This is for other Ghostbusters Props that don't fit into the categories above.
#4933593
Welcome back everyone! This will be a short update since most of what we have to show you are multiple coats of primer and sealer on the faux wall. Last we left you all, we were just about about to start that process. The next 6 images will be sort of a visual ASMR or whatever you want to call it?

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Here it is all primed and ready for paint. We had a small issue with one of the bricks which took a day to fix, but other than that we are thrilled with the results. It does the job of pretending to be a cinder block wall.

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Next step is that we went back to the barn lamps and compared them to the reference. We discovered a few things that were not right. First we had to smooth some of the casting lines out to match the smoothness of the lights in the reference.

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Next, we noticed two other issues. First was the conduit box that's to the left of the lamps, but we'll get into that in a future post. The other was the mounting bolts to the lamp cages were different to what was on ours.

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We discovered that they are known as slotted fillister bolts. However, these aren't normal fillister bolts. These are actually a stupid rare variation called a "cone" or "pointed". Let's just say that we couldn't find them in the time frame that we wanted to. I am sure there's some dusty old warehouse somewhere that have these, but we've gone down that path so many times in this build. We're not doing that here or again for that matter.

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What we ended up doing was mounting these screws in a bit router, spinning them and using an air compressor with a cutting disc to grind them down to the desired level. We then had to put them through a tapping die to re-thread them

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To the left are the original screws that are counter sunk into the lamp cage. It goes in a groove that holds them onto the base. The middle bolt is what we ordered and the right one is a completed example.

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Here we are with the final result. They match perfectly and fit the cages the way they should.

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This is sort of where we are. We found a suitable conduit box that is very similar to what is seen in the reference. We bought one already that we were going to modify before we found the better match. The old one was returned and the new one was ordered. That is coming but what is next are the barn lamps. They will get primed/painted and mounted to the backdrop wall. We have the colors of paint picked out for the wall as well as the red for the rest of the unit. However, that won't come until we have the conduit box that mounts above the barn lamps. That's all coming very shortly. We are working on this daily now that we have the time. We'll probably be tackling the internal door stuff before we finish the wall.

Soooooooon!
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#4933652
Thanks for all the nice comments everyone. We are currently in the process of painting up the barn lamps. I will have another update coming real soon, but I need to let the progress build up a little before that can happen. We are getting very close to paint. Sadly, we're waiting for an order of the small conduit box to arrive and you can probably already tell its held up due to the pandemic. We need that box before we can do final paint though. Anyways, here is a spoiler.

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I might post another picture later today if all goes well.
Last edited by 910dohead on April 16th, 2020, 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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#4933653
TheKevinShow wrote: April 15th, 2020, 4:14 pm I saw that someone posted a smaller-scale containment unit made of EVA foam on Facebook. What you’ve done here is beyond my capabilities but I’m definitely going to use it for references when I build my own. A small-scale foam build seems like it’d be the ideal option for me.
Awesome! We will be releasing a big free pdf of this build when its completed. That'll include all of our measurements as well as identification of parts and labels. Doing it out of foam would be no problem and i'm sure someone will start casting parts in resin, foam, etc.
#4933679
910dohead wrote: April 15th, 2020, 4:49 pm Awesome! We will be releasing a big free pdf of this build when its completed. That'll include all of our measurements as well as identification of parts and labels. Doing it out of foam would be no problem and i'm sure someone will start casting parts in resin, foam, etc.
That would be amazing!

So happy to see updates for this project!
910dohead liked this
#4934532
It's been a few weeks since the last update so I thought it would be cool to give you all a small update. We've taken a small break because we were waiting for another part to arrive in the mail. In the last update we painted the barn lamps. We showed you that. However, we haven't shown them fully cured and reassembled.

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We decided to give them a dry mount to the faux wall to get an idea of the final product.

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This is when we all got really excited. We put a lot of hard work into this wall. To see the results we were striving for is one of the best feelings.

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This is one of those things that while it looks great in pictures, it does it no justice in person.

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Now, onto the part which we were waiting for. This is a small conduit junction box that is hiding to the left of the barn lamps. The black electrical and conduit cables mount into this small box.

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To give you some reference, here is this shot again:

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We can get started on this project again now that this part is in hand. Recently, I inherited some really amazing tools that will be immensely helpful with this build. I wish we had access to them in the very beginning, but it is what it is. Hopefully that will be a big help in making things run more smoothly and save us time? Anyways, today we will be measuring where this mounts to the wall, as well as figuring out where to drill all of the necessary holes for the conduit parts.

Look forward to our next posts in the upcoming week or so. In the meantime, I hope everyone is staying safe and continues to do so now that it looks like businesses are reopening prematurely. Be careful out there and wash those hands.

P.S. - Does anyone else see a spider in the reference shot from the film?
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By Rafaed
#4935970
This build is simply amazing. I don't know how I didn't see it before. When do you expect to share the parts list? I am especially interested to know about the conduit connectors and that recessed knob in the control panel... they are driving me crazy
#4936019
Rafaed wrote: June 18th, 2020, 6:26 pm This build is simply amazing. I don't know how I didn't see it before. When do you expect to share the parts list? I am especially interested to know about the conduit connectors and that recessed knob in the control panel... they are driving me crazy
Thanks for the kind words. We do really appreciate it. I was going to give you the short answer to your question, but I guess I am delivering it in full. This isn't in response to you in particular, but I just feel the need to broaden the answer since it's common for us. Plus, it will segue into the recent road bump we hit.

We do expect to share the parts list along with the blueprints/measurements, labels, etc. once our build is done. When that will be I can't say for sure but we're still confident it will happen this year. We thought we were going to have extra time with the pandemic, but that only complicated matters further. Plus, our schedules and lives have been rearranged now that some of us are back to work. We're close to completion. Believe me. We even have all of the paint picked out.

One of the main reasons why we haven't given out a parts list is I have made the mistake is misidentifying parts. Before I found out what the thyristors on the trap box heat sink were, I thought they were ham radio relays. I posted about them in this thread. Little to my knowledge, some people went out and bought them (which aren't cheap as they go for around $50 each and you need 4 of them), only to have me discover the thyristors (which also aren't cheap) were the accurate parts. I got messages from a few people that were upset over that (not all but some). We had no clue some people were buying these parts up the second we dropped word. I still feel guilty over that so no more of that.

Alright, so here's a perfect example of that which I haven't talked about yet. I only recently discovered this within the last few days. Our last posted update had us showing off a 4x4x4 junction box that we just bought that the conduit cable on the ECU connects to. Well, I recently found a behind the scenes photo that reiterates the saying "One step forward, two steps back".

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You can see higher up on the photo and more of the prop. If you take a look at that box, it's obviously taller than 4 inches. It's either 6 or 8 inches in height. We need to dish out more money on a new box now but more research needs to go into finding a new match before we can do that. It's like, where was this picture 4 months ago? Why am I just finding it now? If any of you went out and bought a junction box for your build, hopefully you still have enough time to return it and for that I am sorry. This is basically one of the main reasons behind the veil of secrecy over parts. We want to be confident in saying the parts are all accurate once the build is complete.

I don't want to sound rude when I say this but the other reason behind it is we just want to be able finish our build first. We put the hard work into discovering and figuring all of this out. If we were to just hand it over prematurely, what kind of satisfaction will we feel in seeing parts go up in price, people rushing their builds and getting them done before us, etc? We're trying to be perfectionists at this and we have a desired end result in mind that we want to achieve. I know that sounds selfish but we deserve it. I can't begin to go into the behind the scenes stuff we had to do to get to where we are now. Lots of research, lots of mistakes, lots of lost time, huge headaches, empty wallets, etc. There are many factors and reasons why this build is going into its sixth year. I mean look at all the time it took for the fandom to get the proton pack replicas to look the way they do? It took decades! It's just a process that takes time if you want to do it right. When we do release our work to the community, we know future builds of this prop is going to change and evolve from that point moving forward. It's going to be exciting to see what happens post.

One thing that we have not ever mentioned is the prop business aspect of this. I'm not going to get into it too much because it can be ugly. Some people feel entitled in gaining exclusive right to knowing what these parts are now so they can capitalize in on the parts early to get a step ahead of the competition. To quote Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo in saying there's nothing wrong with capitalism. That's perfectly fine. We've even discussed it ourselves (we might sell off some of our extras but we are not getting into the biz). It's already happened with the door handle for this prop. I don't remember who but someone already offered up a casting. That's perfectly fair game. What I am about to say is completely unrelated to anyone here or anyone in the community. Someone on another forum slipped into my PM early on, bullying and demanding that I divulge them manufacturer names, part numbers, NSN's, etc. All I could say to that dude was "Kick rocks, homie!". This info belongs to the community and it will be soon. Some of you might not like that (well, we've got some Canadian film board stuff we'de like you to take a look at) and to that I say "tough". We're only hoarding it temporarily for good reasons. Sort of like safe keeping. There are some minor selfish reasons for the time being but we're all going to know what it all is once this puppy is up to walking. Once our prop is done, I have no problem with sharing our hard work with you all and to this community.

I guess in closing, we have to stress that we wouldn't have been able to get this far without the help of other members here. I would say more discussion about this prop goes on in my inbox than it does here in the public forum. It goes well beyond that too. Help came from places we never would have expected. Some details that were thought to be lost were actually found and then some. All of it is appreciated and we are still committed to engraving the names of those who went that extra mile for us on a plaque that will go on the back of the unit.

As for build updates, they'll come soon. We are in the middle of a setback but one we hope to remedy quickly. We are so very close to completion. I'd like to say I can taste it but there is still some sawdust in the air. We want to see it done more than you guys know. Believe us! lol.
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By roopjm
#4936477
You guys deserve all the privacy and "selfishness" as you said. You've put in the work, and deserve to have all the fawning and awe-inspiring comments already, and that will come.
I'm sure we'll all be too busy picking our jaws up off the floor to jump on the build manual immediately, but whenever you do release it, we will all be BEYOND thankful!

Amazing job as always!
910dohead, NotSabbat liked this
#4938281
I have been reading ( multiple times to be honest ) your journey of making the containment unit and it inspired me to take on that journey as well.

What you guys did is amazing and finding out all about those parts and the attention to details is again, amazing.

I have started to acquire some parts, mostly the wood, paint, some screws, the meter and those side bracket thingies ( found someone who 3d printed them.

Again thanks for doing all this I am sure it is appreciated beyond all from everyone on here.
Last edited by Kingpin on August 18th, 2020, 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Removed unnecessarily quoted post content.
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By 910dohead
#4938331
patrickbruneau wrote: August 18th, 2020, 4:46 am I have been reading ( multiple times to be honest ) your journey of making the containment unit and it inspired me to take on that journey as well.

What you guys did is amazing and finding out all about those parts and the attention to details is again, amazing.

I have started to acquire some parts, mostly the wood, paint, some screws, the meter and those side bracket thingies ( found someone who 3d printed them.

Again thanks for doing all this I am sure it is appreciated beyond all from everyone on here.
Thank you for the kind words. All of us working on the project always like to hear that our work is appreciated. We wish we were working on it now, but the summer always kills it for us and pushes it back. It's too darn hot outside right now with temps reaching 130 degrees. We are so very close to this being done and once the temps fall back down it'll get done. You'll have to post your build when you start! I look forward to seeing it.
By TheKevinShow
#4938817
Along with discussions with a fellow fan about founding our own local fan franchise (the closest other franchise in this part of CA is in Orange County) this topic has inspired me to add a containment unit to my list of props to eventually build. I don’t think I’m going to do quite the same scale and precision as yours, because I want mine to be much more portable. I’m thinking of building it around a wire shelving unit for relatively easy assembly and disassembly.
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By 910dohead
#4938985
TheKevinShow wrote: September 1st, 2020, 11:13 pm Along with discussions with a fellow fan about founding our own local fan franchise (the closest other franchise in this part of CA is in Orange County) this topic has inspired me to add a containment unit to my list of props to eventually build. I don’t think I’m going to do quite the same scale and precision as yours, because I want mine to be much more portable. I’m thinking of building it around a wire shelving unit for relatively easy assembly and disassembly.
Awesome! We are also building ours around a wire shelving unit. It will break down making it easy to assemble/disassemble. Everything will connect to it plus it will also serve as storage for packs when members want to take that weight off their shoulders at events. The only bulky part so far will be the wall backdrop as that's one piece. We made it as large as we could without being too big to be able to transport it to and from events. Anyways, now that you plan on making one, I recommend going with the wire shelving as it will serve you well.
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By TheKevinShow
#4939034
910dohead wrote: September 6th, 2020, 11:09 am Awesome! We are also building ours around a wire shelving unit. It will break down making it easy to assemble/disassemble. Everything will connect to it plus it will also serve as storage for packs when members want to take that weight off their shoulders at events. The only bulky part so far will be the wall backdrop as that's one piece. We made it as large as we could without being too big to be able to transport it to and from events. Anyways, now that you plan on making one, I recommend going with the wire shelving as it will serve you well.
Hopefully I can see yours in person when it's safe to go to a convention again, given that we're both in Southern California.
By druzzer
#4941862
Such an old post but thought I'd see if anyone checked it still. Did you happen to post the parts (switches, relays etc) so someone looking to build could find these parts (or try)?
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By Nighty80
#4943240
Absolutely blown away by this truly epic build!
The ECU has always been one of my favourite objects; I'm working (slowly) on my own take, but it'll never come close to this!
Thanks for sharing so much and so many pics, I'm gutted that progress has stopped for now, but wish you all the best for the future.
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By 910dohead
#4943264
We all told ourselves that this was the year we got it done and ready to take around. Ehhh... I think this year hasn't really done anyone any great favors, but thanks for the kind words of support. Right now it's just collecting dust and more importantly precious space. I will be a pig in shit when we resume this project for sure. No clue when that's going to be though.

The good thing about this is I have lots of time to focus on other things, so I took up 3D printing and it's going to do wonders for us once I learn how to really design files. Right now I have been printing action figures.

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That and I made scaled v-hooks for the Eaglemoss proton packs.

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These things always bugged me that the throwers had nothing to attach to. I was thinking about offering them up on here but no clue what the interest would be?
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By below_radar_00
#4943309
910dohead wrote: December 12th, 2020, 4:11 pm We all told ourselves that this was the year we got it done and ready to take around. Ehhh... I think this year hasn't really done anyone any great favors, but thanks for the kind words of support. Right now it's just collecting dust and more importantly precious space. I will be a pig in shit when we resume this project for sure. No clue when that's going to be though.

The good thing about this is I have lots of time to focus on other things, so I took up 3D printing and it's going to do wonders for us once I learn how to really design files. Right now I have been printing action figures.

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That and I made scaled v-hooks for the Eaglemoss proton packs.

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These things always bugged me that the throwers had nothing to attach to. I was thinking about offering them up on here but no clue what the interest would be?
Awesome! What printing are you rocking?
#4943362
910dohead wrote: December 13th, 2020, 8:23 pm
below_radar_00 wrote: December 13th, 2020, 11:05 am Awesome! What printing are you rocking?
Elegoo Mars Pro 2. Easy to use, excellent results and doesn't break the bank.
I figured it was an Elegoo Mars! I've been looking into those. Do you print inside your home or do you have to do this in a garage or outside due to the smell/fumes?
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By 910dohead
#4943484
below_radar_00 wrote: December 14th, 2020, 4:55 pm
910dohead wrote: December 13th, 2020, 8:23 pm

Elegoo Mars Pro 2. Easy to use, excellent results and doesn't break the bank.
I figured it was an Elegoo Mars! I've been looking into those. Do you print inside your home or do you have to do this in a garage or outside due to the smell/fumes?
I print in the garage. Yeah, resin smells but some colors more stronger than others. The lighter tones like skin and white I can hardly smell, but the darker like grey and black have the stronger scent. Black especially as it almost has a black liquorice smell (no joke). I'd rather leave it in the garage because it can also be toxic. I don't need that in the house.
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#4951269
This build is super fantastic and I love the way you cover every little detail and setback. Most people have no idea how much work (and money) goes into creating (recreating) a truly authentic prop. I have over 40 years engineering experience (electronics and software) and a "garage" with a complete machine shop that I have used over the years to create many many replicas and originals... It's how I am now spending my retirement.

Unfortunately, where I live there are no other like minded builders/makers so all my projects are typically solo but I do enjoy reading about the many team collaborations throughout the world and watching their progress.

To that end, GB is one of my top 5 favorite movies and although I have created many props, the ecto-containment was always in my thoughts yet never built. Now after reading this thread, I have no choice but to make one myself and I will use many of your fantastic ideas for building my own. Most likely though, mine will be stationary as I plan on building it into one of my basement walls near the entrance to my home theater. I wish you all the best and cannot wait to see your finished build and look forward to your published works.

Kindest regards,
TJ
910dohead liked this
#4951275
Thank you for the kind words. It's been a fun build and is/was exciting to do, but it had just as many downs as its had its ups. I think I have been pretty truthful about it too. The setbacks and whatnot haven't been major or anything. Mostly just frustrating I guess, so I feel the thread has been accurate. Some stuff gets glossed over but I can't think of anything major. I mean none of us has lost a hand or a finger.

However, on a side note, I have to be honest when I say that this project (I think) is currently stalled indefinitely. It's gone untouched since the last update. There would be absolutely nothing new to report unless if the dust had been cleaned off of it. It is just taking up space at this point. I would say avoid making it a group build unless everyone involved has the desire to finish within good time. The extra hands are a godsend and were necessary to get this far, but interests change and motivation fades when you stretch any project out this long. This project started in 2014 and it's been ongoing for just over 7 years now. It's beyond overdue. Personally, it saddens me that it's viewed as an annoyance anymore (whenever I bring the subject up). Though it's not my decision, I just don't know where to go with it from here. Any ideas?

With that said, I hope your build turns out fantastic. I know what I said was kind of a bummer, but AAAYYY!! YOU CAN DO EEEET! lol. I hope the information provided in this thread is able to aid you greatly with your project. Feel free with any questions and good luck.
tjscientist wrote: July 2nd, 2021, 9:08 am This build is super fantastic and I love the way you cover every little detail and setback. Most people have no idea how much work (and money) goes into creating (recreating) a truly authentic prop. I have over 40 years engineering experience (electronics and software) and a "garage" with a complete machine shop that I have used over the years to create many many replicas and originals... It's how I am now spending my retirement.

Unfortunately, where I live there are no other like minded builders/makers so all my projects are typically solo but I do enjoy reading about the many team collaborations throughout the world and watching their progress.

To that end, GB is one of my top 5 favorite movies and although I have created many props, the ecto-containment was always in my thoughts yet never built. Now after reading this thread, I have no choice but to make one myself and I will use many of your fantastic ideas for building my own. Most likely though, mine will be stationary as I plan on building it into one of my basement walls near the entrance to my home theater. I wish you all the best and cannot wait to see your finished build and look forward to your published works.

Kindest regards,
TJ
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