A speaker can be made out of almost anything. If you want to have a little fun and learn a thing or two about how a speaker is made there is no better way than to have a go at making your own out of readily available items. Here’s what you need:

A Styrofoam or paper cup (a McDonalds or Starbucks coffee cup is fine)
A 20mm x 3mm disc neodymium magnet
A headphone jack. You could cut one off the end of an old pair of headphones or earphones
Approximately one metre of thin copper wire
Tape
Alligator clips with wire
A device to plug your speaker into such as a radio
Two ice lolly sticks or strips of thick card

Step one

Take the copper wire and wind it into a coil, winding it around a number of times. The finished coil should but slightly smaller in diameter than the base of the cup. Remember to leave both ends of the copper wire easily accessible.

Step two

Turn the cup upside down and tape your coil to the bottom.

Step three

Next, strip some of the insulating coating from the cord of the headphone jack to expose the copper wires.

Step four

Attach the alligator clips to each end of the coiled wire and to each of the copper wires coming from the headphone jack.

Step five

Next, tape the ice lolly sticks or card over the coil to create a frame to fix the neodymium magnet too.

Step six

Fix the neodymium to the stick or card frame. You can do this using superglue or tape.

Step seven

Now plug your headphone jack into your audio device and see if it plays!

Alternatively you can follow this really great Instructables tutorial.