger Maglites were on the order of $30 or so? Not too bad.

 

[bcarso]

There are also a lot of at least little maglite knockoffs for way less---I know because TI gave me some with a promotion of some sort.