Sennheiser HD 580/600/650/6XX offset head pads by AndrewT111

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

These are offset head pads for the Sennheiser HD 580/600/650/6XX series headphones.
In recent years the top of my head has started getting sore during extended sessions where the headband rests on top of my skull. I replaced the foam head band insert with a new one from Sennheiser, but it didn't help that much because the same little contact patch was supporting the weight of the headset. I suppose a lot of this has to do with the fact that the curvature of the top of my head is a lot smaller radius than the curvature of Sennheiser's headband; I've got more of a Captain Picard-shaped head than most people.
I found myself wearing my headphones less and less, which bummed me out, so I came up with an idea to distribute the weight better for my head shape. I designed these two removable pad mounts to distribute the weight of the headphones across two areas on either side of the top of my head, and they have allowed me to go back to wearing them for much longer without getting a headache.
In my limited testing this part causes no damage to the stock headband, although as with anything on Thingiverse, you may use this design at your own risk and I refuse to accept any liability for damage or injury that may result.
Hardware list:
(4) #6-32 x 0.15" brass heat-set inserts for plastics (McMaster No. 93365A130)
(4) #6-32 x 0.5" socket cap machine screws
(4) #6x32 x 0.275" undersized washers (optional)
(2) pieces of foam, approximately 0.5" thick, 3.75" x 1.5", trim to fit pad mounts. I used chunks of an old closed cell foam Wal-Mart sleeping pad from the camping section, but any sufficiently firm/soft piece of foam will work, thick or thin as you like.
Glue to affix foam to pad mounts (I used a low temperature hot glue gun)
~1/16" thick adhesive cork or one-sided foam tape for padding top of pad mount and bottom of top clamp where they squeeze touch headband. I bought the adhesive cork sheet I used at Hobby Lobby, its original purpose is for cupboard lining.
Special tools:
Soldering iron
Assembly:
Trim the foam pads to fit the base of the pad mount, then glue them to the underside of the pad mount.
Use the soldering iron to insert the brass heat-set inserts into the top holes on the pad mount. You may find instructional videos for this on YouTube.
Cut your cork or foam tape and place it to just cover the area of the top of the pad mount that will touch the underside of the head band when installed.
Cut your cork or foam tape and place it to just cover the area of the underside of the top clamp that will touch the top of the head band when installed.
Place the socket cap machine screws through the holes in the top clamp with the washers (if used) and lightly install it around the outside edge of your headband as shown in the photos. The idea here is to use the minimum amount of torque on the screws necessary to keep the pad mounts in place. The cork or foam tape should provide some grip to keep it from sliding and some cushion to prevent marring of the finish on the head band, but you could still conceivably crush the plastic if you overtighten the screws.
Notes:
I used USCS spec fasteners (inches) but if you'd like to use metric fasteners the McMaster M3 brass heat set inserts have the same nominal diameter as the #6-32 variety I used, so you should be able to use M3 screws and inserts without any modifications to the STL/STEPs.