"I brought a personal touch sir; It's an anti-motion trembler device. It's custom made. Nobody knows about it and nobody expects it."
Hi All -
I wanted to share my build of the motion sensor "trembler device" featured in The Rock (and briefly in Bad Boys II as well) that I just finished. Along with the glamour shots I took of my finished prop, I've included photos of it in the shop under normal light as well. I've provided some information about the build process and materials I used below if it is helpful to anyone making one in the future. I am happy to answer any questions or share my files from the build, just let me know. Also, I'd love any recommendations for better options of what to use for the clear
sphere in this build. I mention below that I had started off trying to re-purpose left over spheres from my VX build, but they didn't work (more detail below). For this prop I ended up going with plastic led globe bulbs, but this was not ideal and I have to believe their are better options for 1.5"-ish clear plastic spheres.
Thanks for taking a look and any recommendations or feedback you may have!
Big thanks to the The Prop Store for providing such great photos of their auction items - they were so helpful with this build. You can find their photos of the original prop here: ROCK, THE (1996) - Captain Hendrix's (John C. McGinley) Trembler Device
Some build information:
Vibration Sensor Sphere
I had some leftover glass spheres from my VX canister build, which I though could be repurposed for this prop, but unfortunately the prop requires a much wider hole in each end than the 3/32"/ 2mm ones present on the glass spheres I have. I tried to find a method to expand the holes in the thin glass, but my amateurish attempts to cut or heat larger holes only led to broken glass and some deformed blobs.
The original prop apparently used plastic spheres, so I tried tracking down something similar down without success. The sphere of the original prop is approximately 1.5" in diameter, but I had no luck in identifying something off the self that would work. I couldn't even find Christmas ornaments of that size to use. The closest thing I could find where C7 LED globe bulbs that were made from plastic. If anyone has a suggestion for something else that could be used or if they have a secret hook-up for clear hollow plastic spheres, please let me know!
The vibration sensor in the sphere is made from some thin brass rod and a 3mm OD compression spring. These are attached to the "end caps" which are laser cut acrylic disks.
Sensor Base
The base of the sensor prop is very reminiscent of the cast-iron base found on generic "helping hands" soldering holders. It almost looks like one of those may have been cut down for use or perhaps a different design was in use back in the 90's. I was originally going to try and cut one own myself, but wasn't confident that I could get the clean edges I wanted with the tools I have available. Instead I just made a 3D model of the base, printed it out, and mimic the cast iron look I using a couple textured spray paints, particularly "hammered" texture spray paint. My plan is still to make a mold for the base, but my first attempt ended in a cure-inhibited pile of silicone goo due to my lack of proper preparation, so that is a task for some future date.
Battery/"Laser" enclosure
Attached to the base is what appears to be an off-the-shelf enclosure of some sort with a cut-out for a 5mm LED which I believe is supposed to be the "laser" trip wire. The enclosure on the original prop is approximately 2"x 1.5" x.75". I looked at a ridiculous number of enclosures online and was not able to find the same one used on the prop. I then recreated the enclosure as a 3d model, but eventually decided just to use a similar sized enclosure and doctored it up a bit with to get it looking very close to the original.
Hex bar and sphere clamps
The hex bar is .25" aluminum. I made the curved shape using a bench top bending tool that I haven't used too often, so I definitely ruined some stock in the process. The hex bar itself is tapped so that it attached directly to the base with an M4 screw. The two "clamps" that hold the sphere are made from aluminum and are .4" in diameter with a concave rough shape cut into them on the lathe to contour around the sphere. Getting the right spacing to hold the plastic sphere securely was a completely trial and error process. There was some rough measurement to get it close, but there was a lot of sanding down of those two end clamp pieces to get the fit correct.
Hi All -
I wanted to share my build of the motion sensor "trembler device" featured in The Rock (and briefly in Bad Boys II as well) that I just finished. Along with the glamour shots I took of my finished prop, I've included photos of it in the shop under normal light as well. I've provided some information about the build process and materials I used below if it is helpful to anyone making one in the future. I am happy to answer any questions or share my files from the build, just let me know. Also, I'd love any recommendations for better options of what to use for the clear
sphere in this build. I mention below that I had started off trying to re-purpose left over spheres from my VX build, but they didn't work (more detail below). For this prop I ended up going with plastic led globe bulbs, but this was not ideal and I have to believe their are better options for 1.5"-ish clear plastic spheres.
Thanks for taking a look and any recommendations or feedback you may have!
Big thanks to the The Prop Store for providing such great photos of their auction items - they were so helpful with this build. You can find their photos of the original prop here: ROCK, THE (1996) - Captain Hendrix's (John C. McGinley) Trembler Device
Some build information:
Vibration Sensor Sphere
I had some leftover glass spheres from my VX canister build, which I though could be repurposed for this prop, but unfortunately the prop requires a much wider hole in each end than the 3/32"/ 2mm ones present on the glass spheres I have. I tried to find a method to expand the holes in the thin glass, but my amateurish attempts to cut or heat larger holes only led to broken glass and some deformed blobs.
The original prop apparently used plastic spheres, so I tried tracking down something similar down without success. The sphere of the original prop is approximately 1.5" in diameter, but I had no luck in identifying something off the self that would work. I couldn't even find Christmas ornaments of that size to use. The closest thing I could find where C7 LED globe bulbs that were made from plastic. If anyone has a suggestion for something else that could be used or if they have a secret hook-up for clear hollow plastic spheres, please let me know!
The vibration sensor in the sphere is made from some thin brass rod and a 3mm OD compression spring. These are attached to the "end caps" which are laser cut acrylic disks.
Sensor Base
The base of the sensor prop is very reminiscent of the cast-iron base found on generic "helping hands" soldering holders. It almost looks like one of those may have been cut down for use or perhaps a different design was in use back in the 90's. I was originally going to try and cut one own myself, but wasn't confident that I could get the clean edges I wanted with the tools I have available. Instead I just made a 3D model of the base, printed it out, and mimic the cast iron look I using a couple textured spray paints, particularly "hammered" texture spray paint. My plan is still to make a mold for the base, but my first attempt ended in a cure-inhibited pile of silicone goo due to my lack of proper preparation, so that is a task for some future date.
Battery/"Laser" enclosure
Attached to the base is what appears to be an off-the-shelf enclosure of some sort with a cut-out for a 5mm LED which I believe is supposed to be the "laser" trip wire. The enclosure on the original prop is approximately 2"x 1.5" x.75". I looked at a ridiculous number of enclosures online and was not able to find the same one used on the prop. I then recreated the enclosure as a 3d model, but eventually decided just to use a similar sized enclosure and doctored it up a bit with to get it looking very close to the original.
Hex bar and sphere clamps
The hex bar is .25" aluminum. I made the curved shape using a bench top bending tool that I haven't used too often, so I definitely ruined some stock in the process. The hex bar itself is tapped so that it attached directly to the base with an M4 screw. The two "clamps" that hold the sphere are made from aluminum and are .4" in diameter with a concave rough shape cut into them on the lathe to contour around the sphere. Getting the right spacing to hold the plastic sphere securely was a completely trial and error process. There was some rough measurement to get it close, but there was a lot of sanding down of those two end clamp pieces to get the fit correct.
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