Do you enjoy DIY projects? Do you love the vintage-y feel? Do you have extra mason jars lying around and a love for music? If the answers to these questions are yes, you should make yourself some mason jar speakers. They are inexpensive, and if I do say so myself, they are pretty cute. Perfect to play some jams from your iPhone or iPod.

What do you need?

All you need is mason jars, a circuit board, speaker components, and speaker wire. Everything but the mason jars can be found in an electronic store. Mason jars are the perfect size, and easy to find in an local craft store.

The building process

To build the speakers, you will need a hammer, an iron, soldering iron, and wire strippers. First you need to solder the components to the switch board. You first solder the amplifier chips, then the chips’ legs. You need to attach the 2.2 uF capacitors, the 10K resistors, and the 0.47 uF capacitors. After the switch board is basically done, you can place the switch on by putting it into the three holes and soldering it into place.

The battery holder can also be placed on the back the same way. On the top of the switch plate, the three wires from the audio cable need to be inserted and soldered in place. The cable should have a headphone jack that can plug into most electronics that can play music. Take the double-wire cable and solder them to the board. Then solder them to the speakers.

You’re all set!

Now you can test your creation! Connect the cable to an audio source, an iPhone for an example! If it works, you can insert the board and such into the jars and secure the speakers at the opening of the mason jars and enjoy your new speakers! Voila, you now have the coolest speakers in town.

What else can you do?

To take it further, you can create a stand for your mason jar speakers out of cord blocks that you can carve to hold the mason jars on their side. If you don’t like being able to see into the speakers, try decorating the jars. From paint that works on glass to even gluing paper designs onto your speakers, you can make them yours. Remember, this is a DIY project, so the outcome is yours to create. If you do not like the sound, use a larger mason jar.

Tips:

• Soldering guns are very hot to the touch and can burn you very easily. They are melting metal, so just remember not to touch them!
• If you need help with the building process, you can ask the employees of your local electronics store.
• If you don’t like the sound, try loading foam in with the speaker materials, this might soften the sound.
• And last but not least, have fun! This is a good project to start off in the DIY category and you will definitely be learning a lot.