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Jimmie goes to China... Finally!

Mechanical: 
2K views 14 replies 13 participants last post by  hedg12 
#1 · (Edited)
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.
 
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#10 ·
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.
 
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