DIY blimp

[Daniel Skubal]

You know what's funny? Blimps for microphones cost almost as much as the microphone does. I took a little trip to the hardware store to find anything that resembled a blimp, and I struck gold. I found a gutter filter that keeps leaves from clogging the downspout. So I picked up two of those. 1.99$ a piece. I then went and got a sealant ring for faucets (.06 cents) and some clear plastic tubing ($0.19 a foot) so I could make a sleeve for my microphone to fit into, so it wouldn't be scratching up against the metal gutter filter. I then took a trip to walmart and picked up some fur. I was able to get a 12x15" piece of fur for 2.98$.

So here's how I made it:

I made the sleeve first, to make sure the microphone would fit properly. I did this by slitting the plastic tubing down the middle, and inserting the sealer ring into it.

Next, I bent the two filters to fit together and to fit around the ring.

I then took the top off a pringles can, slid it into the gutter filters. (this was to have a support for my mic once inside the blimp.)

Next, I took some hobby wire that I had lying around, and sewed the pringles lid, and the two pieces together.

I then took the fur, turned it upside down, folded it over and sewed it together (handsewing was a bitch) and took 4 hours to do.

I flipped the sock inside out and slid it on. I was originallly going to sew it to the cage, but it wouldn't hold it, so I took more of the hobby wire and "sewed" the end of the sock to the end of the cage. It worked really well.

It took me about 5 hours to make the whole thing, and it was well worth it.

$7.21 for a blimp that costs 20x that amount.

AND it works great! I held it up to a fan on high, and slipepd my headphones on to hear it, and there was no wind noise. Voices are not muffled either. So it is very worth it to build one of these.

Here's the images that will help you visualize what I did.

http://home.insightbb.com/~copplemoose/blimp.jpg

[Shannon Rawls]

Daniel,

Very awesome my man.

Can you take a few snap shots of the individual parts. The photos are easy and makes sens to you because you are there with it, but to others who never seen it and only had a first glance at the pics.....things dont make sense. I can't make out the parts in that wire mesh. It's naturally clear to you, but not to us. It would be nice to see things seperately all by themselves as opposed to already mounted and installed. I'm confiused on the faucet ring and the tubing and all that, and the pictures don't help. *sad face*

Nice job dude. I hope the fur is transparent and the mic can pick up through it.

- Shannon W. Rawls

[Jimmy McKenzie]

That is one of the finest d.i.y. projects I have seen to date. No view to the hardware department guts and a pro appearance on the outside.

Nice going! A spledid piece of kit.

[Daniel Skubal]

Thanks for your comments! :)

While I was building it, I was filming every hour or so to document the progress. I'll take a look at the footage to find a close up that I can extract for you guys.

I don't think I filmed the original pieces, but I did buy a couple extra sealer rings, and I saved the package of the gutter filter. I can post pics of those for you.

The blimp really put itself together. The filters were already in that shape when I bought them, all I had to do was open up the end holes enough to fit the tube/ring.

I'll get some more pics up though for you guys as soon as I can.

[Leo Mandy]

Any updates on this thread Daniel? What size of sealer ring did you use? the pics are great, but a full page I think needs to be devoted to this with the step by step!
Great job BTW