DIY: iPod Shuffle

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have a serious problem with Apple products. As a general rule, I steer clear of them, and I advise most people I meet to do likewise. And don't even get me started on the actual reason why, that's another rant for another post.

Yet, in the face of my general disdain of all things Apple, I did break my own rule and buy an iPod Shuffle. My rationalization is that of all their products, it is the least Apple-y of all of them. There is no Mac OS to deal with, no Mac software interface, nothing. It's just the smallest, most stripped down portable music player I could find, and I was satisfied with the purchase because of my targeted consumer ethic: "know what you need... get what you need."

Still, even after all that, the Shuffle bothered me on a purely aesthetic level. What is it with Apple's dislike of anything black? I've noticed that Apple products only employ black as an absolute last resort... and if it's one thing I love, it's matching the look of all the things I buy. Call it electronic cross-accessorizing. Honestly, if you had the choice, wouldn't you want everything to match?

So began my quest. First I looked for a skin or case for my silver Shuffle. I didn't find anything that I liked. I had to take more drastic measures, so I set out to actually give my Shuffle a custom paint job. After looking up some how-to's online, I proceeded to take my Shuffle apart.



It took a bit of doing, but the side strips came off without a hitch. Those screws, though, they were ridiculously tiny. If you don't have a jeweler's screwdriver, you'll find the unscrewing part a little tricky.



I finally got the entire thing out of the casing, and I was ecstatic. It was then that I realized two things. Firstly, that it would be easier to spray paint the thing if it were all back together again... and secondly, that it still wasn't a total waste of time to have done it. You see, I learned that underneath the control ring is an elastic membrane that seals the buttons off from the actual circuit board underneath. That was crucial to know, because it would mean that any overspray into the cracks wouldn't drip onto any of the internal circuitry. Armed with that knowledge, I painstakingly put the whole thing back together.

Spray painting the darned thing was a trial and error process. If you try it yourself, here's a tip, spray the inside of the clip first. Anyway, after three coats of semi-gloss black and one coat of clear gloss enamel, I was ready to start customizing.

I toyed with different ways of transferring a floral motif onto the black, but considering the difficulties that come with the tiny scale, I decided to go with the most low tech approach: x-acto knife.


After hours of eye-straining detail work, I finally carved away enough of the spray paint to reveal the floral motif made of the original silver of the case. Since there was no way to use the pattern I had created in Photoshop, I had to eyeball and freehand it. Here's a shot of the finished product.



Once I was finished carving, I applied one last top coat of clear enamle to prevent any of the designs from scratching off. To top it off, I got a pair of noise-blocking V-Mode Vibe earbuds in gunmetal black, and now the entire package is customized exactly to my liking. The added perk: that pesky Apple logo is now effectively covered on the back of the clip.

The hardest part, really, is covering up the necessary faces as you spray. I also found that clipping the entire Shuffle to a chopstick was the easiest way to not touch the casing as it dried. Beyond that, all you really need are a couple cans of spray paint, a touch of OCD, and a moderate investment of time. I'd like to say that I'm going to keep customizing Apple products, but I seriously doubt that I'll ever purchase any more of them to begin with. The only reason I decided to go ahead with this case mod was because I was half okay with the idea of breaking it in the first place. But things turned out well enough, and now I've got a killer MP3 player/conversation piece.