Honey I Shrunk The Kids SHRINK RAY

beautiful work so far!
Thank you!!!

Moderate update!!

Said "AV bracket" has been assembled and populated with actual, working gizmos! All I need now is an RF cable to link the camera to the monitor...

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Managed to glue together the network of tubing that should allow glycerin fog to propagate thanks to the 12v fan in the rear tank. It doesn't work very well but it does produce a lot of fog, and since the point is to make the side laser visible it does a good job there.

The fog revealed the fact that the side laser is very askew inside the housing, as you can see here...guess I need to fix this next. I also repaired the nozzle reflector arm, albeit haphazardly.

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Greetings friends!

It's been a long while - I got very busy with work, and then...I had to move. Now that the proverbial (and also most of the literal) dust has started to settle, here's a photographic journey of the "stink machine"'s sojourn to its new home.

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The machine was one of my only possessions that didn't wind up in a box. Because of its relatively fragile nature, conveyance of the prop to its destination was accomplished via the personal rental of an additional box van. And let me tell you, after 2 years of poor choices during the pandemic in terms of my overall physical care, it's a miracle both I and the machine made it down (and up) several flights of stairs in one piece.


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A classic example of life imitating art. No, I didn't shrink any motorcycle cops...that I know of, anyway.

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The stink machine is now resting peacefully in its new environment. However, the lights are in need of some TLC...


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Got a bit of a rat's nest to sort out.

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With the Ender3 printer working again, it was finally time to get cracking on a particularly difficult aspect I've been putting off...the electromagnetic "coil" nurnies that adorn the machine's "barrel" in 2 places. The idea was to make a modular, easy-to-print unit that could be
replicated as many times as needed...which works out to roughly 16 times, x 5 hours per print = you do the math. Lots.

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A long-standing tradition of mine is modeling slots like this to be about 1/32" too small for the protruding bit that it's meant for.

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One out of 4 coils starting to take shape...

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It's a little on the chunky side and not really even relatively accurate, but then again, there's nothing on the 'stink machine' that is.


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One of my biggest disappointments so far is this stupid piece of junk. It came with the camcorder and is supposed to pass a usable RF signal to the television set mounted to the machine. The TV works, but this anonymous box from the late 80s does not - if anyone knows how to fix these things (or has one lying around), consider me an interested party.

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It's a shame too, because the intended view is pretty darn awesome.

More updates coming soon...!!
 
Another small yet significant update!

In spite of an insane work schedule, I finally got around to finishing the "electromagnetic coils" or whatever they're supposed to be. And true to form, the paint job is highly imperfect, and I found out the hard way more than once that these things make lousy yo-yos:
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Much like The Dudes rug, they really tie the look together:
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Another dry fit with the camera reversed. I like this look because the mirror image looks more like the real mccoy:

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That is all for now!
 
Thanks Emma! I agree, the red wire compliments the capacitors nicely!

Since you asked Ethan:
- first, I need to create brackets for the coils - they were held in place via friction for those pics! The ones that attach to the "heat sink" will need unique ones versus the rear coils and may take some experimentation to get the angles right. Hope to have this done soon.

- the rear tank and it's components need to be finished. I was working on it when my 3d printer went haywire in 2021, and never finished the domed top - it also needs to be properly sealed with caulk so less fog machine-generated fog escapes. The rear tank has a 12v waterproof fan combined with a funnel which was mean to distribute fog throughout the machine to see the laser. I only tried it once and the fog systems efficacy was...questionable.

- next, all the electronics need to be fixed; i have new devices meant to aid in this endeavor i have yet to implement. I'm probably going to replace that camcorder with a model that actually outputs a video signal - what a novel concept!

- finally, I realized recently that the document I'd posted earlier in this thread is only as good as its word and lacks actual working proof. Also, I really hate the way the foam "lift arms" came out; they're really lopsided and imprecise, and low quality even for a "rough draft" such as this, which has turned out cool enough to warrant an upgrade of sorts. Lastly, a friend of mine moved back to my city and has a shop equipped to create these kinds of things plus a lot of experience as well. Therefore the final phase will be to create a working non-fake foam version of the scissor lift arms (and tilt motor, which might be impossible). This should help identify issues before embarking on the real deal replica project.
 
Thanks Emma! I agree, the red wire compliments the capacitors nicely!

Since you asked Ethan:
- first, I need to create brackets for the coils - they were held in place via friction for those pics! The ones that attach to the "heat sink" will need unique ones versus the rear coils and may take some experimentation to get the angles right. Hope to have this done soon.

- the rear tank and it's components need to be finished. I was working on it when my 3d printer went haywire in 2021, and never finished the domed top - it also needs to be properly sealed with caulk so less fog machine-generated fog escapes. The rear tank has a 12v waterproof fan combined with a funnel which was mean to distribute fog throughout the machine to see the laser. I only tried it once and the fog systems efficacy was...questionable.

- next, all the electronics need to be fixed; i have new devices meant to aid in this endeavor i have yet to implement. I'm probably going to replace that camcorder with a model that actually outputs a video signal - what a novel concept!

- finally, I realized recently that the document I'd posted earlier in this thread is only as good as its word and lacks actual working proof. Also, I really hate the way the foam "lift arms" came out; they're really lopsided and imprecise, and low quality even for a "rough draft" such as this, which has turned out cool enough to warrant an upgrade of sorts. Lastly, a friend of mine moved back to my city and has a shop equipped to create these kinds of things plus a lot of experience as well. Therefore the final phase will be to create a working non-fake foam version of the scissor lift arms (and tilt motor, which might be impossible). This should help identify issues before embarking on the real deal replica project.
Hey, I just had a great idea, what if later in the Szalinski Family's life, Wayne converted the shrink ray into a minigun shrink ray with the Viewfinder as a visor?
 
Hi folks,

Thanks to Disney+, i recently rewatched Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and i deffinitly felt in love with the machine. So mush that i quickly wished to have a full size replica in my home. But du to the size of the props and the size of my appartement, it will have to wait for the moment. But i still wished to work on some parts. I thinks the most iconic part of it is the nozzle. and like some of you saids in this topics, it is likely a machined piece of aluminium made for the movie.

So my idea was to make a replica of the nozzle and part of the emitter, until i could build the whole machine. I think i'll 3D print the nizzle so i've made a 3D model on Fusion360. It's a prototype, not the final piece as i only used one picture to mostly match it. View attachment 1381432View attachment 1381433

I made this to give me an idea of the overall shape. Now i'm gonna try to find some measurement to make it to the corect size. All advices are welcome.
May I have a copy of that file, please?
 
Greetings everyone, and happy 2023!

Made some updates to this project - finally - and thought I'd share!

Over the past few months I've torn into fixing the electronics. It was a long, arduous, mildly unpleasant, and altogether boring story, so I'll spare the gory details and leave you all with the sparknotes version.

I turned this:

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into this:

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...and finally finished the onboard electronics:

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(well, mostly. I burned out 3 PWM boards in the process, plus the entire sound module which has to be replaced. But technically it's all there..!)

After much gnashing of teeth - both in the proverbial and literal sense - I finally zeroed in on the one bad connection that was jamming up the works, and as a result the program driving the LEDs is now working well! Plus, there are a ton of new wires to festoon all over the prop, which is always a welcome thing.

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One thing I can't decide on is whether to retain the rear tank (which is supposed to bridge the design gap between the two films) or replace it with the "onboard box" as I call it, which is a little more "accurate" and would make the electronics easier to access - I don't think I like it cosmetically as much. Your feedback (yes, you!) welcome.

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Would you mind adjusting the 3D models so they are the right size please because I really want to make sure that the prop is accurate.
 
Here is something I am going to be making very soon, now what we have here is a simple photo edit, and the idea of it is to just show the basic concept of what I will be making.

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