Repairing Some Old Beats, Take 2

I have a pair of old Beats headphones which, at this point, I'm not going to let die (See: https://www.instructables.com/Yarn-Bomb-Some-Old-Beats). I am Theseus, and these are my headphones. By mass, we're now at about 50% replaced parts. This time, the headband broke, so I had to make a new one. In the process of making a new and improved headband, I realized that the repair was going to trash the audio wire running from the left to right earmuff, so I also redid the wire.

Consumables:

1. 1/2" aluminum flat bar
2. 4 10 mm M3 machine screws
3. 4 M3 nuts
4. Yarn
5. 3D printer filament
6. Audio wire & solder
7. Epoxy

Tools:

1. 3D printer
2. Dremel with metal cutting disk
3. Grinding wheel or at least some metal files
4. Screwdrivers
5. Regular and metal drill bits
6. Wire strippers
7. Soldering iron
8. Clamps
9. G/4 mm crochet hook & yarn needle

You'll need to take off the old headband. There are two screws on each side that will come out easily, and the rubber inner lining will peel away. Keep these pieces to help you get sizing and shape right.

Use a Dremel with a metal cutting bit to cut the aluminum bar to the right length (Picture #1). I worked out the right length to being 8 3/4". Next, take the grinding wheel and/or metal files to it to round out the angles on both ends (Pictures #2-5). You will also need to file down the corners a little deeper (Picture #6) so that it will fit down into the setting to connect both earmuffs (Picture #7). Once you get it set, mark the holes for drilling. I didn't have metric bits, but a 7/64" bit worked well for the M3 as long as I threaded the bolt through a few times.

Next, get the bend on the aluminum. You don't have to get it perfect, you can work it out more later. It's useful to have the old headband as a guide (Pictures #11-12).

Print out the two files attached. I printed with PLA because that's all I can do, but there are definitely better materials out there for this if you have access to them. For the inner band, I realized later that it would benefit from having a little relief in the edge for where it makes contact with the machine screws.

Sandwich the aluminum band between the two plastic bands and bolt one side onto an earmuff with two machine screws and nuts (Picture #1). For the other side, I ended up clipping the screw holes so that there was give in the bands to flex a bit (Picture #2-3).

Next, lash the bands together using the notches in the outer plastic band as a guide (Pictures #4-7). I did two wraps around each notch and then crossed up to the next one. Then I went back down the length of the band the other way, doing two wraps again at each notch. Finally, finish it off with a yarn needle on the inside. Having this lashing kind of bulky also helps keep the final crocheted cover in place.

First, pry off the earmuffs with a flat knife. Step #2 of the last headphones instructable (https://www.instructables.com/Yarn-Bomb-Some-Old-Beats) had clearer pictures of this if needed. Remove the 3 screws from each plate (Picture #1) and clip the wire connecting between the left and right earmuffs.

Thread a segment of audio wiring under the lashings and leave yourself plenty of extra length on both ends (Pictures #2-5). Drill a hole on the outer cup of each ear (Picture #6) and run the wire through. Solder the wires to the connection for the right speaker which are on the board for the left speaker (Picture #7). Pull through excess slack to the right side, trim any excessive slack and solder to the connections for the right speaker. Make sure to leave yourself enough slack on both sides to be able to extend each earmuff fully.

Screw the plates back onto the cups for the ears (Picture #8). Reapply epoxy to the backs of the earmuffs and clamp them back in place (Picture #9). I left them to dry overnight.

Time to crochet the new cover. I did this in a two tone to complement what I had done in the last repair. For this design, I started in a deep purple (Color 1) and then used the gray (Color 2). All crochets use a G/4 mm hook, and I'm using US terminology. If you count the stitches in the images, the basic design is correct, but it won't be long enough for the pattern described below. Originally, I made this design too short, but I didn't take good pictures of the remake. The only thing that changed was the number of sc in the long run of sc that make up most of this pattern. The more detailed parts match the pictures.

Starting in Color 1:

1. 49 ch
2. Starting in the second to last ch: sc2inc, sc for 46 st, sc4inc (you're now working around the corner on the opposite end from where you started, so you can think of this as a sc2inc, circling around to the other side of the same chain, and then doing another sc2inc on the other side), sc for 46 st, sc2inc [100 st round]
3. sc2inc, sc for 48 st, sc2inc, sc2inc, sc for 48 st, sc2inc, sl st to finish off [104 st round]

Switch to Color 2:

1. Starting in the first solo sc (st #3) of the last round that you did in Color 2 and working in blo for this row: sc2inc, sc for 46 st, sc2inc, ch 1 and turn [50 st]
2. Sc for 50 st, ch 1 and turn [50 st]
3. Sc for 50 st, ch 1 and turn [50 st]
4. Working in flo for this row: Sc for 50 st, ch 1 and turn [50 st]
5. Sc for 50 st, finish off and leave a long tail [50 st]

Rotate the piece 180 degrees and follow the Color 2 instructions again. This time you will be starting in the first solo sc after working around the bend of row 3 for Color 1. This would be the 55th st of round 3 for Color 1.

Finally, stitch on the new cover. This can be simple, just use the two long tails that you left in the crochet pattern to stitch the two exposed sides of crochet together. The blo and flo crocheting in the pattern will make it naturally want to bend around the headband at the correct spots to wrap it.

I do show in the pictures a way to do a slightly more complicated stitch. The reason for doing this is that it allows you to tie a tight knot on each stitch, but it buries the knot on the underside of the piece so that only a single lash of yarn is visible on each stitch for the outside. I'm sure there's a technical term for this that I'm ignorant of, but I drew a diagram of the stitch in Picture #1. Picture #2 shows steps 1-2 in the diagram, Picture #3 shows step 3, and Picture #4 shows step 4. Picture #5 is what you should get when you pull tight.

Keep working that stitch from both sides and meet in the middle. Tie the two ends together and burry the knot. Thread them through the inside to finish off.

There we have it, a fun new headband for a revived pair of headphones!