Thread: Jimmie goes to China... Finally!

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They say: "Necessity is the Mother of Invention".
I say: "Possession is nine-tenths of Invention".

In late September I received something in a big 60 pound wooden shipping crate (mail-order bride? nope.) and I was faced with the choice. Either a) give it to my kids or b) make something for Halloween.

I had a ceiling fan motor laying around, and 100 speakers and even a few cd players. I remembered tripping of a 2 lb. rubber coated fishing weight ,and found that too.

A few hours later and I had Jimmie in a box.

Jimmie goes to China



EDITED

This is a very simple prop - I am just a beginner, but I have been bitten BAD!

Here is a vid of the very simple, but super reliable innards...

Jimmie goes to China

Take a real, heavy wooden shipping crate.


install a ceiling fan motor to the top.


attach a weight to one of the arms.


splice an extension cord onto the power lines in the fan housing.
Install a speaker, fed from a CD player that randomizes playback.


Drill some 1" holes in the crate infront of where the speaker will be, cover holes with a black cloth


and then spray paint black.
Spring mount a 2'x4' to the bottom. This allows easy movement and kinda randomizes the movement too...




Make CD that has a variety of phrases, AND some silent files as well...

Put in front of your house, and start counting...
Counting what?
Car accidents - we had 2 in front of our house. ;-)

Sidenote: I do have a number of heavy-duty CD players that randomize AND have a built-in 25 watt amp. Great for haunts and such. I am looking to trade them and loads of other audio stuff (speakers, amps, mixers, mediaplayers, etc) for some cool halloween stuff.

that is very very cool!

Very nice!

Hahahahahahaha...that is awesome!!!

Do we get to see what is inside?

Ahahaha.. that is just great

kewl need a how to:

please delete this message...

Nice and fairly simple prop. Good job!
I'm not sure why Jimmie is griping so much about going to China. It's a nice place, as long as he's not forced to work in a melamine milk plant.

hey all,

Thanks for all the good words...

I managed to get my post all straightened out.

The Jimmie box ran 24/7 for about a month. The spring mounting allows the box to sart to wobble side-to-side, then after about 8-10 modulations, the box makes contact with the 2x4 underneath at the front left corner. that makes the side-to-side wobble change to a forward-backwards wobble. 8-10 mods of that and the rear left corner hits. Then the box stops moving altogether for a few seconds, starting to wobble side-to-side again... repeat.




I am also going to reinforce the fan mount during slow time.