This is for other Ghostbusters Props that don't fit into the categories above.
#4893745
What an absolutely fantastic project, truly inspiring! Suscribed a while back but revisited and read again from the very beginning and was hooked. Can't wait for the next updates, and all the discoveries you guys made along the way with all those obsure, obsolete and rare found parts is mindblowing - that's dedication for you. Awesome stuff! Mentioned a while back was the GB Visual History book, and I remember as I read it for the first time, noting the part where Stephen Dane refers to the aircraft scrapyard in Tucson, where he found all the bits used in the props...well it got me thinking, I wonder which type of aircraft (either military or commercial) were withdrawn/scrapped and sent there by the time he visited? This would have been either late 1981 or early 1982, as he mentioned Bladerunner, which screened in 1982. If the exact types of aircraft were known, then related technical/maintenance manuals could be found, which would reference all the parts...I know this is probably a moot point, since most of the parts have been identified anyway, but I guess I got bitten by the bug after reading about all the in-depth investigative work that's been going on here :)
#4893758
barison82 wrote:What an absolutely fantastic project, truly inspiring! Suscribed a while back but revisited and read again from the very beginning and was hooked. Can't wait for the next updates, and all the discoveries you guys made along the way with all those obsure, obsolete and rare found parts is mindblowing - that's dedication for you. Awesome stuff! Mentioned a while back was the GB Visual History book, and I remember as I read it for the first time, noting the part where Stephen Dane refers to the aircraft scrapyard in Tucson, where he found all the bits used in the props...well it got me thinking, I wonder which type of aircraft (either military or commercial) were withdrawn/scrapped and sent there by the time he visited? This would have been either late 1981 or early 1982, as he mentioned Bladerunner, which screened in 1982. If the exact types of aircraft were known, then related technical/maintenance manuals could be found, which would reference all the parts...I know this is probably a moot point, since most of the parts have been identified anyway, but I guess I got bitten by the bug after reading about all the in-depth investigative work that's been going on here :)
Thank you for the very kind words (as well as all of the post likes). There is a big post in the works, but I just haven't put the effort into preparing the update yet. My attention has been more focused on updating the plans and creating a definitive parts list. I'm a little over extended on a promise I made so I am trying to wrap that up quickly. Maybe after the next planned build day I will post the picture/video update. I guess I am looking to add a little more meat to the pie first.

The two different places where the parts sourced for the film are the Tucson Airplane scrap yard and APEX in Los Angeles. I have yet to visit the Tucson yard but I have been to APEX several times. While you can find aircraft junk at APEX, it's mostly filled with industrial and electronics pieces. Occasionally you can stumble onto Ghostbusters parts but you're not going to find much. I have been to an aircraft junkyard looking for parts and the stuff we were finding was amazing. Everywhere we turned we were recognizing props. Not just from Ghostbusters but other movies like Star Wars, etc. The place was so awesome and massive! We even needed a golf cart to get around. Unfortunately, the owner of the place was a f****g asshole and kicked us all out. The epitome of a wacky, hoarding-nutjob who I guess felt betrayed that we were even the presence of his precious scrap-pile (long story). Anyways, with that said, I have always wanted to visit another yard like it. I have had my eye set on going out to Tucson and seeing what they've got. I would really like to stumble upon the Ecto-1 heatsink or the GB1 pack cable in the wild someday. Who knows. Maybe we'll get lucky?

As far as the props used in the film go, I don't necessarily think one plane in particular is going to be the end-all find. While there are actually a lot of brand similarities between the equipment, ECU and Ecto-1/1A, some of it comes from completely different sources. Some of it being older than others too. We know the oxygen tanks and other pieces come straight out of WWII era military parts. Then there's Vietnam-era mil-spec, late 70's aerospace parts and even early 80's computer tech. The stuff comes from all over and in a place like that it's all going to be in piles of junk unfortunately. I mean, I was just watching one of the JAWS (I think the 4th one?) films a few weeks ago. I found that the infamously hard-to-find skirted trap knob (that's also used on the ECU) can be sourced from a sonar device that's used on the boat in the film. From some company in Tujunga, CA. where they also filmed E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial. So who knows where this stuff really comes from? I think the best bet is to track the pieces back to the manufacturer. Sometimes you'll discover that they're still manufacturing this stuff. However, if you do some digging in the forums, there are talks about just this and some guys have found pieces in particular planes and do talk about which ones. I'd like to try and find it for you, but it's just before midnight and I am spent.
User avatar
By barison82
#4893762
910dohead wrote:Thank you for the very kind words (as well as all of the post likes). There is a big post in the works, but I just haven't put the effort into preparing the update yet. My attention has been more focused on updating the plans and creating a definitive parts list. I'm a little over extended on a promise I made so I am trying to wrap that up quickly. Maybe after the next planned build day I will post the picture/video update. I guess I am looking to add a little more meat to the pie first.

The two different places where the parts sourced for the film are the Tucson Airplane scrap yard and APEX in Los Angeles. I have yet to visit the Tucson yard but I have been to APEX several times. While you can find aircraft junk at APEX, it's mostly filled with industrial and electronics pieces. Occasionally you can stumble onto Ghostbusters parts but you're not going to find much. I have been to an aircraft junkyard looking for parts and the stuff we were finding was amazing. Everywhere we turned we were recognizing props. Not just from Ghostbusters but other movies like Star Wars, etc. The place was so awesome and massive! We even needed a golf cart to get around. Unfortunately, the owner of the place was a f****g asshole and kicked us all out. The epitome of a wacky, hoarding-nutjob who I guess felt betrayed that we were even the presence of his precious scrap-pile (long story). Anyways, with that said, I have always wanted to visit another yard like it. I have had my eye set on going out to Tucson and seeing what they've got. I would really like to stumble upon the Ecto-1 heatsink or the GB1 pack cable in the wild someday. Who knows. Maybe we'll get lucky?

As far as the props used in the film go, I don't necessarily think one plane in particular is going to be the end-all find. While there are actually a lot of brand similarities between the equipment, ECU and Ecto-1/1A, some of it comes from completely different sources. Some of it being older than others too. We know the oxygen tanks and other pieces come straight out of WWII era military parts. Then there's Vietnam-era mil-spec, late 70's aerospace parts and even early 80's computer tech. The stuff comes from all over and in a place like that it's all going to be in piles of junk unfortunately. I mean, I was just watching one of the JAWS (I think the 4th one?) films a few weeks ago. I found that the infamously hard-to-find skirted trap knob (that's also used on the ECU) can be sourced from a sonar device that's used on the boat in the film. From some company in Tujunga, CA. where they also filmed E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial. So who knows where this stuff really comes from? I think the best bet is to track the pieces back to the manufacturer. Sometimes you'll discover that they're still manufacturing this stuff. However, if you do some digging in the forums, there are talks about just this and some guys have found pieces in particular planes and do talk about which ones. I'd like to try and find it for you, but it's just before midnight and I am spent.
You're very welcome! And no worries, I'll look forward to seeing all the forthcoming updates, and all the work you guys are contributing to this forum is much appreciated [emoji4][emoji106]

Thanks also for such a detailed reply! Truly fascinating stuff regarding your visits to that scrapyard, such a shame the owner wasn't very accommodating! Those places sound vast and quite surreal. Might have a look on Google Earth! The connections between the parts and all the various movies of that genre/era is also very interesting. It would certainly warrant a book on the subject! Things do have a way of turning up when you least expect, I always think that as long as you look, you will eventually find...

The variety of sources is also interesting and adds to the complexity. Those oxygen tanks being WWII era for example, I mean that is a remarkable vintage. Didn't think it would go so far back! I see what you mean. Tracking by manufacturer makes a lot of sense. In fact I found that skirted trap knob you mention, it's in my own trap build thread, I sourced the white-line pointer knob and the correct black skirt that goes with it. Very interesting that it originates on a Sonar device, and that it shows up in JAWS. My trap build thread is in my sig line and in it, I list the sources of those rare knobs, of which these two:

https://www.tedss.com/2051000492

http://www.surplussales.com/ShaftHardware/Knobs-10.html

have a lot of knobs and switches available, and I had great success finding those tear-drop pointer knobs [emoji4][emoji106]

Interesting as I thought the one used on the ECU was bigger!

Thanks for offering to find that thread but I wouldn't expect you to go out of your way like that lol...I will certainly do some more digging about here as there seems to be a never-ending wealth of information, I'm just learning all the time! What a fantastic hobby. And thanks for your input [emoji106]
#4895073
Update time!

The new frame needed a new cover as well as all of the openings to be cut out. A step we've already done twice in this build.

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Now that we already had the instrument panel finished, we decided to go ahead and have that mounted up.

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Here is a picture of the panel looking pretty and ready to be mounted.

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Let's go ahead and get rid of the greeblies so we can put some screws in that lovely piece of aluminum.

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Here she is all mounted up!

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Here is the backside you will never see. Allowing plenty of room for the greeblies to be mounted and eventually wired up.

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Now let's go ahead and put all of those wonderful control knobs back onto the plate. Yes, the microamperes meter you see is not the accurate one. I grabbed the wrong one by accident but it was just for the sake of the test mount and picture purposes.

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Continuing with steps that previously haven't done in the build yet, we decided to mount the card connectors to their final homes. Yes, that's what these are actually called. More specifically, 18-pin card connectors. These ones were made by DALE, who also made the wonderful stuff found on our proton packs.

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This update wouldn't be complete without showing you this. I think the one on the left is the male and the one on the right is the female. He's really giving it to her good. Aww.

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This particular build day was complete, so we decided to take a shot of the unit with the fancy new upgrades.

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Starting a new build day, it was time we mounted the door to the frame. Last time we tried this, we screwed something up and the door wouldn't sit flush when closed. It was a mistake that was so minut but had disastrous consequences for us, so this time we took extra precautions in making sure we get it right. Here you can see we used some old playing cards to keep the barrel hinges evenly spaced so the holes on the frame are in the correct spot they need to be.

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Here is the frame before making our cuts. We had the brackets on the hinges perfectly spaced this time so here goes nothing. Honestly, countersinking the door brackets isn't even the hard part of mounting the door. It's just time consuming. The trick is to drill the holes perfectly precise.

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The hard part comes right about here. We have to make sure the holes that we drill here are perfect. Otherwise, the door will not sit flush against the frame. Screwing this up would mean building the whole entire frame and cover for a third freaking time would have been for nothing. "This is it. Don't get scared now." - Macaulay Culkin.

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Before I get into the part of whether we f**** up on the door or not, I also want to point out that we also countersunk our pilot holes for all of the screws we need to use to mount the cover to the frame. Pretty, right? An extra step and all that extra work wasted if this door doesn't go on right.

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Here we go, the moment of truth!

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It fits and it's flush! The door is now mounted properly. Time to finally move on with the build. Now everything we do from this point on is completely new. What's next you say? Well, let's go ahead and get these thing-a-ma-jigs (not what they are actually called. Give us a break. We threw you a bone with the card connectors) that hold the door up placed where they need to be. Lemme tell ya, finding the sweet spot on these takes forever.

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Once we found the g-spot, we went ahead and mounted them up! OMG! (John Travolta excitement).

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Moving forward, we now come to the part in our build where we take extra precautions in making sure our measurements are correct. We have one custom made aluminum door that we absolutely cannot make mistakes with. Granted, they can be corrected but any would set us back and what a pain in the ass they would be. Anyways, without further ado, let's drill some holes!

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Here is one hole drilled and tapped! Three more to go.

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I can't begin to describe the anxiety we all felt doing these steps. Drilling was one thing, but tapping these holes sucked. We all had to take turns doing these and it killed our hands. Once all four holes were drilled and tapped, we put the whole door together. Is it going to work the way it needs to? Let's find out.



Finally! One of the hardest parts we've encountered so far in this build and it's now beyond us. Thank goodness. Now, let's measure out some more holes and do some more anxiety filled drilling? Shall we? OK, let me explain what is going on in this next picture. This is a reference photo we took of our first draft of figuring out where all of the hex bolts are going to need to go for the ghost trap housing. The bottom row of bolts represents the top of the housing as well as the bottom guides (for the ghost trap wheels) that mount onto the door. The top row, with the five bolts, represents the supports underneath the heatsinks. These also get mounted onto the door. The middle row you see with the 7 bolts was preliminary. We went back to the reference we have and did some heavy scrutinizing on figuring out whether 7 bolts are needed or less. We ultimately discovered that only 5 bolts were needed for the inside of the housing to connect to the support beams. It's the same pattern only slightly offset so the bolts don't end up running into each other while going thru the support.

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I know it sounds confusing, but here in the next steps, you'll see what I mean. Moving forward, let's drill those holes.

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Here you can see the five bolt pattern going into the side of support beam securing the side wall to it. What you are seeing is the backside view of the left side. You can see the support to the right. Additionally, another five hex bolts mount from the top of the support and into the door. They will have to be slightly offset so the bolts going into the sides don't hit each other. It also matches up to the reference as well.

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The left one is done and moving onto the right side. Notice the lines on the support being worked on and look closely at the finished one. Do you notice anything off? Well, on closer inspection you see that he's about to make the mistake of making two left sides. It wasn't caught in time by any of us and we ended up having to remake a new support. You see this is why I say wait until we have our plans done. Let us be the pin cushion and make all of the stupid mistakes for you first. Remember, silly mistakes like this costs extra money.

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Here is a test fit making sure everything still lines up before moving forward. If you look closely at this next picture, you will see the guide rails along the bottom are about a quarter of an inch too short. We did this originally because we had an idea of making something that grabbed onto trap to hold it in place. We figured we would need that clearance to get closer to the front of the trap so it could grab it better. Now, that we have a better idea of how this system worked in the film, we don't need this extra space. So these pieces are going to get re-cut so we have better support for the back housing.

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Here is a shot of the front before the new guide rails.

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Here is (almost) the same shot of the front after the new guide rails.

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Our next step was to drill the holes for the guide rails into the door. However, the drill press that we specifically purchased to do just this wouldn't accommodate the depth we needed to reach where the holes needed to go. I called up my neighbor to see if his drill press would work and luckily it did. Drilling into the door round 2! More nail-biting, nerve-racking hi-jinks ahead.

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Once all 8 holes were drilled, then needed to be tapped and filled (with bolts). Everything looks good at this point.

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This is where we had to stop. We had a calling on consuming large quantities of pizza and beer in our immediate future, so we took haste. You are all now caught up on our progress. We are getting much closer to finally being done with this project. Obviously, we still have some hurdles to cross, but we are making great progress (and hopefully continue to do so).

Before I wrap this up, I am going to go ahead and share another crucial part of this build that's been on-going during the entire project. While it's not completely finished (hence the watermarks), I would like to show off the progress and talk about one thing that's bugging me about it.

I am talking specifically about the labels. Here is my mock up.

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I designed these myself and I am pretty confident they are accurate in size and spacing. Obviously, we still don't know who manufactured the bumper labels so the Toshiba and Motco are just speculation and will obviously be replaced if the actual manufacturer becomes known. I'm probably going to trash the Motco idea too. A promising lead that seems to be leading towards a dead-end. Anyways, the two complete (still) unknown labels are the weird "red bar" stereo(?) label underneath the microamperes meter and the white CAUTION label in the lower right of my template. Recently, I was talking with another ghosthead at a convention who filled me in on the fact that the label is also on the Ecto-1. However, it disappeared after the car's first restoration. Sadly it is a detail completely lost to time. Reference is dismal and you can barely get a glimpse of it on the car in the film.

Here are the two best reference images I have of the label.

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The clearest shot of it seen in the film.

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Finally, the last time we saw them alive.

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Only to be replaced by this ass-hat:

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I think I did a pretty decent job with what I had available. I also did extensive research on similar and actual white caution labels that exist. I know it's not exact. I hope one day, somebody somewhere has a clear image of this paper label lost to time. Honestly, besides the left side of the trap housing, the most glaring inaccuracies on this entire build are going to be these said labels. However, I believe an awesome attempt has been made to recover these missing puzzle pieces. While, it will bug me to no-end, I just hope that when the project is complete and goes on display that the attempt is admired and not trashed. All I need is another über fan to point out their obvious flaws and criticize them not knowing the work, research and dedication that went into creating them. I don't want to think about that. But... BUT! Hopefully with some more digging, I hope we can solve these little mysteries. To one day fill that void, baby! There's gotta be some old dusty behind the scenes pictures laying about? Was your dad a prop builder for BOSS films in the 80's that kept a detailed work scrap book? Throw us a bone. C'mon...

Also, these labels will be released alongside our plans for the ECU.

Anyways, the next update will be more fascinating and will include this kinda stuff:

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Also, extra points to those of you who noticed we started outside, moved to the garage and eventually ended up in the house. It's been consistently 120+ degrees out here.

Until then, Suncheros! (inside joke)
#4895085
Wow, awesome update and more amazingly detailed, painstaking work - fantastic. Congrats on getting the door finally mounted correctly! That deserves a :crunch:

Drilling and tapping aluminium can be a nightmare as I'll soon discover when attempting my trap build, but you guys seem to be handling it pretty well so far...and the labels - again, wow, you're tackling some very tough details there but given what there is available to go on in terms of reference material, you've done the best that anyone could do :) Thanks for sharing with the community.

Wow 120+ degrees!? That's major.

Keep up the amazing work though!
910dohead liked this
#4895275
Happy July 4th everyone. We spent a few hours working on the unit yesterday so this update will be a small one.

We left off last week by mounting the guide rails on the door for the ghost trap. Since we also mounted the supports to the side walls, the next obvious step would be to mount those side walls and supports to the door. We decided we would drill the holes we needed in the supports first. Then we would clamp everything together to the door, go through those support holes and right into the aluminum. We achieved this by clamping our straight edge to the door. This would ensure the parts would stay where they needed to be and remain flush to each other in the process. Next we used clamps to keep the walls and supports together. Then once everything was in place, we could then line up each hole on the drill press and get those holes into the door.

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Once all of the holes were drilled and tapped we could attach the first side. As you can see, by using the straight edge to keep the pieces in place, we got our parts mounted while still being flush to each other (more importantly on the line).

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We repeated the same steps with the other the wall. Making sure everything lined up to where we wanted it to be.

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Once we had the two sides mounted to the door, we needed to check to see if the top would fit flush. Luckily everything is looking great.

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Mounting the top is going to be very difficult. These holes have to be absolutely perfect. We do have a plan of attack though and we will tackle that next week. In the meantime, we started with the heatsinks that go on the sides of the housing. We found the dead center of the heatsink and drilled the hole for our first greeblie.

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Then it just needed to be tapped and mounted. We did this to both and I thought I took a picture but I guess I didn't.

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That's all that we have for you this week. We will have more progress to show next week. Our plan is to get the top of the housing drilled and mounted. If time permits, we should also be able to build the other have of the housing and have it mounted. Until then.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July.
barison82 liked this
#4895949
Last time we left off we had only built up the side walls of the trap housing. The next step we need to complete is to mount the top of the housing. This requires us drill into the top of the side walls. We have to be careful with the next steps.

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It seems simple to do but this was probably the hardest part of the build. We had little room for screw ups so these holes had to be drilled perfectly.

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Luckily, we did this next step without any issue. Next we tapped the holes and crossed our fingers everything would line up.

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Thankfully, things lined up great but we had a very slight overhang on the sides. Nothing a little sanding couldn't take care of.

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We nailed this part. The trap entrance measures up perfectly and looks great.

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Next we needed to start the back half of the housing. We cut out some beams for support. This is also to secure the top to each wall.

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Here is the finished second half.

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Luckily the housing lines up perfectly with each other. Now to drill and tap the lower support beams to the door.

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The pictures make it look easy but with all the weird angles and having to use a drill press made it difficult. We did the first side without issue.

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However, when we worked on the other side the door it was different story. We pushed through it and finally got the supports mounted. It was stressful but everything is done. Now it's time to put everything back together and check out the results.

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Here it is all assembled. We did have an issue with one of the back walls being slightly off. It ended up creating a gap between the two housing pieces. Basically, the two parts didn't sit flush against each other. The next day we decided to re-cut a new wall piece. Everything went smoothly as we drilled it all together perfectly.

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We are taking a break from the build next week. We are going to assemble the heatsinks as well as the ball joints pieces when we resume. One step closer to paint and completion.

Until next time...
barison82 liked this
#4896166
Looking awesome!! What a complicated project. Had to re-read a few times to understand what was going on with some of those stages lol
910dohead liked this
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4896425
barison82 wrote:Looking awesome!! What a complicated project. Had to re-read a few times to understand what was going on with some of those stages lol
Thanks! Yeah, sorry about that. I rushed the last few updates and even went back and tried to reword the process a little better. It seems like it can be a complicated project (at times it certainly feels that way), but with the headaches aside it really is a fun prop to build. I just wish we had more time to work on it. It's taken how many years to get to this point now? Lol.

We did work on it yesterday but we didn't do much. What we did was tapped the SCR's to the heat sink. I didn't get any action shots of the drilling or tapping. All I took were a few pictures of the after progress.

Yay! All done.
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The side you see in the film. We were very fortunate to get the SCR's to line up exactly how they are seen. Either I meticulously tried to get the threading perfect or I just completely lucked out?
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Comparing it to the reference.
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Finally, a bird's eye view.
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Here's a little advice for anyone wanting to build a ECU based around this thread. If you're planning on using aluminum parts like the heatsinks, real SCR's or even with the real door handle (steel), please construct your door to accommodate the weight. One heatsink with the thyristors attached weighs 3 lbs. Account for everything else and it adds up to being one heavy door.

I think next week we will either try and mount the heatsinks to the housing and possibly get all of the greeblies attached.

Until next time...
barison82 liked this
By brits_abroad
#4899850
I have been scouring the threads to find containment center labels but with little success, several reference old hosted images (long since removed). Or super low resolution ones. Would anybody have a PDF of labels for this unit, my build is very simple and fun for a trunk or treat event but I would like to have the proper labels if possible. I only have a few days or I would try to Photoshop some up myself, my current plan is remake the low resolution ones in Illustrator for clean prints, but hoping somebody saves the day (and my time I am spending hours and hours cutting and folding and gluing :) )
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By barison82
#4900123
No worries! It's great that you're taking the time to record all the steps. Another interesting update and it is certainly a complicated project but yeah, looks great fun! Looking forward to further progress as usual :)
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4900363
barison82 wrote:No worries! It's great that you're taking the time to record all the steps. Another interesting update and it is certainly a complicated project but yeah, looks great fun! Looking forward to further progress as usual :)
That wasn't an update regarding this project. That was just some random person who only joined the forums to try to get me to hand them over the labels created for this project. It wasn't going to happen for them but I wish them all the best with their Halloween project.

However, if you would like an update for this project, all I can say is that there is nothing to report. The focus and motivation has been shifted elsewhere (again). Personally, I don't know when there's going to be momentum again but there will be at some point in time.

Soooo... Happy Halloween!
bustermedic liked this
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4915543
You may have thought this build and/or thread was dead. Well? For a while, that was true. In fact, the last real update was back in August of 2017. That's quite a long time ago and with no update, it would seem as though is was. However, I can tell you that we didn't abandon this project (nor any other group projects for that matter), but we did have to put it on hold for a lengthy period of time. What's the reason? Well, Onlyalad19 and ZuulTheGatekeeper had their wedding to plan. It took place just before Halloween and was a beautiful, fun and splendid affair. There was great music, wonderful people, the theme was awesome (think 1900's-1930's expressionism; specifically film) and my favorite part was the open bar (glug, glug). Congrats to them!

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Now that the holidays are over, it's time to bust this shit out! We're kicking out the jams, mother-fu...

Since resuming, we thought about doing one final/massive post before the finished unveiling. However, while taking a look at what work still needed to be done, we felt like one giant post would be cheating everyone by glazing over details or leaving important stuff out. What I mean is some of the details would be lost by shortening things up. Believe me, these posts usually go through 2 or 3 stages of edits and summarizing before they get posted. We probably have close to a thousand photos of this build so far and we can't show you everything as it would get boring. We've got to show you the stuff that matters and get right to the point with it. A final post would be cramming too much at once. With that said...

Here is the first of several countdown-to-completion posts!

We always thought the hardest part of this build would be mounting the handle to the door. Building it up in our heads that it was going to be one giant headache to overcome. That wasn't the case at all. In fact, everything went smoother than we had thought.

First, we needed to ditch the giant rod/bar that comes out of the handle. Here it is with our final 3D printed handle frame with mock jack dish. A friend of ours made us one out of steel but its just way too heavy to go on the door.

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We thought this process was going to take hours to cut through the steel. We loaded it into our vice and cut it with a hacksaw.

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Luckily, it took less than 2 minutes! It was quite the surprise and that sped the process up for us greatly.

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It actually took us longer to file the backside of the handle down flat for when it gets countersunk in the door.

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Now with all this time on our hands, we used a dremel to sand down the edges of the handle that run along the mounting bracket. The handle is really hard to turn versus what is seen in the film. By sanding it down, it'll reduce the friction along the bracket making the handle easier to turn.

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Here is where we are faced with our dilemma. When I designed the stl file for the handle frame, hole placement for the handle was something we hadn't tackled at that point. Jumping the gun, I designed it anyways. Now that we're at a point where we can mount the handle, that leaves us with two options. Try to cut the hole ourselves or we alter the stl file to include the hole (which I am surprised I was able to design in the first place) and have it 3D printed again. We had a partial test print of the frame and decided to do a test cut.

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Having to cut out the hole to make room for the handle is one thing, but we also had to recess the backside to allow the bracket to sit above the door. It's obviously easier to cut into ABS plastic than it is to cut into aluminum.

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In the end our results weren't what we would consider close to ideal. We still could choose this method. If we failed, we could always alter the stl file and have it re-printed. We did reach out to our friend who originally printed the frame for us, but he could'nt get to it for some time. Therefore we decided to give it a go using a better dremel and slowly taking our time. Here's goes nothing.

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Cutting out the hole was easy. We just had to limit cutting in sections for too long. The plastic could start to heat up and begin warping, which is what we wanted to avoid. Luckily we took our time and got the results we were hoping for.

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We couldn't afford any room for error when cutting this so we took our time with it. When all was said and done, it only took about an hour. Just to give you an idea of why we needed to be delicate with it. It was going to end up being very thin. The smallest mistake would of been catastrophic and had us scrap it.

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Then we got a piece of junk wood and decided to do a test mount of the handle and a test fitting of the frame.

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The way in which this all goes together is we simply slip the frame over the handle. In order to do this we had to make the opening for the handle slightly larger than it should be. The handle has more to it at the curved bend which makes getting the frame over it impossible. We had to slowly sand the opening just enough to where it would fit over. The only other option would be to drill out the rivet pin holding the handle to the bracket, put the base of the handle through the frame and re-rivet it (which I don't think is possible because the rivet looks to be something either proprietary or an older design no longer used). Luckily, the first option worked out great.

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All that's left for the handle is to be mounted onto the door, clean-up, then paint. We're not there just yet, but we're getting to that very soon. It's going to look so good once its on the door.

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Now we're going to go off onto a different direction. When we left off over a year ago, we had just tapped the thyristors and the diode to the heatsinks that go on the sides of the trap enclosure inside of the door. Our next step is to figure out placement of the holes in the phenolic busbars and get those mounted. We turned to our reference and mocked up a guide in photoshop. Now it was time to drill.

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We wanted to get the end holes perfectly lined up and centered with each other since we have a good idea of what the actual function of these found parts actually do. Measure twice, cut once and you'll always get the desired results.

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The busbars mount at the bottom of the heatsinks on both sides using two slotted pan head screws. They're very close to the edge of the heatsinks, so we had to be careful that we weren't too close. So far so good!

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At this point we drilled and tapped the holes to attach the bars to the heatsinks. We only did this for the right side so far.

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For the left side, the drill holes would have to be opposite if we were going to reverse the effect. So, we did this with one of the other busbars, but before we were going to drill the holes into the heatsink, we decided to look at the reference again. This is when we had an "oh shit" moment. Not a bad one, but a fantastic one. However, I will get into that in a few. I want to share a side story but it relates to what we're doing.

Back in September, a few of our group members were doing a public event. At one point, everyone decided to walk-around but I opted to stay back and man the booth. I was approached by someone during that time who loved what we were doing and then introduced themselves as Richard Edlund's personal assistant. As in Richard Edlund who owns and runs Boss Films who designed the props for Ghostbusters including the Containment Unit? Yep. The very same. We got to talking and I told this person about our project. They were happy to help and we exchanged contact info.

I was asked to put together something which explained what we were looking for. That being a shot of the left side of the door opening. Seeing all of the greeblies on the left side of the trap housing. So I did this and put it all together and we shot emails back and forth. At this point, they were going to go thru archives to see if they could dig something up for us. Then one morning, I checked my email and got what would be the final email I would receive.

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Bummer! Not even Boss Films has anything in their archives which shows that side of the unit. I did ask for the persons name who originally built the prop and nobody could remember the guys name unfortunately. So close, yet so far... we could pursue it further but I honestly don't think we'll find anything and it would just be us bothering some poor widow or whomever. A fools errand at this point. However, let me get back to that "Oh, shit" moment.

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Here's a shot of the left side of the trap housing. Take a look at the placement of the heatsink. It's right up against the 1" square aluminum ball spacer mount. Also, take a look at where the orange tubing is going. If you look closely, you can see the red heatshrink tubing start just below the top of the heatsink. When you compare the distance to the visible tubing on the other side, you can tell that its mounted onto the back screw of the busbar.

OK, think of it like this; you have found parts which you are attaching to your prop. If you have two pieces that are identical but opposite or reverse to each other, you do the obvious thing and attach them opposite to each other. In this case, you don't attach them opposite because you can't. You have two identical parts. Two identical heatsinks with the busbars going in the same exact direction.

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Oh, shit! This is why the heatsink is closer to the front. It's flipped and it sits completely reversed on the other side. If you're lost, here is a picture of what we believe the accurate configuration to be.

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If you think about it, it makes complete and total sense and this is how we're mounting the left side going forward. As far as where the greeblies go will forever remain a mystery. If you look at the best reference shot in the film, the housing is at a very odd angle which may be attributed to a filming lense. We have tried to replicate the same angle with our door and this is the best we could come up with.

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Here you can clearly see the thyristor in our shot but if you compare it to the reference, it's either not there or its just out of the shot completely. We did our best to line these shots up in photoshop, but the reference is odd. Things line up perfectly and then they don't line up at all. It's not that we're off, it's just a weird camera angle we can't replicate.

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Here's just a fun thing I did in photoshop.

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In order to be able to move forward, we needed to find some bolts. Particularly an 8/32 slotted round head screw with a length of 2". These are the bolts that will be attaching the heatsinks to the housing. We went to store after store after store. Nobody carries slotted screws anymore where we live. We had to resort to the internet to get them. We ordered them Friday and luckily they came today (Monday).

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The update was going to stop here, but since the bolts arrived (and haven't posted the update) we ventured onward!

Next we focused on the heatsinks further. Did some more drilling and tapping with the bolts that just arrived. Then we sanded the heatsinks back to a shine.

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Now that every hole for the heatsink is done, we put most of it together to see how its coming along.

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There is still some cleanup work that needs to be done to these parts, but we are done with them for now. Next they'll be mounted to the sides of the trap housing. The top heatsink goes on the left and the bottom will go on the right.

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I believe we are going to be tackling the task of mounting the handle to the door. Work still needs to be done to the frame and the 3D printed parts need some bondo/sanding work.

Until next time.
Last edited by 910dohead on March 22nd, 2019, 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4916822
Another build day began with one objective to complete: to get the handle mounted to the door. In order for this to happen, we need to remove all of the trap housing first.

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Now with everything removed from the door, we had to figure out exactly where the handle goes. Our reference revealed that the handle is mounted in the exact center of the door, which makes the jack plate housing sit off center (more to the left). Figuring that out made things easy as we only needed to figure out the distance the handle needed to be from the top of the door. Once we found our mark, we needed to recess a hole underneath the handle plate to make room for its backside.

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We started the center hole with the largest drill bit we had and got it to the depth we figured we needed. Then we drilled out and tapped the holes for the screws that'll be attaching the plate to the door.

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After we did this, we mounted the handle for its first test fit. Everything went great at first, but the handle wouldn't move or budge once the plate was attached and sitting flush. This is due to how the handle is designed. There is a slight amount of spring loaded pressure in the base of the handle and we realized the backside pushes out when you turn the handle. We just had to make small adjustments to the holes depth.

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After several adjustments, the handle finally went on as intended!

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Next step will be to prepare the handle frame so it can attach to the door. In order to do this, we will be countersinking threaded inserts into the backside of the 3d printed part and attaching them to the backside of the door (underneath the trap housing).

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We had a process in mind of how we would do this, but we over complicated it with the parts we purchased. We went back to the drawing board, took a trip to the hardware store and bought new parts to simplify this process.

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Also, this got tricky because we were getting close to other screw holes that attached the trap housing to the door that we didn't want to interfere with or obstruct. We just had to triple check the placement of these new holes to make sure nothing overlapped. Here goes nothing!

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Now that we got the placement of everything figured out, we had to drill the holes in the handle frame to make room for the countersunk inserts.

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This was a step where a lot of fine tuning took place in order to get the inserts to sit flush against the door. Especially with a 3D printed part where we didn't include this step into its original design. Some areas were solid while others were hollow. Either way, these inserts are going to be secured with an epoxy and hollow spots will be filled. However, that step will have to wait for another build day. Here's how it looked at the end of the build day.

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In the meantime, the heatsinks got a little soldering job done. Not everything was attached with solder just yet. We wont be able to do this until the heatsinks are finally attached to the trap housing. They do look good though.

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In our next step we will be adding epoxy to the threaded inserts, drilling the holes into the door and attaching the handle frame. That'll be tricky. From there on out we will need to clean up the frame with some bondo and prepping it for paint. Then we'll move onto attaching the heatsinks, then tackling the ball joint mounts (keeps the door closed). That'll be the last big hurdle before hiding/filling holes and doing general clean-up work. The last step before receiving paint.

That's all we got to report on for now. Until next time.
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4917321
We're back at it again!

This update is a culmination of the past several build days all rolled into one. We last left off with the handle frame needing to have the threaded inserts countersunk and secured with epoxy. The eight screw terminals were adhered with JB weld and left to cure over a 24-hour period.

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The following build day saw us using Bondo to smooth out the print lines of the frame. We want to make sure the part sits flawlessly against the aluminum door, so this step will be crucial in making sure the backside sits flush.

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After several coats and a lot of sanding, the part felt like glass. After a little clean-up and a test fit, we also left it to sit overnight again.

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The build day after that saw a lot of progress as we continued on with the handle frame. With the backside now cured and sitting flush, attention was focused to the front of the part. Those 3D printed lines have got to go.

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With the sanding of the handle frame complete, it's now time to drill into the door and mount it. Ugh, here goes nothing...

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The method we were originally going to use involved a template. Basically, an actual-size scan with the screw openings being punched is what we originally planned. The purpose is to make sure the holes we drill will line up with the inserts on the back of the handle frame. Sounds easy, right?

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Well, having the holes line up perfectly was proving to be a challenge for whatever reason and we couldn't figure it out. We made slight adjustments with the template but it just wasn't working out in our favor. We then changed up the method by doing things the old fashioned way by using tape to find our marks.

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I can't begin to tell you how frustrating this next step was. The first hole was drilled and things weren't looking good. We only have one door and we'll have to fill and re-drill if we mess up (Let's avoid having to do that, m'kaaay?). The hole was slightly off from where we wanted it to be. Our motto is measure twice, cut once (or drill) but for some reason this saying wasn't doing us favors. We then had to adjust the hole by widening it slightly on one side. We used a mini rounded file to do this.

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Drilling the next holes was a process I would compare to walking on eggshells. Much care went into trying to get them to line up perfectly with the inserts. I can easily say that this process was probably the most difficult and frustrating for us this entire build. It seriously sucked. This took us a long time to get right, but we were able to get the frame to successfully mount. I was actually crossing my fingers while the last screw was being tightened.

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Success! What a hurdle that was to overcome. Originally, we set up the frame to be mounted using eight threaded inserts, but after testing it out after drilling only four holes, we discovered it wasn't going to need the additional support.

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The frame attached perfectly secure with only using the four screws. We also changed out the actual screws to shorter ones because the others were slightly too long and the new ones had a smaller head on them. That will prove better when we cover the holes up on the door. They also countersink deeper.

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Our next step in the build was an unexpected one. What we wanted to be able to do was clean up the metal push-button panel a group member made us. However, we noticed something about the part was off. Sadly, one of the holes was cut out in the wrong place and one of the sides was uneven. Therefore it was a part we weren't able to use, leaving us to fabricate a new one.

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Luckily, we found some aluminum that was cheap and close to the size we needed so we took on the task of fabricating the new part ourselves. First we had to measure it all out.

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Now, with every line being scrutinized with the motto of "Measure twice, cut once", it was time to do just that.

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We started cutting out the shape we needed first before tackling the button holes. We then had to file down the sides to make sure the cut line was absolutely straight.

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Now comes the fun part. We had no other way to cut these holes out then with the process we used. It was going to require a lot of strenuous work and muscle to acheive the desired result. A highly laborious and arduous task that was downright frustrating and tiresome, but it had to be done.

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Ideally, we could've just had these waterjet cut but we didn't want to wait a week or two to get the part back. We also didn't want to spend the extra cash on something we could knock out in an afternoon. Anyways, our process was to simply drill lots of small holes inside of the circumference of the hole we wanted to cut out. Then connect the drill holes in a line which will allow us to pop the unwanted metal out. Lots of drill holes to be drilled, leaving us with lots and lots of robot pubes!

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Here is what we were left with. Three holes that required a lot of filing. When I say that, I mean hours of filing. So much filing that my arms fell off and I am using an old, outdated copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking to get this all into text (no, not really).

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This next picture is a result of about two hours worth of constant filing and finishing.

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Yeah, we're that dedicated! Roughly, each hole took us a little over an hour to work on and finish before the push buttons would slide into place. We would have to check them and then fine tune until they fit perfectly.

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Did I mention a lot of filing? Here we are on our last hole.

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In the end, it took us about 4 hours to get all three push buttons to fit into the panel piece. Everything lined up beautifully! For an unexpected step in the build, it was worth it.

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Next step was to cut off the corners and round out the edges of the plate.

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Then it was a matter of looking at screenshots to figure out where the mounting hex bolts go. Those drilled and tapped perfectly.

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Then the plate and handle frame both received some sanding in preparation for primer.

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The handle frame will have to receive a little more tlc to get it just right, but we are getting the overall results we desired. It's looking great so far, just needs more work.

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The push button panel on the other hand needed no additional work. This is ready for mounting!

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Also, we've recently learned that our group will be apart of the Ghostbusters Fan Fest that's happening in June at Sony. By now, I am sure most of you have heard of this event. We all know it's going to be an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience, but not everyone was too happy with the ticket prices. Luckily, Wizard World has offered special discounted prices as well as provided our group with a coupon code to pass along to you. Input our code: SOUTHGB10 during checkout which will save you an additional 10% off on any of the ticket tiers. We hope to see familiar faces as well as new ones, so if you're going and see us there, come say "hello".

Ghostbusters Fan Fest

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That's all we have for you for now. Next build day will see us mounting the push button panel and mounting the heatsinks to the trap housing. That will hopefully be early next week. After that we will need to tackle the ball joints that hold the door closed. Door clean up, hole filling and sanding will follow after that. Then I guess it's greeblie placement after that and then paint? Oh, there are also professionally made metal/vinyl labels in the works. More on that next week though.

10 days from now marks our fifth anniversary of the day we first started this build. It has taken way longer then we ever wanted this to go on for. With that said, this thing is blowing our minds with how good its turning out. Luckily we are in the final stretch of getting the prop to look visually done. Then there is also the matter of getting it to function with lights and sounds. That's going to be fun. :whatever:

Until next time...
Kingpin liked this
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4917343
westies14 wrote: March 12th, 2019, 12:52 pm What a terrific update! This is easily one of the best threads going on any of the prop forums :)
Thanks, that means a lot. We're putting our all into this one, so to read a comment like this helps keep us going. There are a lot of other great builds out there too.
NotSabbat wrote: April 25th, 2019, 2:41 pm Glad to see this is still being worked on.
You and me both, lol. We've come a long way but we're close to finishing.
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924420
Almost since day 1 of this build, I have been working here and there on the ECU labels. Particularly recreating the ones we know of and researching the ones we don't. In that time. I have been both lucky to have made some discoveries but I also have had some help on others. I have spent countless hours searching promising leads as well as many dead ones. Some of these labels have shared use on the Ghostbusters props, including both Ectomobiles. Now, if you take a closer look at these labels, it's easy to tell what most of them say. However, out of all the ECU labels, there are now only four of them that are unknown to the Ghostbusters fan community. Luckily, two of them have not been lost to time.

Then there are the other two that have been lost to time. First being the white Caution label that appeared on both the ECU and the Ecto-1. Located just underneath the handle on the ECU and on each end of the green storage tube of the Ecto-1. The other is the infamous bumper label. We know what 95% of the bumper label says, but the full label was omitted from the proton pack. It does appear in full on the ECU. If you haven't noticed it on the site by now, there is also a thread dedicated to discovering the full label and its source located here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35132

Before I get into the nitty gritty of this post, I want to show you the two clearest images I have of these two labels.

First, we have the white Caution label.

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I have two promotional photos of this scene and you can make out some of the text. You can tell that it says Caution in the middle. So, it's a white Caution label.

Here is the best shot of it I could get from the film.

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Sadly, this next image is the most recent photo of the label and also a picture of its fate.

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Now, the above photo shows the screen used car before any restorations were made to it. To date, the Ecto-1 has had two known restorations. After the first restoration, these labels disappeared from the Ecto-1 to be replaced by this:

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This is a reproduction sticker made in house by Columbia Studios. I know this because its an updated copy of this sticker (which appears inside of the Ecto-1A).

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Same exact wording, but with a little added pizzazz! This inaccurate sticker adorns the screen used car to date.

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Sadly, I am not able to recreate this sticker to be fully 100% accurate. I have checked and confirmed with serveral sources that would have archival material and all have confirmed they don't have clear images. However, I still believe its out there, waiting to be found. So, in the meantime, I have to recreate the label someway. What did I do? I did a metric butt-ton of rectangular caution label research and came up with something close. I'll show you in a bit...

Next, is the bumper label.

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Now this label has opened up a can of worms, but in a very good way. It's led me down a path ripe with several discoveries. Before I go into the bulk of this post, let me put just how much time and research i've put into trying to find this label into some perspective. I personally started looking for this label since March of 2014. A few months shy of when this ECU project started. I was looking for it alongside the unknown accurate containment unit parts, which I have now all discovered. I put most of my efforts into finding the handle for the ECU which I was successfully able to find and track one down. THis was back in February of 2015, the same time that Ecto-Twinkie and myself were hot on the trail of the Burroughs label (Exciting time for me I must say, but then again I am a dork). Now that the Burroughs label and ECU handle were discovered, I put most of my efforts into that damn bumper label (the white caution label was a lost cause at that point).

I then spent the next year spending many a lonely night going through eBay searches for blower motors. Searching stuff like "motor synchronous", "synchronous 1500rpm", "1800rpm", etc. Looking on search different engines for any synch motors that would match. I even went to Apex several times and was still no step closer. I then took a look at all of the research I did for the Burroughs label when I started noticing some similarities. The first big one to me was a picture I had saved of an open Burroughs unit that had a couple of these labels all inside of it in various places.

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Now, I would post the photo I had of this label in the device, but I have lost it. I have retraced all of my steps and I absolutely cannot find it. It's gone but I know what I saw. Anyways, this prompted me to look into this further. I started looking into the various Burroughs machines over the years and that's when I started to discover stuff like this:

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Yeah, those are old milky hat lights and a lot of them. So far that's 3 found items and maybe there's more? I then began to start thinking about what other parts do these old work stations possibly contain? This is when I hunkered down and started to learn more about these machines. I will spare you those details, but here's a fun little video that goes more in-depth if you wish to indulge:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEYyZSlQEdg[/youtube]

Getting to look into these machines is a limited task. However, not just Burroughs were making these giant work stations. There was IBM, Ampex, Honeywell and several others. So, I started doing research on them. Then I came across a Youtube video where a guy opens up an IBM tape recorder device. In the video, he explains how the devices vacuum chamber works just before he removes the faceplate to the inside of the chamber. That's when I saw the similar looking bellow. This is just too much of a coincidence. That video is located here:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lh4CMz_Z6M[/youtube]

The bellow is shown at 1:35 in the video. Then at 2:35, the synchronous motors inside of the unit are shown and explained. This is sort of my "oh shit" moment. Looking into these things just became my main priority. I haven't been able to look into a lot of the Burroughs units, but I have found other brands that have also revealed some interesting stuff. Here are a few pictures.

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I believe this is the inside of another IBM unit or a different brand besides Burroughs. One thing I should mention is that a lot of these old tape recording units are all engineered very similar to each other and use a lot of the same parts and labels. If you take a quick look up at the photo, you'll see a very similar Caution label as well as the high voltage triangle sticker also found on the ECU. This is too much of a coincidence. If the bumper label isn't on one of capstan/motorsynchronous motors inside of one of these devices, then I would be at a loss for words.

Why do I think it's Burroughs? Several reasons.

I found a few more interesting things while looking into their workstations. First is this picture of an open wall terminal exposing familiar wires and lights.

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Here is a whole wall of those arco-electric bulbs and the diagrams on the left side look similar to the ones we see on the proton packs.

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Here is a closer look at the wiring:

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This is an actual Burroughs L-7000 unit completely exposed.

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Notice the possible grey liquidtite cable (this cable went under a faux floor that was standard installation for these workstations) from both Ecto's. Those black heatsinks are similar to one on the Ecto as well. Can you spot anything else?

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That might possibly be the ribbon cable on the GB1 packs.

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Here is the backside of the same unit. The parts I circled are of 3 points of interest. In the circle closest to the left, you see a very dirty ribbon cable which is slightly obstructed by a blower motor/cooling fan. In the second circle, you see a possibility of a very large, possibly proprietary heat sink.

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Also, take a look at the random wires going into the Ecto's fanbox. Those same terminals are on the first image of the naked Burroughs L-7000 unit.

Basically, this is the bulk of my evidence which makes me think that I am heading in the right direction. I have this feeling it will be a Burroughs unit if all of this is stuff I am saying turns out correct. Let me make one last point, one that might date the device or not.

I made two bumper labels for our ECU build. One that says Southland Corporation (which I don't want to use really) and another that says Burroughs Corporation.

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Take a look at the logo and font that I used. That logo is actually Burroughs logo for most of the 80's. I know for sure that they used it between 1982-1986. Maybe earlier or later, I don't know? Anyways, here are a few advertisements that show off the logo.

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This one is from the early 80's, so they were still manufacturing these recorders just before the movie. Then there is a tiny detail on the screen used bumper that might support this logo.

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Now I have taken the bumper label I have made and did sort of a test. I angled and blurred the image and it's strikingly similar to the one seen in film.

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Plus, I have found evidence of Burroughs using the blue/white label on a number of other devices.

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In the meantime, we decided to get labels professionally made for both projects. Luckily we found a place that does low quantity labels. They came out fantastic!

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So, here is a look at a early version of the white Caution label that I came up with. It matches up with what I can make out in those promo pictures.

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Here are some special photos we were sent straight from the source. I can't thank the people enough who are responsible for these! I am sorry that some details are blurred out, but you'll see what these say in the near future.

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It's safe to say that these two labels aren't a detail lost to time. The actual labels might be now, but more on that later? The other labels I did are for another project members of the group have going. Any guesses?

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Stupid question, I know. I can't tell you how painstakingly accurate that FA-4919 box is. I spent a lot of special time with it with a ruler, got many headaches plotting out all of the measurements, etc.

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The fun thing is it's now running and going to be ready next month in time for Halloween (hopefully). This is sort of the reason why work on this ECU project has yet again stalled. There's a few things we haven't shown but nothing too exciting. This is all of the exciting stuff right here. Anyways, hopefully this info is also exciting and yields some awesome finds. I will keep searching.

Until next time...
Kingpin, ccv66 liked this
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924451
westies14 wrote: September 20th, 2019, 1:34 am I enjoyed this post so much! Thanks for sharing - great research on the Burroughs workstation! So little left to discover from these props... Magical when you see a hint of a lead. You must have been so excited to see some of this!
Thanks! I am glad that you've enjoyed this post. I feel like I sorta half-assed it, especially towards the end. I have found a lot more pictures of this stuff, but I felt like I needed to use what I had to in order to get my point across. I didn't want to bog the post down with tons of pictures. I needed it to be minimal but at the same time convincing. I think most of it speaks for itself.

Yeah, it certainly was exciting at first but it quickly became bittersweet. You feel as if you're on the cusp of discovery, but then you're prevented from taking that extra step in confirming the find. Most of this is just speculation with the evidence I have found. It could end up being just what it is, a loosely based match and I could be looking into this much more than I should? I should mention that I am not truly convinced with the evidence I presented about the bumper label being Burroughs. It very well could be since it looks strikingly close, but it's not the dead ringer that I think it should be. I still think there's a strong argument that the bumper label will be found in a workstation tape recorder, but it might not be from Burroughs? The bumper label itself could be found in a Burroughs unit but manufactured by a different company? I feel with my label mock-up, I am trying to make the pieces fit when they aren't the right details. Everything else I feel confident about just because there are too many similarities.

In the meantime, I did find this on eBay yesterday.

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This is a Burroughs B-90 3mb 8" floppy drive. There are three details in this device that even further the evidence. First, is the obvious Burroughs Ecto-1A / ECU label. Next is a tiny detail but its certainly a match. That is the red lightning bolts on the yellow warning label. Not only does the font match some of the other labels, but that lightning bolt is a dead-ringer for the ones on the ECU. That's important because I have searched through tons of lightning bolt warning / high voltage labels on the internet and none of them were a match. I had to redraw the lightning bolt for our stickers in the end.

Finally, there is a small motor on this device that is similar to the proton pack HGA. Obviously its not a perfect match, but there's always the possibility that match is in an earlier version of this device? I mean, Burroughs did make a B-80. Maybe a B-70 all the way back to the B-10? Also, the motor could've been gutted and had its end capped with 4 allen bolts and a Ball label adhered to the end?

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However, I will go on to say that this is probably not a match. I know how big that Burroughs label is. The sizing of the label and the HGA don't match. That motor is just too darn small. Unless, that particular label in this device is bigger in size? I dunno, but I doubt it. That label stayed roughly the same size all the way into the Unisys product line merge. Oh, yeah. That's a thing...
ccv66 liked this
#4932949
Big freaking update time!

Over the last few months work has slowly continued on this build. We have been buying more supplies we need, still doing research, etc. However, work has really started to pick up on it in the last few weeks. We're actually starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Anyways, so here is what the unit looked like last we left off.

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We will be working on this part later in the update, but first let's go way back and talk about when we mentioned how we we're going to mount this and take it to events. Remember that whole rolling shelf idea? Well, we began to build and implement it.

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First we had to adjust and position the shelves in order to accommodate the backboard. This step was a pain in the ass due to the fact it wasn't lining up the way we thought it would in our heads. We were able to make it work though but it just took some patience and finesse. Next we moved onto building the frame of the faux wall we have planned for this.

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The wall itself is going to be a massive backdrop with a width of close to 5 feet with a height of 7 1/2 feet, with 5 support beams. This will be mounted to the wire shelving and sit in between the containment unit's backboard.

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Next we made sure it had corner brackets installed to reduce the amount of shifting as well as give it more support.

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With the frame built, we needed to now figure out where to put our mount holes. It was time that we mount the backboard over the frame and line everything up to make sure we're good to go still.

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Another day was upon us and with the frame built and hole placement figured out, it was time we moved on with the backing sheets.

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We needed to use two of these and they had to be cut down to size and the better of the edges had to meet together as to not be able to see the seam. This will be covered up in the end. Obviously the look we are going for with the end result is a cinder block wall as seen in the movie.

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With the sheets in place and everything plotted to where it needs to be, we quickly used wood glue on the boards to make sure we have an even stronger wall in the end.

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Next we secured the two sheets in place with screws.

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Now all there was left to do was a little bit of light sanding.

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Our next step was to drill out the shelf mounting holes in through the sheets and do a test mount with the backboard on before we could move onto the next step of the build.

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This will be a daunting task when we bring the ECU to events, but luckily we have made it manageable. My only worry is transporting it. We did make it big enough to fit into the back of a pickup truck (at least I hope we did).

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Here is a rough look at how this will be presented at events. The shelving in the back will be weighted on the lower shelf and the others will act as prop storage for proton packs when our members are not wearing them. We saw another cosplay group do this same exact thing and that's how we got the idea.

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We get into using foam in our next step to create the illusion of cinder blocks. We didn't just go into this slapping foam down and gluing them. Oh, no-no-NO! First we measured an actual cinder block and made a template. Next, we used that template to cut out as many blocks as we could with the foam we had. Then we looked at the reference pictures and tried to match them up exactly as they appeared. Luckily enough, since everything is in scale, it all matched up perfectly! One of those moments were we look at each other and say "oh, daaaamn".

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We got to a stopping point due to weather and the fact we were a few blocks away from running out of foam. More foam sheets had to be ordered, so we brought work inside in the meantime to focus on the backboard and its greeblies.

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Our first contender is the ribbon/wire box. We needed to drill out the holes for the wire harnesses.

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Here is a pretty-pretty shot of our work thus far. We'll get to mounting it later.

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Now we needed to look at the reference to figure out where whatever these thing-a-ma-jiggies are called go.

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Everything is plotted out and now it's time to drill some holes and mount some greeblies!

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This is how we mounted the top ones. The original screws for these are small. If we were to try and mount these with just the screws, chances are they will eventually fall out as the threading won't bite into the wood very well. We screwed some rubber gaskets to the sides which actually creates a powerful suction that will keep these on pretty darn well. Then we will glue the screws into the wood which will just add more support to them. That comes after paint though (if you pay closer attention to the reference, the base of these greeblies are actually painted red along with the screws).

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Here they are in place. Notice how they're slightly offset to each other. This is actually how they are if you pay close attention to the source material.

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Here is a better shot of us comparing it to shots from the movie. Looks pretty close to us, don't you think?

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You're probably going to ask us "Why?" with this next step and the short answer is because it needs to be. The inner hole to the backboard needs to be cut-out.

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The longer answer is because the measurements of what we know to be in scale just don't match up. What I mean by that is we know the actual size of the actual pieces that went on the original prop. We know how large the knobs are, the size of the handle, the size of a hero trap, etc. These parts were critical for us to find the proper scale for this project. It also contributes to why this has taken us so long to build this accurately. We went in blind and learned a lot along the way. Anyways, back to the point. By taking a look at the measurements of the insides of the doorway (the trap housing) and compare it to the overall unit housing, you'll look at the measurement numbers and see that something doesn't add up. What I am trying to say is, if you compare the distance of the front of the containment unit where the door is, to how much room there is for the trap housing when the door is closed, its evident that the prop makers actually recessed the inside of the door into the cinder block wall.

Let's take a look at an altered screen shot from the blu-ray.

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Above the trap housing you will see something odd. Those are actually wires that are tucked into the sides of the inside. To the right of the yellow and black wire, you can see a faint amount of red light reflecting off of a post. This is where it recesses and the wall behind it starts. It's not recessed that much. Probably around 3 quarters of an inch. Look to the right and you see what looks to be either small amounts of light peering thru the wall or more wiring?

While this is just a screenshot, you can see more of the pattern better when its in motion. Personally, my guess is its something of a patterned sheet of metal like this:

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We discovered the door wouldn't close when we put ours on with the trap housing attached. We took a look at the overall scale and things just didn't add up. When you stop and think about the purpose of this prop, you realizes it does two things: It makes you believe its a storage unit for ghosts which traps them through a mechanical process & the whole thing uses lights and smoke to blow itself up later on. If that is an actual cloverleaf patterned metal sheet, it makes me think it was supposed to let a small amount of light to shine through to make it look a lot more cool. Since it was shot from the side, its either a detail lost or this is all just a wild speculation. However, we do know it is slightly recessed into the cinder block wall. As the reader of this, what do you think?

Anyways, next we mounted the ribbon box to the backboard. That's ready to go.

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Then we had to put together our 'Danger Sign' to figure out the hole placing for the metal conduit shielding.

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Look how good that turned out! WooooWeeeee! lol

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Now, here's just a final shot of the ECU with how it looks today.

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Next thing we have on our plates for this project is to finish the other half of the foam bricks. Then the wall will be sprayed with a wall texture to replicate the look of the cinder blocks. After that the wall will be painted and put aside as that will be finished. After that, there isn't a whole lot left that needs to be done before we bust out the red paint. However, I will give a list of what is to come.

- Access panels for electronics need to be cut out of the backboard and lined up to holes to be cut out in the faux wall.
- The front "Faceplate" needs to be screwed onto the frame and then mounted to the backboard.
- A frame needs to be created for the top shelf of the metal shelving to support the barn lights.
- Holes for the barn lights need to be plotted and drilled then mounted to the faux wall and support.
- Dowel mounts for the conduit to be installed.
- A portion of the lower curved piece needs to be fixed and then mounted.
- The heatsinks need to be mounted to the trap housing.
- The ball bearing door support needs to be plotted and mounted.
- The beam catch inside of the trap housing still needs to be figured out and implemented.
- The second conduit box either needs to be found or created and then mounted.
- Sanding and primer
- Paint
- Labeling and assembly (trap housing ribs, etc.).

It's getting way closer and it will be finished in 2020!
Last edited by 910dohead on March 26th, 2020, 6:44 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Kingpin liked this
#4932951
TheKevinShow wrote: March 26th, 2020, 6:15 pm Man, talk about a perfect project to have when you need to stay at home...
Use your free time wisely but ultimately stay safe or that time doesn't become yours. Man, you have no idea how badly we want to be finished with this. May 5th, 2020 marks 6 years. Uggggh.

Also, I am still proof-reading that post so if something is off, I will get to it here shortly.
#4933327
910dohead wrote:
TheKevinShow wrote: March 26th, 2020, 6:15 pm Man, talk about a perfect project to have when you need to stay at home...
Use your free time wisely but ultimately stay safe or that time doesn't become yours. Man, you have no idea how badly we want to be finished with this. May 5th, 2020 marks 6 years. Uggggh.

Also, I am still proof-reading that post so if something is off, I will get to it here shortly.
I totally know how that feels. It can definitely feel rough when you have a project you love that takes way longer than you’d like. I’ve got a Star Trek fan fiction that I’ve been working on for the better part of the last fifteen years. I’ve worked out plenty of the backstory but can’t find the inspiration to finish the first episode.
#4933500
This is going to be a short post as this part of the build is pretty boring. Just letting you all know ahead of time.

The weather was great this day so work continued on the ECU. We left off last halfway through the foam brick work.

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This was about a full day worth of work. Hardest part is getting everything to line up just as how it did in the film. Yeah, we took it that far. Might as well!

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We finally finished this portion of the work in the mid afternoon.

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We put it indoors to cure for a day before we could move onto the next step. So far things are looking better than we imagined it would look.

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The weather got bad the next day so we moved the wall indoors and started the prep work. We needed to cover up the inside portion of where the backboard sits so we don't get any wall texturing on it.

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Now comes the messiest part of this entire build! Wall texturing. I honestly had doubts we were going to get the desired result we were looking to get. I was wrong in the best way...

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...because it turned out exactly the way we wished it would. Next we had to clean up the grout lines in order to get better results with the DAP caulk product we were using. I want to say silicone filler but we stayed completely away from silicone because it doesn't stick to wood that well and a lot of it is paint resistant. They do make stuff that says it does but let's not get ourselves into a situation that may require a fix. It might just potentially waste your time and why not strive to do it right the first time. We're learning things with his build. Heh.

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We took an extra step of using a heat gun to make sure the wood and wall texturing was completely dry before moving forward. Plus it was raining and there was obviously moisture in the air. Better safe than sorry.

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Here comes the caulk! Say that three times fast. This was actually starting to look like a wall!

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We had to work quick with this stuff because it has a 20 minute window before it was no longer malleable.

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Almost there and it's looking fantastic!

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Here it is all done. Pictures aren't doing it justice but they will once it gets painted. However, before we could get into painting the wall, we needed to address a small step.

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The mounting holes for these and the small conduit box needs to be plotted and drilled before paint. Just because you get better results before than after. Now, we just need to match up where these are supposed to go using film reference.

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How does that look for you all? Well, I noticed the left lamp needed to come right slightly in order to match.

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There we go! That is much better. Well, the holes have been plotted but we haven't drilled yet. We did this yesterday and we're resuming today. We need to match the screws and buy longer ones. We're going to add a little more support behind the lamps too because they are pretty damn heavy.

We had a time table of this being done in the next few months. However, with the quarantine still going strong something that wouldn't ever be possible happened. All three of us that are working on the project are off of work for at least the next 30 days. While most people sit and watch Netflix or wash dishes or do whatever normal people do, we are dedicating our free time to finally finishing this after all this time. Wait. Something about that doesn't sound right? We are finally finishing the... Hmmm. Nope. We are FINALLY finishing this! FINALLY! Damn, that sounds better. FINALLY! When the cons start back up and you see our goofy faces once again, this backdrop will be standing tall behind us.

Today we are buying the things we need to mount the lamps. We're also buying the paint for the wall and possible the red for the unit. We're not far away.

Alright, who knows a good electrical engineer that could breathe life into it?

(More to come in the days soon)
Kingpin, ccv66, twmedford23 liked this
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