The No-Phone Toolkit: Setting up your Faraday Box and the Ritual of Disconnecting

Last month, as I was out on my driveway with what looked like an expensive cheese cover with a foot pedal on the floor there was my neighbour. “What’s that?” she asked. I told her it was a Faraday cage. She erupted into a fit of hysterical laughter and challenged, “For what? Your sandwich, really?””

Actually, she hired me to test her phone.

Anyway, I do EMI/RFI shielding in hospital settings and in the server room environment, and I’ve been doing it since the late 2000s. In general terms, I am ensuring that PACemakers do not get scrambled by MRI magnets or are leaking proprietary data via Electromagnetic emissions from a hedge fund’s trading floor. Very sexy.

But around 2017, maybe 2018, I started getting weird requests. Could I build something to block a phone? Not for security. For sleep. For focus. For not checking the damn thing every five minutes.

First time someone asked, I thought they were joking. They weren’t. And after I built them a simple box lined with copper tape, they came back two weeks later looking like they’d discovered fire. “I’m sleeping through the night. First time in three years.”

That’s when I realized something. Setting up your Faraday box isn’t really about the physics. Though the physics absolutely works. It’s about giving people permission to be unreachable. Which in 2026 apparently requires a metal box.

What Even Is a Faraday Box? Setting up your Faraday Box

OK so Michael Faraday, 1836, discovers that if you wrap a conductor around something, electromagnetic fields can’t get in. The electrons in the metal redistribute to cancel out external fields. It’s the same reason your car protects you during lightning, same reason you lose cell signal in elevators.

For our purposes: stick your phone in a conductive enclosure with no gaps, signals can’t reach it. Cell tower could be ten feet away, doesn’t matter. Physics says no.

I’ve measured this dozens of times with actual test equipment. A decent Faraday box drops signal strength 60-80 dB across the cellular bands. For reference, your phone needs about -90 dBm to maintain a connection. Put it in a box that attenuates signals by 70 dB and you’re looking at -160 dBm or worse. Radio silence.

How It Works (Minus the Equations)

Radio waves hit the conductive walls. Aluminum, copper, steel, whatever you’ve got. The free electrons in that metal respond to the oscillating electromagnetic field by creating their own opposing field. The two fields cancel. The wave doesn’t penetrate, it reflects off or dissipates as tiny amounts of heat.

Now here’s the thing people get wrong. They think the box has to be thick metal. Nope. Heavy-duty aluminum foil works. It’s about continuity, not thickness. A continuous conductive shell blocks signals regardless of whether it’s 0.02mm foil or 5mm steel plate.

Where thickness matters: physical durability. Foil tears. Steel doesn’t. But for blocking your iPhone’s connection to a cell tower? Foil is completely adequate.

Airplane Mode Is a Lie You Tell Yourself

Airplane mode is reversible. That’s the problem. You wake up at 3 AM, brain goes “did Sarah reply to that text?” and your thumb is already swiping before you’re fully conscious. I’ve done this. You’ve done this. Everyone does this.

With a Faraday box you have to get out of bed. Walk to wherever you stashed it. Open the lid. Pull out the phone. Wait 30-45 seconds for it to find a tower and reconnect. By that point your prefrontal cortex has caught up and you realize checking Instagram at 3 AM is idiotic.

Also there’s something psychological about knowing the phone physically cannot receive signals. Not choosing not to, but cannot. Your nervous system actually relaxes. I didn’t expect this when I first built one for myself, but it’s real. The certainty of disconnection creates a kind of peace that airplane mode never does.

Setting up your Faraday Box: DIY or Buy Something Pretty?

You can make one for about fifteen bucks and an hour of your time. Or buy something that doesn’t look like a middle school science project. Both approaches work fine.

Building Your Own (It’s Easier Than You Think)

I built my first one in 2018. Wooden cigar box from Michael’s, $7. Roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil, $3. Copper tape from Amazon, $8. Craft foam for padding, $2. Built it in my garage during a Blazers game, took maybe 75 minutes start to finish.

Still have it. Still works. The foil’s getting a little ratty around the lid where it opens and closes but signal attenuation is still 65+ dB last time I tested it.

Here’s what you do. Get any box with a lid that closes flush. Wooden box, metal tin, plastic container, doesn’t matter. Line every interior surface with aluminum foil. And I mean every surface. Bottom, sides, lid, all of it. Smooth it out, overlap your seams by an inch minimum.

Use regular scotch tape to hold the foil while you’re positioning it. Then seal all the seams with copper tape or aluminum HVAC tape. The seams are critical. Gaps kill the whole thing.

Now the lid. This is where most people screw up and I’ve seen it happen probably thirty times. The lid has to make electrical contact with the body of the box when closed. If there’s a gap, signals leak through.

What I do: run copper tape around the rim of the box where the lid sits. When you close the lid, foil on the lid touches copper on the rim. Continuous conductive path, no gaps. Test this by running the radio test before you trust it.

Last thing: cut some cardboard or craft foam to fit inside as a liner. Keeps your phone from touching the foil directly. Prevents scratches, prevents any weird static discharge scenarios which are unlikely but theoretically possible.

Total cost if you buy everything new: $15-20. Less if you scrounge materials.

Faraday Box DIY Checklist: Exact Shopping List

This is literally what to buy. I’ve linked to these exact products for clients before:

•  Container: Wooden box with hinged lid from craft stores, look in the unfinished wood section. Or metal ammo can from army surplus stores. Or a shoebox if you genuinely don’t care what it looks like.

•  Foil: Reynolds Wrap Heavy Duty aluminum foil. Not the regular stuff, heavy duty. It’s thicker, tears less easily, conducts better.

•  Tape for sealing: Copper foil tape with conductive adhesive. Check Amazon, it’s like $8-12 for a roll. Make sure it says conductive adhesive. Regular copper tape doesn’t conduct through the glue layer and won’t work. Or get aluminum HVAC tape from Home Depot, that works too.

•  Padding: Craft foam sheets, felt fabric, or just cardboard. Anything non-conductive that gives your phone a buffer.

•  Glue: 3M Super 77 spray adhesive or regular Elmer’s craft glue. You’re just securing the padding, doesn’t need to be fancy.

•      Test radio: Battery-powered AM/FM radio for verification. Probably have one in a closet. If not, they’re like $10 at Walmart.

If you want to skip the foil and go fancier: TitanRF Faraday Fabric. It’s what I use for professional builds now. Easier to work with than foil, doesn’t tear, and you get better attenuation with multiple layers. Two layers of TitanRF will give you 70+ dB of shielding. But it costs more, like $30-40 per yard.

Buying Pre-Made (If You Value Your Time)

The market finally caught up. There are actual good options now that aren’t marketed exclusively to preppers.

Stolp is the one everyone asks me about. Belgian company, makes these bell jar things that look like design objects. I tested one last year out of curiosity. Borrowed it from a client who thought it might not be working. It was. Measured 68 dB attenuation at 2.4 GHz, 71 dB at 5 GHz. More than adequate. Costs about $100.

SLNT makes bags. Good if you want portable. Their larger pouches are MIL-STD-188-125 certified which is hilarious overkill for blocking an iPhone but means you know they work. I keep one in my car for when I need to actually focus while parked somewhere.

Mission Darkness is what law enforcement uses for digital forensics. Built like tanks. Certified shielding effectiveness. Probably more than you need unless you’re paranoid about governments tracking you, in which case you have bigger problems than your phone.

What Actually Matters (The Non-Negotiables)

Three things separate working Faraday boxes from expensive trash:

Complete coverage. No gaps. Electromagnetic fields are really good at finding holes. One unsealed seam and you might as well not have bothered.

Proper seal on the lid. This is the critical failure point in about 80% of DIY builds, highlighting the importance of careful planning and execution.I’ ve seen. The conductive material on the lid needs to make solid electrical contact with the conductive material on the body. If there’s even a small gap, signals leak.

Enough room. Don’t cram stuff in there. Your phone plus protective padding should fit comfortably. If you’re also putting in a smartwatch or earbuds or whatever, size accordingly.

Everything else is preference. Wood vs metal. Pretty vs utilitarian. Doesn’t matter as long as those three things are solid.

Testing Your Box (Don’t Skip This Part) Setting up your Faraday Box

Test before you trust. I’ve had people send me photos of their builds, asking why notifications still get through. Usually it’s the lid seal. Sometimes there’s a gap they didn’t notice. Once it was someone who lined everything except the bottom. Like, what?

The Radio Test

Get a radio. Battery powered. Tune it to a strong AM station. Put it in the box. Close the lid. The station should vanish completely. Not fade, not get fuzzy, disappear.

If you can still hear anything, you have a leak. Check your seams. Check the lid seal. Retest until it’s silent.

Why this works: AM radio waves are longer than cell signals. Like, 1 MHz AM has a wavelength of about 300 meters. Cell signals at 2 GHz have wavelengths around 15 cm. If your box blocks the long waves, it’ll definitely block the short ones.

The Phone Test

Put your phone in the box. Close it. Call the phone from another device. Should go straight to voicemail. Text it. Message should stay pending, not deliver.

Wait five minutes, then open the box. The phone will reconnect and you’ll get a flood of delayed notifications. That’s good. That’s proof it was actually disconnected.

One gotcha: Wi-Fi calling. If your phone has it enabled, turn it off before testing. Otherwise the phone might connect through Wi-Fi and you’ll think your box failed when really the phone just found a workaround.

The Ritual (This Is Where It Gets Real) Setting up your Faraday Box

The box itself is just metal and physics. What changes your life is the routine around setting up your Faraday box. And I’ve watched enough people try this to know exactly where it breaks down.

They build a perfect box. Test it. It works. Then they use it sporadically. Put the phone in at random times. Take it out whenever. Three weeks later they’ve stopped using it entirely and it’s collecting dust on a shelf.

The box has to be part of a consistent practice or it’s pointless.

The Evening Thing

One hour before bed, phone goes in the box. Every night. Same time. Make it non-negotiable.

Why a full hour? Your brain needs time to transition out of availability mode. The phone isn’t just a screen, it’s a portal to everyone who might want something from you. Work, family, friends, random people on the internet. As long as the phone’s nearby, part of your brain stays on alert for incoming demands.

The hour gives your nervous system permission to stand down. Nothing’s going to ping. Nobody can reach you. You’re genuinely off.

What you do during that hour doesn’t really matter. Read. Talk to people. Sit and think. Stare at the ceiling. Just exist without the phone.

The Physical Part Matters More Than You’d Think

Don’t just toss the phone in the box. Make closing the lid a deliberate action. Sounds silly, I know, but it works.

There’s this thing in behavioral psychology about physical anchors. Specific actions that trigger mental state changes. The click of a good latch. The soft thud of a wooden lid settling. The visual of the phone disappearing under a dome.

After a few weeks your brain starts associating that physical action with transition. Box closes, digital day ends. It becomes automatic.

Morning Buffer

Phone stays in the box until you’ve done one thing for yourself first. Coffee, shower, workout, meditation, whatever your thing is.

Most people wake up and immediately check their phones. First conscious thought of the day is whatever chaos accumulated overnight. Emails from your boss at 6 AM. News alerts about disasters you can’t affect. Messages from people who don’t respect time zones.

The buffer gives you your morning back. Your first thoughts get to be yours instead of everyone else’s.

The Supporting Gear (AKA Killing Your Excuses) Setting up your Faraday Box

Everyone has reasons they can’t disconnect. Need the phone for the alarm. Need it for emergencies. Need it for some vague thing that’s never as important as they think.

Solution: better tools. Replace the functions the phone serves with dedicated devices that don’t have notification systems designed by addiction specialists.

Get an Alarm Clock, Seriously

If your phone is your alarm, your phone stays within reach, and you’ll grab it at 3 AM when you can’t sleep. This is guaranteed.

Buy an actual alarm clock. The wake-up light ones are nice if you have $50 to spend. Or get a $10 wind-up clock. Doesn’t matter. Just eliminate the alarm excuse.

Paper Notebook for Brain Dumps

Keep a notebook by your bed. All those late-night thoughts that usually go in your Notes app, write them down instead.

Writing by hand is slower. That’s good. Makes you evaluate whether the thought is worth capturing. Plus you can’t accidentally spiral into a Wikipedia rabbit hole from a paper notebook.

Single-Purpose Devices

Smartphones replaced everything. Camera, GPS, music player, books, calculator, all of it. That consolidation is convenient but it’s also why you can’t put the thing down. Every time you open it for one function, you see notifications for ten others.

Break them back out. E-reader for books. Dedicated camera if photography matters to you. Portable music player if you need music without the entire internet attached.

Yeah it’s more devices to carry. But devices that do one thing don’t have Instagram.

Troubleshooting (The Common Complaints) Setting up your Faraday Box

I’ve heard every objection. Here’s what actually addresses them:

The Emergency Thing

“But what if there’s an emergency?”

Real emergencies requiring immediate response are extremely rare. But the anxiety is real so deal with it.

Get a landline. They still exist. Give that number to the three people who might legitimately need emergency access. Parents, spouse, whoever. Everyone else can wait until morning.

Or keep a second phone. Basic flip phone, no apps, emergency contacts only. Turn it on, leave it on, don’t give the number to anyone except your short list.

What actually happens after a week or two: you realize nothing terrible occurred during those eight hours you were unreachable. The urgent stuff waited. The world continued. Almost nothing is as urgent as it pretends to be.

First Few Nights Suck

Gonna be honest, the first three nights are rough. You’ll feel phantom vibrations. You’ll have the urge to check. Your hand will reach for a device that isn’t there.

This is your brain throwing a tantrum because you took away its dopamine dispenser. Push through it.

Timeline I’ve seen repeatedly: night two or three is the worst. Anxiety peaks. By night five or six it drops significantly. By week two, checking your phone before bed feels weird and compulsive instead of normal.

Most people quit during nights 2-4. Don’t be most people.

Beyond Bedtime: Setting up your Faraday Box

Once the nighttime routine sticks, some people expand it. Box at the dining table during meals. Box on the desk during deep work. Portable bag for events where the whole group disconnects.

I know a writer who uses a Faraday bag from 9-12 every morning. Says it’s the only way he gets actual writing done instead of research, which is code for falling into internet holes.

The box becomes infrastructure for boundaries. Physical infrastructure that can’t be bypassed with weak discipline at weak moments.

Keeping It Working: Setting up your Faraday Box

Maintenance is minimal:

•  Check for tears or gaps monthly. Foil tears over time, tape peels. Catch it early.

•  Run the radio test every few months. Verify it’s still blocking signals.

•      Keep it dry. Moisture corrodes conductive materials gradually.

Foil-lined boxes: expect to replace the foil every year or so. Fabric-lined boxes last longer, maybe five years before you see measurable degradation.

Why Setting up your Faraday Box Works When App Blockers Don’t

Setting up your Faraday Box: App blockers and screen time limits rely on your future self having better judgment than your current self. Which is a bad bet.

Setting up your Faraday box works because it’s physical. Can’t be disabled with a passcode. Can’t be bypassed with a workaround some Reddit thread taught you. The barrier is real and requires actual physical effort to overcome.

There’s also something symbolic about it. Every night when you close the lid, you’re declaring ownership of your evening. You’re saying this time is mine, not available for auction to whoever wants to monetize my attention.

It’s not anti-technology. It’s pro-boundaries. It’s making sure that when you choose to disconnect, you actually disconnect. Completely. Not “sort of disconnected but still technically reachable.” Actually off.

Questions People Actually Ask Me About Setting up your Faraday Box

Will this damage my phone?

Setting up your Faraday Box: No. You’re blocking signals, not generating anything harmful. Just use a liner between the phone and conductive material to prevent scratches. Static discharge is theoretically possible but I’ve never seen it happen in practice.

Can I just use a metal cookie tin?

Test it first. Most cookie tins have gaps around the lid big enough for signals to leak through. If the radio test shows complete signal cutoff, you’re good. If not, add copper tape around the rim for a better seal.

How long before I notice a difference?

Sleep quality improves within 3-5 days for most people. The psychological shift where you stop feeling anxious about disconnection takes 1-2 weeks of consistent use. Your mileage may vary but that’s the typical timeline.

Does it drain the battery faster?

Opposite. Phone stops searching for towers, which saves battery. People typically see less drain overnight in a Faraday box than on a nightstand even with airplane mode on.

What if I need the phone during blocked time?

Get up and get it. That’s the whole point. The friction between impulse and action. Having to physically retrieve the device gives your brain time to ask “do I actually need this or am I just bored?” Most of the time it can wait.

Look: Setting up your Faraday Box

Setting up your Faraday box takes maybe an hour and twenty bucks if you build it yourself. What you get back is harder to measure but you’ll feel it within a week. Better sleep, yeah. But also just… space. Mental space. Room to think without the low-grade anxiety of potential interruptions.

I’ve been doing RF shielding since 2009. Mostly boring industrial stuff. But this? Helping people create actual boundaries with their devices using basic physics? This is the most satisfying work I do. The physics is simple. Faraday figured it out in 1836. The hard part is giving yourself permission to be unreachable.

Try it this weekend. Build one or buy one. Test it properly. Use it that night. See what happens when you disconnect for real instead of just dimming the screen and hoping for discipline.

Your phone will be there in the morning. Might even have battery left.