First few headphones made at the new office
This one has a nice custom neutrik jack
So bright it hurts – all UV reactive colours and matching custom flight case
Alex Gray
Turquoise goodness
Phil Tennant HD25-1 with yellow bits 😉
We have moved – only 600yards down the road but it still counts ;)
We have just moved to a bigger office to cope with the increased amount of stock we are carrying. We have rented two offices on an industrial estate in cheltenham. One for all the painting and one for all the design work and to hold stock.
We had a few teething problems to begin with… Day one – no eamil, Day two the compressor melted down meaning we could not airbrush anything, day three new compressor arrived and I accidentally had the pressure to high and filled the whole building with paint fumes. But after sorting all that and buying some v-expensive filters and air purifiers to eliminate the smell we are fully up and running and able to knock out headphones much faster and more reliably.
This months batch of customs
Here is a few pics of some of this months offerings….
These are the first digitally printed pair we have done – they are based on the ZOMO HD1200 and we will probably be offering this service in the future.
Rocket Red HD25-1 with a blue pearl over the top so it glints with silvery blue in the light
Pretty Pearlescent Pink
These were specially made for the Rane rep
These are another first – they light up and flash in time with the music. You can also see one of the ammo box ghetto blasters I am working on for next summer
80s Sci-Fi inspired gold HD25-1
These took ages to get the ears to work properly
Glow in the dark Tech
Custom Headphone Pads GIVE AWAY
Nearly forgot to mention….. We are giving away some headphone pads this month. To get a chance to win them just click the like button on the facebook widget on the right of the blog. We will then pick a couple of names out of the hat at the end of the month.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/CustomCans/199003806837814
Adidas Very Originals
Finally got my hands on some of the fabulous Adidas Original HD25-1. I love the blue cable and pads. Here is what I came up with
Version 2 of the audiophile cable
This is a swankier updated version. It as made from a slightly thicker Silver plated oxygen free copper and is generally a bit sexier. I have sent one of the original ones to a chap in Canada for testing to see how much difference the cable makes to the sound
Destruction testing the paintwork
I thought I would post a vid of the tests we have done on the new paint finishes.
First we tried a drop test to see if the paint would chip off. We dropped an earcup from a first floor window to see what would happen. On impact the driver popped out of the cup but the paintwork survived even better than I expected. On examination the paint only had a small scuff where it hit and after a bit of a wipe with some polish that went away. There is also some footage of the adhesion tests we did to make sure the paint was stuck to the plastic properly.
Septembers batch of HD25s
Here are some newer ones
Headphone painting guide – How we do it
Here at custom cans we have an open kimono business model which means we try not to have any trade secrets. This is a quick guide to how we paint the headphones, I’m not saying it is necessarily the only, best or quickest way to do it. But we have been experimenting for a couple of years to try and get the right combo and it passes all the adhesion, chip and scratch tests. I will try to remember to post some vids of the destruction tests 😉
OK Here we go…
Firstly we dismantle the headphones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40T0ccS3uAc then sand them with 800 grit sand paper. Once the shiny surface had been removed we give them a coat of 2k adhesion promoter to make the paint bond permanently to the plastic.
Next we give them several thin coats of AutoAir white sealer alowing each coat to dry before applying the next.
Once they are looking fully white we then give them a couple of coats of bright white AutoAir paint as the sealer is a slightly off white.
Then they are left to dry fully. When the auto air paint drys it is porous. So to bond all the layers together we use a thinned down 2k urethane clearcoat. Because it is thinned down it can soak into the porous paint and harden it. Then we give them two more coats of clear allowing 30mins inbetween coats for it to reach a gel before the next coat goes on. Then they go in the dryer. The clear coat normally takes 24 hrs to dry which is why we use an infra-red dryer to speed up the process without getting the plastic too hot. This cuts the drying time down to a few hours saving a lot of time.
Than once the clearcoat has hardened we give them a bit of wet sanding to get a nice smooth surface to do the design on.
Then another coat of bright white just for luck
Once that is dry then it is time to start on the design. These ones are simple block colours so it is just a case of masking them. We use a plotter to cut the masks on Artool Ultramask. We use this because it allows us to stretch the mask over the curved surface.
As you can see I have started by spraying the red details then masked over the red bits I want to keep. Then over it all with several layers of AutoAir black
Then the exciting bit… Taking off the masks
Then go back in and neaten up some of the edges and sort out any overspray
Then 3 more coats of of clear and they are done
