Miketallica83
New Member
Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forum but have been lurking for a while. I am impressed with the stuff you guys build i thought i would contribute to the forum.
A little bit about myself first. I got alot of my carpentry/ welding and building experience from one of my first jobs as a stage set builder. we didnt build many props. alot of platforms and back drops and things like that but occasional we got to do some really interesting stuff. one of the greatest things i took away from that job was being able to create a quality/ durable product without having any plans to help you build it.
I collect alot of misc. movie props. I dont like to display them in a case or anything like that. i like to have them just basically laying around the house. As if whoever used that prop might leave a book on a table or something like that. I have always been a Harry Potter fan but i never read the books so recently i decided to read the books and that spawned the idea to building a Nimbus 2000.
I looked around the inter-gallactic-net for others that had built one and probably the best one i found was from this very forum by Username: Justinas. So i would like to give him some credit for all the research he did and the detail of his post as i referred to it often through out my own build.
Anyways... on with the project.
So before i got started i decided to draw out the basic dimension of what i wanted to build in AutoCad. I am 6'-4" tall so in agreement with Justinas i made a broom to fit me.
(i dont know why the pictures are posting portrait style and not landscape)
Next i wanted to figure out my materials. I already had a piece of mahogany from a previous project, so that was handled, but what would i use for the bristles... I dont live in a place that has any good trees to use for sticks. so i figured i could go to a local craft store like Michaels or Joanns and get some decent sticks to use. The problem with that was i could only find really small bundles and they were crazy expensive and they werent even really what i had in mind.
So, in discussing this dilemma with the wifey poo she suggested that i get some bamboo blinds from lowes or home depot and take them apart. Why didnt i think of that?!! :facepalm
So thats what i did. i found exactly what i wanted at lowes for like $16. I thought they would be a pain in the but to take apart but it was super easy.
Next, i drew out the shape of the broom stick on the Mahogany. I decided that a comfortable handle diameter was 1.25". Then i roughed the shape out on the table saw and band saw
After the shape of the broom stick was roughed out, i ran it through the router table with an 1/2" round over bit. i didnt try to make the broom stick perfect. in fact, the less perfect it was, the better, in my opinion.
After that, i went over the whole thing with a belt sander and a hand held orbital sander with some very course sand paper (32 grit and 60grit) and i also shaped the end of the broom stick with the belt sander and table orbital sander
The next step was to figure out how to attach the bristles without it looking like total crap and actually be secured to the broom stick. I looked around for a nice simple banding that could be tightend. I found one made by Band-It and they use them for securing fitting to high pressure hoses. This would have been perfect but the special tool required to do the job was like $200 and I wasn’t about to spend that much on this stupid project. In the mean time I mocked it up with some basic hose clamps that I got at lowes.
Here is the broom mocked up with hose clamps. One of the things you'll see in this picture is a door stop banded around the bristles. the idea was to just modify this by welding on some bent up bar to make the kickstand. Personally i didnt like the kickstand and i didnt really want one on MY broom. and besides. when Harry received the broom there wasnt a kick stand on it so the way i see it is that it is an accessory to the broom and if you want one then you would buy one. and also that door stop was like $15 and i didnt feel like spending a bunch of money on this project.
The hose clamps worked really good for attaching the bristles to the broom. i was a really secure connection the problem was that the hose clamps have a big screw on one side and that wasnt gonna fly with me... no pun intended. So after a few days of the broom just sitting there i finally realized that i can just weld the hose clamps together and then once welded i can just cut off the screw part and then it would be smooth and flat.
Unfortunately i didnt take any progress pictures of this but it worked out perfect! i did burn the bristles a little bit right around the hose clamp but that didnt matter because it was gonna get covered up anyways.
So after i cut the screws to the hose clamp off i smooth out the welds with a grinder and i wrapped the hose clamps in electrical tape to give it a nice smooth surface. Then i used bailing wire to wrap around the hose clamps to cover them up. This worked out nicely too. basically at the start of the wire wrap i made an "L" shape in the wire and hammered it into the bristles. then i made a series of wraps till it was about an 1" wide and finished it off the same way i started it with an "L" shape and hammered it into the bristles.
This was the next progress pic i took. after i was done with the bailing wire i masked off the bristles and spray painted the bandings. it turned out very nicely in my opinion.
So after the bristle banding was done i had the shape the bottom portion of the bristles. i didnt want to get too complicated with things or too expensive to i decided to use a 4" styrofoam ball painted brown and i just shoved it in the center of the bristles and then close the end and used a piece of bailing wire to hold it. Not my favorite way to do but it worked and it didnt look that bad.
i thought about glueing them all together or something like that but i figured that would have been a mess.
After the bristles were totally done i stained the broom handle. I had some Minwax Red Mohagany and used that. i thought it looked good. i didnt bother trying to match the actual broom for color. i liked what i picked and thought it look rustic and genuine.
Next was the logo. I wasnt sure how i was gonna do this quite yet. i saw on ebay that you could buy a gold sticker logo and thought about that for a sec but i thought it would look too cheesy if did that. I would have really liked to have a a vinyle cutting machine to produce a negative but i dont so that wasnt an option. so i took a page out of Justinas book and printed out a logo and cut it out with an exacto knife.
The only difference i did was that i printed the logo on a shipping label which i then put on a piece of low stick blue masking tape. then i attached that to one of my wifey poo's glass bread pad and cut it out.
The plan was to cut this logo out and spray paint it onto the broom handle. I was really hoping this was gonna work out because i had one shot. The reason i had one shot is because after staining the broom stick i decided not to put a clear coat on it. i thought it personally looked better and more genuine without a clear coat.
I crossed my fingers and sprayed the gold spray paint...
It turned out really nice!
here is the broom in all its glory! i am very satisfied with how this turned out. I did end up sealing the broom stick with a coat of wax. The only thing i have left to do is figure out a spell to make it fly... but not today. I have it leaning up in the corner near the front door.
~Mike
I am new to the forum but have been lurking for a while. I am impressed with the stuff you guys build i thought i would contribute to the forum.
A little bit about myself first. I got alot of my carpentry/ welding and building experience from one of my first jobs as a stage set builder. we didnt build many props. alot of platforms and back drops and things like that but occasional we got to do some really interesting stuff. one of the greatest things i took away from that job was being able to create a quality/ durable product without having any plans to help you build it.
I collect alot of misc. movie props. I dont like to display them in a case or anything like that. i like to have them just basically laying around the house. As if whoever used that prop might leave a book on a table or something like that. I have always been a Harry Potter fan but i never read the books so recently i decided to read the books and that spawned the idea to building a Nimbus 2000.
I looked around the inter-gallactic-net for others that had built one and probably the best one i found was from this very forum by Username: Justinas. So i would like to give him some credit for all the research he did and the detail of his post as i referred to it often through out my own build.
Anyways... on with the project.
So before i got started i decided to draw out the basic dimension of what i wanted to build in AutoCad. I am 6'-4" tall so in agreement with Justinas i made a broom to fit me.
(i dont know why the pictures are posting portrait style and not landscape)
Next i wanted to figure out my materials. I already had a piece of mahogany from a previous project, so that was handled, but what would i use for the bristles... I dont live in a place that has any good trees to use for sticks. so i figured i could go to a local craft store like Michaels or Joanns and get some decent sticks to use. The problem with that was i could only find really small bundles and they were crazy expensive and they werent even really what i had in mind.
So, in discussing this dilemma with the wifey poo she suggested that i get some bamboo blinds from lowes or home depot and take them apart. Why didnt i think of that?!! :facepalm
So thats what i did. i found exactly what i wanted at lowes for like $16. I thought they would be a pain in the but to take apart but it was super easy.
Next, i drew out the shape of the broom stick on the Mahogany. I decided that a comfortable handle diameter was 1.25". Then i roughed the shape out on the table saw and band saw
After the shape of the broom stick was roughed out, i ran it through the router table with an 1/2" round over bit. i didnt try to make the broom stick perfect. in fact, the less perfect it was, the better, in my opinion.
After that, i went over the whole thing with a belt sander and a hand held orbital sander with some very course sand paper (32 grit and 60grit) and i also shaped the end of the broom stick with the belt sander and table orbital sander
The next step was to figure out how to attach the bristles without it looking like total crap and actually be secured to the broom stick. I looked around for a nice simple banding that could be tightend. I found one made by Band-It and they use them for securing fitting to high pressure hoses. This would have been perfect but the special tool required to do the job was like $200 and I wasn’t about to spend that much on this stupid project. In the mean time I mocked it up with some basic hose clamps that I got at lowes.
Here is the broom mocked up with hose clamps. One of the things you'll see in this picture is a door stop banded around the bristles. the idea was to just modify this by welding on some bent up bar to make the kickstand. Personally i didnt like the kickstand and i didnt really want one on MY broom. and besides. when Harry received the broom there wasnt a kick stand on it so the way i see it is that it is an accessory to the broom and if you want one then you would buy one. and also that door stop was like $15 and i didnt feel like spending a bunch of money on this project.
The hose clamps worked really good for attaching the bristles to the broom. i was a really secure connection the problem was that the hose clamps have a big screw on one side and that wasnt gonna fly with me... no pun intended. So after a few days of the broom just sitting there i finally realized that i can just weld the hose clamps together and then once welded i can just cut off the screw part and then it would be smooth and flat.
Unfortunately i didnt take any progress pictures of this but it worked out perfect! i did burn the bristles a little bit right around the hose clamp but that didnt matter because it was gonna get covered up anyways.
So after i cut the screws to the hose clamp off i smooth out the welds with a grinder and i wrapped the hose clamps in electrical tape to give it a nice smooth surface. Then i used bailing wire to wrap around the hose clamps to cover them up. This worked out nicely too. basically at the start of the wire wrap i made an "L" shape in the wire and hammered it into the bristles. then i made a series of wraps till it was about an 1" wide and finished it off the same way i started it with an "L" shape and hammered it into the bristles.
This was the next progress pic i took. after i was done with the bailing wire i masked off the bristles and spray painted the bandings. it turned out very nicely in my opinion.
So after the bristle banding was done i had the shape the bottom portion of the bristles. i didnt want to get too complicated with things or too expensive to i decided to use a 4" styrofoam ball painted brown and i just shoved it in the center of the bristles and then close the end and used a piece of bailing wire to hold it. Not my favorite way to do but it worked and it didnt look that bad.
i thought about glueing them all together or something like that but i figured that would have been a mess.
After the bristles were totally done i stained the broom handle. I had some Minwax Red Mohagany and used that. i thought it looked good. i didnt bother trying to match the actual broom for color. i liked what i picked and thought it look rustic and genuine.
Next was the logo. I wasnt sure how i was gonna do this quite yet. i saw on ebay that you could buy a gold sticker logo and thought about that for a sec but i thought it would look too cheesy if did that. I would have really liked to have a a vinyle cutting machine to produce a negative but i dont so that wasnt an option. so i took a page out of Justinas book and printed out a logo and cut it out with an exacto knife.
The only difference i did was that i printed the logo on a shipping label which i then put on a piece of low stick blue masking tape. then i attached that to one of my wifey poo's glass bread pad and cut it out.
The plan was to cut this logo out and spray paint it onto the broom handle. I was really hoping this was gonna work out because i had one shot. The reason i had one shot is because after staining the broom stick i decided not to put a clear coat on it. i thought it personally looked better and more genuine without a clear coat.
I crossed my fingers and sprayed the gold spray paint...
It turned out really nice!
here is the broom in all its glory! i am very satisfied with how this turned out. I did end up sealing the broom stick with a coat of wax. The only thing i have left to do is figure out a spell to make it fly... but not today. I have it leaning up in the corner near the front door.
~Mike
Last edited:
