This is for other Ghostbusters Props that don't fit into the categories above.
#445510
It's been done to death, and if it weren't for the existing several threads about this, I would never have thought to do this or known what parts to look for.

So if you're pressed for time or bandwidth, leave now.

Still here? Okay, here goes.

Even though it's totally redundant, here's my pictorial. I mean, I shot 'em, I may as well post 'em.

Here's the goal-- as if anyone here isn't sure what it looks like...

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Ever since reading jackdoud's thread (http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... =7&t=28154) and one that he links to as well (http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... =7&t=20910), I'd had the Square D 9001 TR14 button in my eBay Saved Search for ages.

After ramcuda posted a thread about making the actual ringing Faraday bell, complete with the button (http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... =7&t=33495), I added a second listing in my Save Searches that wasn't quite as precise as the first... and within a week, I had a hit for a seller hawking four of them for $7.75 each, plus shipping.

If I hadn't been absolutely broke that day, I'd have bought all four. As it was, I did a Buy It Now and shared the link on my Facebook page so all my GB friends on there would get the news at the same time.

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I was VERY happy to get the correct version with no guard or half-guard.

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Comparing it to the movie frame, you can see the screw-off outer shaft will only go to this position because of the added height of the rubber ring, and that puts the wording 'towards camera', unlike the film.

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So the rubber ring has to go, as well as the little pin that holds it in place.

With the button made accurate, it was time to make a base. I saw an auction for a chrome clothesline that was cheaper than all the rest, and just as I was heading out the door to work, placed a bid and won it.

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Unfortunately, it was a chromed PLASTIC clothesline.

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Even though it looked okay in this test-fit, it did not have anywhere near the solidity, the weight, the sheer 'heft' that I felt the industrial button on top deserved.

Luckily, ramcuda mentioned that he had an extra METAL clothesline, still in package!

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That one arrived yesterday, and I spent a couple minutes fiddling with it trying to take the top off, then suddenly--

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SPROING! The back came off and the mainspring went all kablooey on me.

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You know you're obsessed with Ghostbusters when you've got this mess on your hands, and the only thing you can say is a monotone "We had part of a Slinky. But I straightened it."

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I did manage to recoil the mainspring, which wasn't easy since the loose clothesline kept getting tangled with it. I then put the base back in the empty box since none of those parts are needed.

Next I could not figure out how to remove the adjustable clothesline lock from the center of the 'bell'.

I even emailed ramcuda to ask how he'd done it on his, but about fifteen minutes later I saw what needed to be done.

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Now I had the two main parts needed for the prop!

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As you can see below, the plastic version (left) and the metal version (right) seem identical in a photograph. But it's the weight and strength that I was wanting.

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I therefore reassembled the plastic clothesline so it was once again functional. I'd been very careful to re-knot the cut line when I originally removed the plastic 'bell', so the retraction feature didn't suck it inside.

Now I just reversed those steps and the clothesline was good as new, except maybe an inch shorter.

Waste not, want not. It will go in our backyard to replace the clothesline we had when we first moved into this house. I love the smell of line-dried sheets and shirts.

~~~

So this morning I took some measurements of the four holes in the bottom 'feet' of the Square D button.

Then I made a template from some thin cardboard (cut out of a frozen pizza package)...

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I didn't take a pic of the tape measure against the underside of the button, but the inch-wide marks correspond to the diameter of its central shaft.

The marks 1/8th of an inch to either side are the center line of the screw holes.

(Ignore the slight error of parallax in this photo.)

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Rotate 90 degrees and mark again from the same centerpoint.

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I used the awl at far right to punch holes through the cardboard, directly into the holes underneath the four 'feet' of the button.

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I tested out some different sizes of screws that I had on hand from various other GB projects. These 6/32 screws matched the threads, and also let me see that the template lined up perfectly.

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The U-shaped mark in ballpoint pen told me where the pinhole on the side of the button would line up.

There's a single screw-hole in the side of the metal clothesline bell, and I wanted it to be 'off-camera' when the prop was viewed from the correct movie angle. So I made sure to put the template inside the bell with the U-mark 135 degrees counterclockwise away from the screw-hole.

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I lined up the centerline as seen from above...

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...marked the four drilling locations with the template as a guide...

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... and then I did several steps for which I never bothered to take photos. Sorry. I was in the zone!

I couldn't get the drill to bite into the metal, so I made 'pilot dents' using that awl and a hammer.

By the way, I had some scrap adhesive-backed red felt left over from an old school project for my kids, so I put a layer of this against my workbench so as not to dent or scratch the chrome while the button was upside down.

Next, I drilled and tapped the holes, and finally did a very careful sanding with my dremel to remove the burrs on the top. Oh, and also I had to pull a bunch of red felt out of the threads of my drill and tap, LOL.

Then the bell looked like this!

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I screwed everything together:

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And the very last step was to use some Goop to glue that outer metal shaft into the position seen in the movie.

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Got it done in a couple of hours, once I had everything I needed.

I still think the 'bell' in the movie was more 'domed' and less 'rounded square' if that makes sense. So if anyone discovers, "oh wait, it wasn't a clothesline it was a... concierge bell from a hotel" or whatever... be sure to let me know.

Will it ever be made functional?

Perhaps! Time-- and my Saved Searches-- will tell.

Alex
Last edited by Alex Newborn on July 3rd, 2020, 11:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
jackdoud, Kingpin, SPJ liked this
#446777
Great work !!!!!!! love it .... now just a repaint on the gong and get your self a box.....now your one of four


people who have built this prop.. and if im missing you .. speak up and ill add you

Ramcuda -1907 Faraday bell and button
Alex Newborn -1907 Faraday bell and buttion WIP
BusyBuilder - 1907 Faraday bell and buttion WIP ?
Belldandy - 1872 Edwards bell and buttion
#447052
So let's recap how the Faraday bell appeared when I first got it.

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shrinkwrapped by the seller

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unwrapped to test it

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with the button attached

And now some updates.

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using my last remnant of a can of airplane stripper to remove the possibly 106-year-old paint

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most of the paint removed with a combo of airplane stripper and Goof Off

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still some remnants of paint

That's how it looked on Saturday when we went to Alabama Phoenix Festival, where a few people might have gotten to see it in Brandon's Ecto, although I never took it inside the Cahaba Grand Convention Center.

Now, tonight's progress...

I sanded off the rest of the paint:
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Set it atop my multi-purpose plastic patio table where I do most of my drilling, cutting, and painting:
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Put the hex nut into an existing drilled hole:
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Primed it:
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Sprayed it with this Metallic Brass Rustoleum color:
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And reassembled it:
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I'm not entirely sold on the sparkly look to this paint. From 7 feet away, it looks great, but from right up on it, it looks like a glitter-coated craft project.

Also undecided on what to do about the boxy part. Part of me wants to just leave it alone, part of me wants to do a movie-accurate box, and part of me wants to simply rotate the Faraday name 180 degrees.

Alex
#447112
Well two things with that the box that's on the bell is absolutely Square With four screws in the face of it..
Which makes it measure out to roughly six by six. This is based on the size of the chassis the bell is built on.. Although if I remember right that measures 6x5 inches..

My cover is just velcroed on so I can take it off and see the pretty Faraday cover
By Alex Newborn
#447125
Yeah, the real Faraday cover is 6 x 5 x 2.5.

I was playing around with the measurements against the frame from the movie. I agree that the movie box is perfectly square, but if it's 6 x 6 then I think their bell is bigger than our 8-inch-wide bells are.

It's really hard to tell due to the angle though. I kept tweaking the movie frame trying to make it look more straight to camera, but everything that I adjusted caused every other measurement to change as well.

Drove me crazy, finally I just shut down the program I was using and deleted all the images I'd come up with.

Alex
#447156
Alright, I had time to look for the photo I was speaking of. I couldn't find it on my hard drive, so I went ahead and got new screen captures from the latest blu-ray release using mplayer. I'm not sure if there is a better way to get screen captures (anybody? anybody?) but this is what I came up with.

First scene (we got one):
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First Montage:
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Second Montage (More straight angle):
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And if you want to see all the frames I captured, just check them out here:
http://s1190.photobucket.com/user/drjam ... ire%20Bell
Alex Newborn liked this
#447157
Brilliant, I totally forgot my number one rule... always go back to the source material!

That straight-on pic will help greatly. Let's apply a 12" ruler scaled to the width of the bell...

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If their bell was the same width as mine (8") then their box is 6.5" x 5.5"... not a true square after all, despite how the other angle made it appear.

They just built something a quarter inch wider on every side than the original 6 x 5 Faraday box.

And the 'height' of the shadow of the box is almost perfectly in line with the height of the bell's shadow, so it's not very much deeper than the original box either.

Alex
#447168
I agree with you Alex on the measurements. I think the bell was an 8" bell, and the fab'd box was 6.5" x 6". I know busybuilder used a 12" bell and to me it doesn't look right. I have been patiently waiting and watching/hoping that a bell would pop up that was just perfect, but now I think based on the bell shape they used an 8" faraday bell and fab'd the lower box.

Now I'll have to find myself an 8" faraday. So I can complete my build and be cool like you 8)

Anyways, great build! Looking forward to seeing if you fab a box too.
Alex Newborn liked this
#447289
I will probably build a box, just not sure what material to use.

Alternately, I thought about carefully drilling out these two 'rivets' (more like nails with the points hammered down) on the inside...

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... and just flipping the Faraday oval nametag over 180 degrees.

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(digital mockup)

Alex
#452263
It's funny how sometimes you put a project on the back burner for a bit because you have no idea of how to proceed, then you do some other projects and acquire some new skills or new confidence, and you look over at the old stalled project and the solution hits you like a thunderbolt.

In this case, I knew that the 'two wires that stick up so the plunger completes the circuit as it comes down' approach to making the button ring the bell was only temporary. But I didn't have any clear vision of a better method.

So the button/bell was pushed aside as I made some upgrades to my proton pack, including the addition of sound. This meant teaching myself how to solder, how to use a heat gun on shrinkwrap, and also how to make aluminum brackets to hold some of the electronics in place.

Last night, I glanced over at the button, and the mental image of how to attach an SPST inside the desk button popped fully formed into my head. Best of all, it would use materials and tools that I already had on hand.

I had a couple of extra SPST push-buttons lying about the place. I had bought some to go in my thrower for its first non-functioning Hallowe'en debut, more were included when I purchased a light kit from R2DEVO, and one of those was replaced with a DPDT when I added sound.

The aluminum bracket that holds it up inside the clothesline bell is almost exactly how it popped to mind.

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It's held in place by two of the four screws that were already there to hold the Square D pushbutton on top.

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The bracket holds the top of the SPST just high enough so the plunger of the Square D depresses it as it comes down.

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This 9volt battery connector also came with my R2DEVO lights, but isn't used since I went with a rechargeable battery system in my pack.

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I somehow had the foresight to put the shrinkwrap tubes over the wires before soldering the wire connections together.

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Then I slid the tubes into place.

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And hit them with a heat gun.

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Both the soldering wand and heat gun are on loan from my retired electrician Dad, so I'm glad I thought of this extra project before I took them back across the river.

I just tested the connections, and everything works. You slam down on the big button and the bell rings.

Alex
#452984
I love this stupid thing. It has to be one of my favorite build threads. Damn you Alex, now
I'm gonna have to do one.

Well done sir. Well done indeed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
Alex Newborn liked this
#455560
Yes, my 12" bell is too big. However, it had a solid brass gong with the right look to it and the price was right, so I grabbed it. Like it's been said here, you could wait forever for the "perfect" 100 year old bell to show up on eBay !

I do, however, disagree on the "correct" size of 8". If I take the base of the standard light socket (actual 4.56 dia) as my scale reference, measure the socket through a vertical axis, the the bell from it's lower edge to the center x 2, I get a 10" gong diameter.

As far as the size of the coil box goes, it's whatever it takes to cover the base ! I took the OEM cover off and made my box fit directly over the base using long screws to engage the threaded OEM cover holes. The box is 1/8" R/C aircraft grade birch plywood, so it only adds 1/4" total to the width and height.

The film cover was only added to conceal the mechanism used to wiggle the striker back and forth. The bell was not actually working. The bell sound was dubbed in later.

My button is completed, and I should have the bell finished in a week or so. I'll post some links to my Flickr page when I get 'er done.
#467945
One of the side effects of watching a scene over and over when researching a particular prop, like Janine's alarm button, is that you invariably spot something else to obsess over.

Case in point, there's a moment when you can almost make out the magazine she was reading before deciding to call it a night.

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So I paused the 4K Blu-Ray, took a snapshot with my camera, and began stretching and rotating the image to try to see the cover better.

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It's pretty bizarre-looking at this point, I grant you, and this is the point where I felt like one of those Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists, who look at tiny pixels from a scan of the Moorman photo and tell you they see Badgeman.

But I trust there's no disagreement that the title could only be Cosmopolitan. Below the P in the title is what kinda-sorta looks like a nose, at least one darker spot of fleshtone. And then the flesh of the 'face' extends downward in a slight diagonal to the left.

So I poked around Google and arrived at a website that showed thumbnails of every cover of Cosmo by year.

http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_2026121 ... litan/1983

I knew it had to be from 1984 or more likely 1983, and by the process of elimination, I arrived at this as the most likely match:

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The issue was from October 1983. This is an online pic of the cover. I just purchased one from eBay but the corner of the cover is missing, so the N in the title in incomplete.

So I guess I'm off on a mad quest to recreate everything on Janine's desk now. Anyone want to bankroll me $300 for the same model of computer? I saw one on eBay that ends in a few days.

Alex
#468456
Heh heh, I've been looking for one of those as well.

The tail shape is indeed tricky to match. Also, it needs to be larger than the one in the link.

I'd estimate the one in the movie is about five or six inches long.

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For comparison, I've got the same Cosmo and People issues, and just today I received the telephone on the left.

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Mine is the wrong color, but as you can see, a six-line office telephone like Janine's is noticeably longer than a standard telephone.

Here's a frame of Janine's phone just after her call from the Sedgewick manager, right before she hits the alarm button.

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I'm tempted to just spray-paint this green one white, unless I can find a cheap one in the right color.

Alex
#469687
Dang it... my camera battery died just as I was documenting the unwrapping of these.

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I did a photo analysis of Janine's desk in a framecap from the movie, and found that her name plate was twice the width of the brass whale. Since my whale was 5", I ordered these custom-made at 10" wide.

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I'll take some more pics of them without the plastic sleeves over them once my camera is recharged.

Alex

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