Tony B

 

Thanks, Tony. Very nice of you to say so.  No doubt about it, I'm an applause junkie.

 

Believe me, I'd love to have been able to make props for you guys, but I'm in Australia, and the freight would be a killer!!  Anyway, I don't make props any more, since my fingers rebelled. I only made this one because it was small and straightforward.

 

Thanks again. With that sort of encouragement, I might even take it up again.

 

Cheers,

Kurt.

 

Thanks, Neil.

 

Maybe this guy is doing the same play. He never actually told me the name of it, just that he and a few other people were doing it as part of a competition in this part of the State, and that it was about the HUAC. He's playing a 50s guy who narrates the events of that time.

 

I do have some pics of other props I've made, but they're not on any server yet. Got a mounted deer's head (totally fake), that I did for "Brigadoon", an olde English gas street light I did for "Witness for the Prosecution", and an old windup gramaphone with horn that I made for "The Philadelphia Story".

 

All my other props I donated to our theatre when I decided to stop making props. At least, I thought I had stopped. People kept ringing me and asking me to help out. I only did this one because it was small, and didn't involve any major labour. My fingers are no good since an operation I had.

 

I'd love to keep doing it, but the hands protest.

 

Thank you, Joan, for that. Interesting you should suggest that I be a kind of mentor, because that's exactly what has happened recently. For our production of Calamity Jane, I had to turn down the director's request for some props she wanted. So she asked one of the women in the crew to take on the job.

 

That lady approached me and asked me if I'd give her some help and advice on materials and so on. You can imagine how that felt! I was very flattered.

 

But I have to say I can still do small jobs that don't require a lot of sawing and grinding and sanding and using small tools for too long. When I made the microphone, all I had to do was use a power drill, a can of spray paint, and a cutting knife for the various plastic bits. It was pretty easy.

 

But every cloud... etc etc.. Since I cut back on prop-making, I've had more time to work on a project that I've postponed for years, which is making movies. For that, I only have to press a camera button!

 

Kurt

 

Thanks, Kathy. Your "Wow" is received with appreciation.

 

I truly admire your work.  How about your next project is to write a book on it?  Thanks for sharing your pics.  :)

 

Thanks, Chel!

 

When I made this microphone, I was lucky enough to find exactly the right thing to start with, in a cheapie outlet. It was a plastic container for generic bath salts. It looked like a huge medicine capsule, with one end fitting over the other as capsules do. If you can find something like that, you're halfway there.

 

I separated the two halves, and after marking out a uniform pattern on one half with a marker, drilled small holes all over it. That was the tricky bit, because thin plastic tends to shatter when you drill it. I found I had to use a flat drill, which was less inclined to break away the edge of the plastic. 

 

Before I rejoined the two halves, I spray painted the drilled half with "Chrome" paint. You have to leave it a while to let it dry. Then I lined the inside with black material, (anything will do, as long as it shows through the holes). Then I glued the two halves back together with solvent cement.

 

As the plastic was the type that responds to solvents, (like the plastic in model kits), it stuck very firmly and without glue buildup.

 

Then I got narrow strips of the same plastic, (polystyrene), which is available from hobby shops, and wrapped them around the middle "waist" of the capsule, and glued them using the solvent. Afterwards I painted those strips with a different metallic paint, (after masking them off with masking tape.)

 

I then drilled a single hole right through the side of the capsule at a point where the upper plastic strip was attached. This was where the microphone was going to be supported in the stirrup. 

 

For the stirrup, I got a length of narrow aluminium, and bent it around a pvc pipe until it was a symmetrical "U" shape. Then I cut it to the right length, drilled a hole in each end of the "U", and passed a rod of plastic through the hole and through the hole in the capsule. The microphone was thus supported inside its stirrup, and could swing a bit. To make it look more realisitic, I stuck on a plastic knob over each end of the plastic rod. In a real one, they would be threaded nuts which would hold the mike in any position. 

 

For the base, I used the lid of a cheap jar. The supporting post is an air-pipe from an aquarium kit, painted flat black. I attached the stirrup to it by first filling the air pipe with a hard setting resin, then drilling a hole in the bottom of the "U", and passing a long screw through that hole and into the resin. When the resin set, the screw was there to stay.

 

I attached the pipe to the lid in much the same way, only drilling a much wider hole in the lid.  The cable was just stuck through another hole I drilled in the bottom half of the capsule.

 

I made the CBS logo by first printing the letters on my printer, cutting them out, and sticking them to a piece of sheet plastic that I had cut in the correct shape. But to first cut the sheet accurately enough for it to fit snugly on the curved surface of the mike, I laid it on one half of a second spare capsule that I had. This gave the exact curve. So, when I cut it, it fit perfectly. I glued that on with solvent, then stuck the letters on.

 

I think that's it. Hope that's useful to you.

 

By the way, I don't know about writing a book. I'm one of those people who can figure out what to do, but I'm hopeless and showing others how to do it!

 

Cheers,

Kurt

 

Thanks, Aimee. I'll remember that.