I’m looking for the cone shaped bit on the rear of the trap which the hose connects to. Anyone have any idea where I might find a part like this? I scoured Home Depot and Lowes, and even the local craft store, but I couldn’t find anything resembling that bit.
You could maybe buy a rubber cork and glue strips of plastic to it.
Check out FossilizedArt’s thread for his suit, he uses a cane stopper I believe and that could be used for the trap.
An alternate would be to custom make it, lathe a piece of wood into a cone and then file the channels into it.
These ones he posted in his thread do look pretty good:
They’re not exactly accurate, but they kinda give off the same vibe.
Yep, plus you could throw the hose in there too with no problem.
I’m trying to figure out exactly how small the toy is. The width alone would tell me what I need to know.
Width is 3 3/16’ length is 8’'.
When taking those measurements are you including the bits that stick out on the sides and the full length of the handle?
Nope,but if you need them I can get em,I thought you just wanted the length and the with of cartridge.
No, that’s fine. I just needed to know what you were measuring, cause you’re probably talking about a difference of like an inch if you include the stuff on the sides.
I know at my local BnQ they sell furnature legs and you can get cone shaped ones, probably won’t set you back more than a couple of pounds
That part always reminded me of an old garden hose nozzle I had when I was a youngin’.
It looked like that. With a bit of bulking around the cone part, I think it could look pretty close. The one I had was the right size, too.
Anyone have a high res version of this RGB concept sketch?
I’m not sure where I found it, but this sketch shows the knob side of the trap well, and I’d like to get a closer look at it:
Hey guys,
As you may know, I’m working on a Real Ghostbuster style trap. And like the RGB PKE I built, I’ll be basing it on the original concept sketches from the cartoon:
I’d been posting updates in the For Sale forum, but that’s not really the proper venue for them, so I’ll be posting further updates here.
you could use a top to a rediwhip whipped cream thing.
Now for the latest update:
To recap, here’s a couple pics of the build so far:
That second pic was taken last Thursday.
Saturday, I discovered that the poplar boards I’d bought for the trap had warped, and were the wrong width. Apparently 1/2 x 3 x 24 actually means 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 24. Having only eyeballed things in the store, this threw off all my measurements, and as a result, the 2" aluminum I bought is now clearly too narrow.
So, I returned the cheaper wood, and bought a bunch of basswood instead. $7 for one 3" wide 1/2" thick board. Ouch.
I also returned the aluminum; and as there was no 2.5" replacement, I went online to see if it was feasable to get some in that width there. Luckilly, I’ve found a supplier which will not only cut the aluminum to the exact size I need, but can also provide it in a 1/16" thickness, which will look better. I’ll be ordering that shortly.
On the plus side, as a result of the change in dimensions, the chrome part I bought to use for the side knob, which I’d thought was too large, has turned out to be just the right size. All I need to do is paint it, and get a knob to stick inside it and it’ll be pretty much perfect. I’m considering painting it red instead of neon orange, btw. I think the orange might be too garish for the movie-style color scheme I’ll be using on the rest of the trap.
Then, last night I went online and looked everywhere trying to locate something I could use for those colored boxes on the right side of the trap. I didn’t have much luck. The best I could find was some colored acrylic sheet I could cut to size… but I was really hoping for something with more style to it. Something like a beveled rectangle, or one with slanted sides, like the 1/2" red neon lamp hats radio shack sells. The problem is, the ideal shape for the ones on the side of the trap are more like 1 1/4"x1/2" for the red one in the center of the aluminum plate, and 5/8"x3/4" for the four set into the side panel. Also, neon lamp hats don’t tend to come in colors like cyan, orange, or yellow.
So, I dunno what I’m gonna do for those. Like I said, I did find some reasonably priced acrylic in the right colors, but I don’t just want to copy what’s seen in the cartoon, I want to make somehting that looks like a real device.
Finally, today, I went to Lowe’s, returned the white plastic sink part I was going to use for the base of the hose connection, and picked up the more expensive one in black instead. I also picked up a brass 1/2" pipe thread to 3/4" hose thread adapter, and a black hose quick connect.
The end result doesn’t look precisely like the connecton seen in the concept drawings, but it is a lot more sturdy than anything I could have made out of wood:
…which is important, because I don’t doubt that eventually someone is going to try to dangle the trap by the hose.
Anyway, that’s the current state of things. I hope you like the direction I’m going in so far!
Ugh, so much research. Spent all night and most of today browsing the net trying to find trap parts.
First thing I was looking for was something, anyhting I could use for the colord lights on the side of the trap. I scoured the net high and low, looking at everything from led and lamp lenses, to iluminated pushbutton caps, to acrylic (and what it would cost to have it laser cut), to tiny acrylic boxes, to costume jewelery, to blank transparent dice, to overhead projector tiles for teaching mathematics. I even considered trying to cast my own from resin, but that would most likely result in failure if I had to make my own mold, and I was unable to find any premade molds.
In the end, I decided that I’ll have to go with colored acrylic and cut it myself. If I do that I can get exactly the colors I want. And though the end result won’t look exactly like I’d wanted, or exactly like the concept sketches, it will closely resemble what’s seen in the cartoon. That one elongated red lens in the middle of the side panel still vexes me however.
The next thing I was looking for was something I could use for the two bars that run along the left side of the trap. I’ve determined they’re around 5" long, and 3/8" wide. But nobody’s been forthcoming with a high res version of the concept sketch of that side of the trap, so I can only speculate about what shape they should be. In the cartoon they’re shaped like popsicle sticks, and I looked EVERYWHERE for metal popsicle sticks, and was unable to find anyhting. (I don’t wanna sell traps with wood painted silver.) So, I looked at metal rods, and metal bars, both rectangular and square, and have decided that square or rectangular metal bars are probably the way to go.
And while I was looking at those, I also came across some pneumatic pancake cylinders which looked like they might just work in the trap pedal, if I decided to make the trap pedal pneumatic in nature. Unfortunately, it turns out they’re extremely expensive, and not spring loaded. So back to square one in regards to making a functional pedal. At this point, I don’t think something like that is going to make it into the trap.
The last thing I was looking for last night was a suitable magnetic catch for the doors. You see, I wanted to make the doors on this trap open, so that you could get at the battery pack and electronics. And a magnetic catch is really the only way to rig them so they’ll stay closed. The problem is, with an ordinary magnetic catch, once the doors are shut, you wouldn’t be able to get them open again. The doors on the RGB trap are flush with the rest of the trap all the way around. You can’t get a grip on them. Inspiration hit me though when I thought about the glass door on my tv cabinet. It doesn’t have a handle, and there’s no way to grip it either. You open it by pressing in, and releasing. And that’s exactly what I need for this trap. So last night I found tiny “push to open” magnetic catches, which should work great.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Tonight I’ll probably start cutting the wood, and ordering the other parts I need, and the trap will most likely go up for sale sometime before the end of next week.
What’s wrong with illuminated switch lenses?
You can get them in a ton of different sizes, shapes and colors.
Nothing is wrong with them, but I couldn’t find suitable ones anywhere.
Those ones there look pretty nice though. And I’m not familiar with that electronics distributor. I’ll see what they’ve got.