**The Quest for Perfection: A Personal Journey to Design and Manufacture a Custom Headset**

As I sat in front of my workbench, staring at the raw materials laid out before me, I knew that I was on a mission to create something truly special. The task at hand was to design and manufacture a custom headset that would not only meet but exceed the expectations of its intended consumer. With a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve, I set to work, determined to make this project a success.

The first step in my journey was to identify the key features and requirements of the headset. Who was the target consumer? What were their needs and preferences? I spent hours researching and deliberating on these questions, finally coming to the conclusion that I was designing for myself. With this clarity, I began to sketch out rough designs and prototypes, testing different materials and configurations.

As I worked through the design process, I realized that one of the most critical aspects of the headset would be its ability to mirror symmetrical curves. I took a picture of one of these curves, brought it into CAD software, and mirrored it on the other side. The result was a duplicate line that perfectly complemented the original. This breakthrough marked a significant milestone in my design process, as I began to see the headset take shape.

However, I soon discovered that certain materials posed challenges for manufacturing. Quarter-inch material would require doubling up surfaces, which meant that finishing those surfaces would be necessary to eliminate the appearance of stacked pieces of wood. This was not an option I was willing to pursue. The next hurdle was deciding whether to use half-inch MDF or 100% CNC'd material. While CNC'd material offered precision and consistency, it also limited my ability to assemble the components. On the other hand, using half-inch MDF would make the assembly process easier but might compromise the overall design.

I weighed the pros and cons of each option carefully, considering factors such as functionality, aesthetics, and manufacturability. Ultimately, I decided that a combination of both materials was the way forward. While all components except one part could be CNC'd with half-inch MDF, the curved front piece would require 3D printing to achieve the desired shape.

With my design decisions made, it was time to move on to the next step: modeling. I fired up Fusion 360 and set to work creating a 3D model of the curved front piece. After about 30-45 minutes of modeling, I had created a shape that not only looked better from the front but also featured pins that would stick out the bottom for easy assembly.

Encouraged by my progress, I turned my attention to the back panel, which initially looked quite poor. Undeterred, I set to work creating a new model that would improve upon the original design. The result was a ledge with the correct profile and holes in the back for matching pins as the front piece. Drilling some holes and using dowels to secure these components would ensure a smooth assembly process.

As I refined my design, I also realized that additional features such as CNC'd pockets for the base of the charger and modified shapes for the back panel could enhance the overall functionality and appearance of the headset. With each iteration, my design became more refined, more precise, and more beautiful.

Finally, after days of tinkering and experimentation, I stood back to admire my handiwork. The final version of the headset had exceeded all my expectations. It was not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing, with clean lines and a minimalist approach that would fit seamlessly into any design style. The process of creating this custom headset had been a journey of discovery, one that taught me about perseverance, creativity, and the importance of taking the time to get it right.

**Files Available for Download**

As a parting gift for our viewers, we will be making all the files available for download on our website. This includes the CAD models, 3D print files, and assembly instructions for those who wish to create their own custom headset. A link to this resource will be shared in the description below.

**The Final Product**

With its sleek design, precision engineering, and attention to detail, our custom headset is ready to take on any gaming or audio challenge. Whether mounted on a wall or used on a tabletop, it promises to deliver exceptional sound quality and an unparalleled level of comfort. Join us next time as we explore more innovative projects and cutting-edge technologies.

**Bloopers**

As I wrapped up my project, I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment and excitement for the future. But before that, let's take a look at some behind-the-scenes footage of my design process. Enjoy this collection of bloopers from my workshop, where we often laugh, learn, and create something new together.

[Insert bloopers section]

Thank you for watching, and happy building!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm inside the computer, man!This is awesome.I want to scan the entire shop.Ooh!What?Ah!Hey, I'm Bob, at I Like To Make Stuff.Today, we're going to solve the one and only problem I can find with the PSVR2.Usually, when we make project videos, we jump right into showing you the design,and showing you how we're gonna build the thing.But I think there's a lot of stuff that gets skipped therebecause we do all that work beforehand.So today, even though we have a thingthat we're going to build,I would like to take some timeto talk about how I think about design,how I end up at the solution that we end up building.Obviously, this process is different for everybody.So my way is not the only way,but I wanted to give you some insight.We have to think about three big thingsas we go into designing a solution for something.Who is the consumer is one really, really big thing.What functions does your object need to performand how do you want it to look?So let's go through those one at a time.So the first thing you gotta dois figure out who the consumer is.This isn't necessarily a customer.I mean, it might be if you're selling something.In this case, I'm the consumer'cause I'm making this for meto hold something that I bought in my cabinet.But usually you have to think about who that consumer is,what makes them unique,how do you build something specificallyto solve a problem for them,and you wanna make sure that you're not creating workin your solution for the consumer to do.But like I said, in this case, I'm the consumer.So even though I know what I want,I still need to define it to make surethat I can meet those goals.The whole point is to store the PlayStation VR controllersand their charger plus the headset.And so we have to think about a few thingsin regard to that.This headset has a cable,so we have to be able to store the cable and the headset,as well as this holder and the controllers.This holder also gets plugged in,so we have to have a way to get power to it.So in my case, we've got all of our game systemsin a cabinet here.There's no room in here to put this whole new setup.So in the cabinet next to it,where we have a bunch of other stuff just kind of thrown in,what I want to do is actually build a holderthat's going to mount to the back wallthat can hold both of these thingsthat we're trying to design for.But in addition to that,I want this holder to also work sitting on a surface.Another consideration in this case,because I'm fitting it into this area,I want this thing to be as small as possible.The next thing to think about is what you want it to look like, what the aesthetic of the object needs to be.And in this case, if we were trying to show off the holder, we would probably want to try to match the aesthetic of the headset itself.Matte white, black, plain and smooth.But like I mentioned before, we're actually trying to make this thing disappear.We don't want to see it any more than possible, so it's not a huge concern.But we can take cues from a simple kind of black and kind of white would be a good way to make it disappear within the headset even more.So we've defined the three things.Who the consumer is, it's me, what we want the thing to do, we listed all those out,and what we want it to look like, which is basically nothing.Next step is to start to sketch it out and actually figure out as much of the idea as you can on paperbefore you start doing anything, because a lot of times you can solve a lot of problems just on a piece of paper.So, I've got this cool notebook that we actually sell on our website, but it's graph paper.I like to work in graph paper because in case I need that graph to help sketch something, I've got it.This is a great place to start.But since we're making a video, and this might be hard for you to see, let's go to the whiteboard.So here's what I want to do with this. I want to make a simple shelf that this can sit on,and then I want this to kind of nestle over it and get as close as possible and be held in kindof that orientation. That's going to compress these two things together as much as I possibly can.So we're going to have a back and a bottom section. We need to have a strong joint here.And then on this surface, we're going to have the charger is going to sit right about here.We want the headset to come down right here. We need something back here for the back of the headset to sit on,and then some sort of a front piece to come up for the front of the headset.It needs to rest in these two places, but we have to think about a few things.One, the material that's touching these things.There's a lot of padding on this headset, and we want to make sure that we're not putting too much stress in one place on the paddingso we don't get a little divot that's just going to stay there forever.So we might have to spread this connection point out around the front and the back of the headset.the headset. So what we should do is take some measurements of the actual items andthen start to apply those measurements here so we can use some different prototype methodsto make these pieces and start to iterate through this.I got the most basic measurements possible. It's really just the outer bounds of theseobjects except for the kind of distance between the contact points of the headset. That'swhat I care about on that particular piece. The whole idea of building a prototype isto do the first step in something. You're not trying to start out by making the finalproduct, right? So you want to use materials that are easy to work with, that are inexpensive,because you know that your first iteration is probably not going to be the final one.So I've got a bunch of different things that I've used over the years to build out physicalthings that are very inexpensive. So let's go through a few of them so you have someideas. Popsicle sticks or tongue depressors are fantastic. This doesn't work in everysituation if you need a big flat piece of material. But for connecting things, you can glue these together,you can break them, you can cut them very easily. And then bamboo skewers are another great way to kind of poke through, connect things together.They can simulate a rod that would later be turned into a piece of steel or a piece of aluminum, something like that.So these are great simple things to start with. And on top of that, you have some big surfaces that you want to work with.Cardboard is a fantastic one. And what I often do is I'll cut down an Amazon box from an order that I get and keep the bigpieces around for stuff just like this. These were actually things that I had for a longtime and I put them in the recycling a couple of days ago before we decided to make thisvideo so I grabbed them out to use them for this specifically. Cardboard is fantastic.Another similar option is CoraPlast. This is a corrugated plastic sheet. These are usedfor signage and stuff. It's a really cheap way to have a material that you can both bendbut you can keep a rigid surface, you can hot glue it together, it's easy to cut withutility knife, this stuff's pretty great. In addition to that, you've got foam board, and this is kind of like a foam corewith paper on the outside. You can get in a bunch of different colors,but it has just enough rigidity to it that you can actually build a simple structure out of it.It's also easy to cut and easy to glue together. Past that, you have things like styrene.This is just a plastic sheet of styrene material.This is very, very thin, and you can get it in all different thicknesses.This stuff is very easy to bend.You can use heat to shape it, and this is actually the material that I would use in a vacuum former,probably to copy a shape. We're going to start with cardboard because I have a lot of it and it's easy to see on camera.So basically I'm just going to start by laying a piece out, getting the elements laid out on top of it, and start to trace that.The bottom section is actually going to be really easy. The back section is going to be even easier.The difficult thing here, or the part that has to be specific, is the part that holds the headset.The front and the back little ledges. So we'll get the first base plate down and then we can always come back and refine that shape.but let's just get the maximum dimensions first.We have to build up these shapeswhere the headset's gonna rest.And since I don't know the final material,I don't know if it's gonna be half inch plywoodor three quarter inch plywood or something else.So we're just gonna use the cardboard again,cut it into pieces and laminate it togetherto build up a shelf here.And then later on, we can decide what material to turn that into when we get to that point.All right, this is prototype one.Obviously, it's not very refined, but we need to see if these things work, if they do the job.So let's just fit this all together and see how it looks.This needs to go pretty much right up against that edge.We may have to move it forward and backward a little bit.Let's see if these work.Okay, it does work, but I already see a couple of problems.One, there is nothing stopping the headset from moving.So if I were to push like this, it's going to start to fall off the front edge.Nothing hooks it back here, so we need to make sure that those surfaces that they'resitting on kind of go up into the headset, so it's going to have something retainingit in both directions.So that's one thing, that's a pretty easy adjustment.I also see that the front is probably a little bit low.could be lifted up a little bit so that we have clearance here and the partsdon't touch. But overall I think we have a pretty good first attempt.Okay so this is another idea that I just had. Maybe instead of the front of thissitting directly on top of something it actually has a little ledge that thefront edge sits in. That's going to push the connection point all the way up hereto a more rigid corner which will be good and it will stop it from being ablethe fall forward. It's just going to change the way that this looks a little bit, butlet's try it out.I'm going to make a little offset tool here. Well, we only care about the bottom, so let'scut it off about there. And if I carve out a little notch in there, I mean, I've endedup getting rid of most of the shape, so it doesn't really help that much. But I havethe general idea of what I need to do.So that point, that high point is the corner.And so now what I can do is just use that pointand measure this distance and this distanceand start to make a shape that will just contact right there.It's the next day.And as you can see by all of this cardboard scrap,I've worked on trying to figure out a good wayto nestle the front of the headset intosome sort of a ledge.And so once I got this profile,I was able to lay it down on some other cardboardand cut out a few more of theseto make it thicker, and then I put that in placeand realized that I actually wanna distribute the loadof the headset across more surface.So basically we're gonna get rid of this whole thing,and I ended up with that same shape,and I made two of these that are this thickso that I could line them up,kinda fan them out a little bit,and that will give the front of this a place to sit.So I'm gonna have two of thesethat are gonna kinda cradle it from each side.That does two things, it stops it from being ableto move back and forth because it's nestled,but also it stops it from wanting to tip overfrom side to side as much as it would if there were a single point right in the middle.So now that I've got these, I just have to modify my bottom plate to accept the new length.And so I'm going to make another bottom piece that's similar to this.And then I think we'll be at a point where we can start to translate this into wood.Okay, with that prototype one or two, A or B, I don't know which version this is, butthis one is finished.And it still has a long way to go, but I think we need to take a break before we move aheadand change materials and make sure that it's actually accomplishing all the tasks thatwe set out in the beginning.I am still the consumer, so I have to like what this is gonna do and how it's gonna lookand all that stuff.So we went through the list of needs and one of those things was that it needs to hangon the wall.It currently can't do that because we don't have anything back here but that's an easyaddition that we're definitely going to add into the next one.It wouldn't do us any good to make that out of cardboard anyway.We also wanted the headset to be held in place and not fall off and I feel like we've done that.You would have to work pretty hard to get this to fall off in any direction.I think it's going to be plenty stable so we can check that one off.Another thing was that we wanted the charger to be able to be plugged in.There's enough of a gap here behind it that we can easily drill a hole,feed the wire through, and plug in the chargers.So I think that one is checked off as well.Another big one for me was that it is as compact as possible.And I feel like we've minimized the shape.I'm not sure that we could get it any smaller.So for now, I'm going to say that that one's good to go.The only other big thing was that it's repeatable.Eventually, I want this to be able to be made into a set of plans or templates or manufactured.And right now, as it stands with these materials, that is not the case.So we don't have that one yet.But I think it's at a point where we can replicate this in wood and see if that will solve any of those outstanding problems.So my attempt here was just to replicate this into a piece of wood so I could kind of see how the materials would affect it.I got to this section and realized that by adding the back section here, there's another little problem.But it actually helped me come up with a solution.Let's go to the whiteboard. I'll show you what I'm talking about.So the original idea was to have this ledge coming up from the bottom where the headset rests,and then a separate piece for the back wall.But as I was starting to place those out in the wood prototype, I realized that they're like two inches apart,and I would have to fill all of that space with some material so that I could have a strong enough joint in the corner to carry the weight of the entire thing.So we can completely get around that by just focusing on this surface.It doesn't need to come from the bottom. It can come from this back wall.So instead of that, we're actually just going to have a shelf piece that comes off the back wallthat gives us this entire corner to come up with good strong joinery.So now that that's all I have to worry about, I can actually add finger joints down here and down hereand that will be a very very strong joint with lots of glue and everything and I won't have to add any fastenerswhich will simplify the entire thing.Then I just have to have the little shelf that comes off here to hold the back of the headset.These pieces, I tried to thicken them upand they are way too thick.So two would be more than enoughand would not touch the lenses.So that cuts it down to a one inch material.If I took it down to three quarter,then it could be a single piece,still connected to two points.That's probably the way to do it.- That's better.With that simple addition,I think this version of the prototype is done,the wood version.So we have to make sure that it checks offall of our criteria.The two things that were outstandingwere that it could be hung on the wall.so we can check that one off.The other thing is manufacturer ability.Now that it's half inch material,it's all made of half inch,theoretically we could laser cut or CNC cutor cut on a table saw to make these pieces.So I'll say that one's kind of checked off.So after that, after you get a solid prototype,one that checks all the boxes that you have,next you can move on to continuing to improve it,but also making it look the way that you want it to look.As we look at this right now,we see that there's a whole lot of extra material.More material means it's more expensive,means it's harder to make and sell.And so we can minimize the footprint for sureby changing some of the shape.But also looking at this front section,we don't really need all of this thickness.The place that we need thickness is actually up herewhere it contacts the headset.So another idea for this section would be to make a T,flat surface that the headset sits on.And then that T has a single pointthat goes down to our base plate.So we can definitely make some improvements here.Definitely a lot of changes that we can make,but I think the first big thing is to cut down materialand make it as minimal as possible.Now I'm trying to figure outthe kind of outside profile of it.I sketched with a pencil, but after a while,that gets hard to follow with your eyes.One thing I like to do with curves is using this thin tape.This is for pin stripers,people who put pin striping on vehicles and stuff.And it's a masking tape, but it's thin enoughthat you can kind of bend it and get nice big curves.So with the curve, obviously I'm doing this by hand and I made a template to do the other side.So they're not exact, but they're similar.And when it comes to the manufacturability of this, what I would end up doing is takea picture of one of these curves, take it into CAD so that it could be mirrored.On the other side, we've got duplicate lines.And then if we go to cut this on a laser or a CNC,it's gonna be a perfect match between the two sides.So we're at a point now where it's functionally doing exactly what it needs to do.I do think it's as minimal as possible.So if I wanted it to be laser cuttable, then I probably have to stick to quarter inch material,which means I would have to double up a lot of surfaces, which means I would then have to end up finishing those surfacesso that they didn't look like stacked pieces of wood.I'm just going to take that off the table.That's not something I want to do.The next thing would be, is this going to be 100% CNC'd?I could use half inch MDF.It'd be easy to cut all of these different pieces,but it does lock you in to being ableto assemble those pieces together,which means you have to be able to cut the piecesfor assembly, which means that we're gonna end upwith stuff like this, and that's our only option.The other thing would be 100% 3D printed,but there's a huge surface on the bottom,there's a big surface on the back,there's no reason to 3D print those.And then I have to go back to who's the consumer.I want this to look a certain way in my house,so I have to think about the best way to do that.And I think for me, it's gonna be a combination.That combination means I want all of this to be CNC-ablewith half inch material except for this part right here.I don't think this looks as good as I want it to look.And I think a way to make it look betterwould be to 3D model it.I can get functionally the same thing,but make it follow the curves better, make it smooth,add some adornments to the front of it if I want to,and I can make it so that it plugs into a holethat I CNC into this bottom surface.If I decide to sell these,I can flat pack all of the bottom and the back pieces and then just 3D print these piecesto insert and somebody could buy the kit.So I'm going to head to Fusion 360 and figure out how to model this.After about maybe 30, 45 minutes of modeling, I ended up with a shape to replace this piece of wood.The point of this is to have the right profile there for the front of the headset to sit on.It looks better from the front and it has some pins that stick out the bottom so itcan go into holes that I have yet to drill into the surface.Once I got done with this one, I realized that the back piece actually looked pretty terrible.So, I went on modeling a piece to fit there.It's the same kind of ledge, has the correct profile, and has holes in the back for thesame size pins as the front.So on the new version of this, I'm just going to have to drill some holes and use some dowelsso that I can put these things in.I think you would probably wanna CNC a pocket in for the base of this charger sothat it's not free to move around.It needs to be able to set in, even if it's just a little bit to kind of lock itinto its position.And I think we could probably change the shape of the back panel just a little bit.I actually really like where this is going now.I think I'm pretty close to what I'm going to say is my final version.This entire time we've been checking off the list of the things that this needed to accomplish.At the very beginning we defined who the consumer was, that's me, we defined all the things thatthis needed to do and I think we've checked all of those boxes. Along the way I was able to figurethis thing out a piece at a time with cheap materials and now I have it in front of me andI don't have to wait on some other company to make it. One of the coolest things about this is thatit is very minimal, it works with the design of the headset and it'll work on a tabletop ormounted to the wall. We're going to have all the files available for this thing if youwant to print and cut your own. That will be on the website. The link will be down inthe description and go check that out. So now that I've got this problem solved, I'vegot video games to play. Thanks for watching. Now it's time for bloopers.\n"