The Conjuring Music Box

[ahoudini]

Key in place and ready to mount movement to box floor:

 

[ahoudini]

Here's a little video of the movement, so far:

http://youtu.be/_vLgVXPSiwc

 

[Trooper_trent]

wow, I am really impressed with this so far! Great ingenuity with shifting the tines! It's already creepy as hell.

 

[ahoudini]

Thanks, Trent!

A few more details added to the clown:

 

[ahoudini]

Clown is done:

Acrylic paint, Dullcote, wool yarn attached with hot glue and matte medium for the edges.

 

[ahoudini]

New video is up:

http://youtu.be/51WGpygxy8o

I am going to try to tweak him for a little more movement, then on to the mirror mechanism.

 

[ahoudini]

Music box with key/base which should work nicely to rotate mirror in lid:

Here is the underside showing the big disc/base that also acts as the key to wind the movement and which turns slowly as the movement runs. I will glue the mirror onto this.

 

[ahoudini]

Here is the movement cut down and hot glued into the lid with the disc centered.

As you can see I had to replace the metal base with a thin wooden disc to keep the mirror well sunken into the lid. Otherwise, the clown hits the mirror when you try to close the lid.

I am going to insert a comment here about the centering of the movement in the lid and the centering of the wooden disc on the back of the mirror. Turns out both of these are critical if you want to maximize the size of the mirror so it hides a bunch of the rigging behind it but not have the mirror drag on the side as it tries to turn. Here's how I did it:

First glue the wooden disk (needn't be round) to the back of a piece of aluminum slightly larger than the mirror you need. Then mark the center of the piece of wood. Use a compass to test that the movement's shaft is truly centered in the lid and then use the compass set slightly smaller to draw a circle on the back of the aluminum, accurately centered on the piece of wood you glued on. This insures that the size of the disc is right and that the center of the wooden disc is in the center of the aluminum. Now drill the wooden disc slightly smaller than the threads on the shaft of the movement and screw the disc onto the shaft. You will wind the motor by turning the aluminum disc.

Here the mirror is a mirror-finish aluminum disc I am going to use instead of a glass mirror. I cut this out of a mirror license plate blank. It still has the protective film on it in this photo:

A still photo of the completed, weathered clown:

 

[zodiac]

Very impressive work, I haven't seen the movie but now I both want to see it and have one of these creeptastic music boxes. I may have a spooky clown in my basement I could use.

 

[Chris Craig]

Im still waiting on my music box to come ha Looking very good,might make the clown myself ,Have you managed to get the mirror to trigger when it opens ?

 

[ahoudini]

Thank you, so much, Zodiac. It is a really good movie. James Wan is one of the very best horror directors working today.

Chris, that is the next step. I am going to use bent piano wires that interfere with the little propellors in the movements when the lid is closed and spring out of the way when it is open. Photos and video will follow.

When you make your clown, make it smaller than mine! I forgot how much room the hair takes up and how high the hat is if it is sitting on a big head!!

 

[ahoudini]

Here are photos showing the two "switches" that will turn on the two movements when the box is opened and off again when it is closed.

The wooden block will be glued to the side of the lid behind the plane of the mirror so that when the lid is closed, the wire end pivots, by gravity, toward the propellor and stops it.

Here is the wire switch for the box movement. It is shaped so as to incorporate a place to put the return spring.

Here it is mounted on the side of the box inside a brass tube to keep it vertical:

 

[ahoudini]

Here are the lining boards back in place:

And, finally, video of this all working:

http://youtu.be/TEGBJbbdvfc

 

[ahoudini]

Here is the "mirror" painted and glued in place:

I used frisket film as a mask, cut with an x-acto knife using a downloaded and printed out spiral pattern. After affixing the film to the aluminum disk, I lightly sprayed on flat white aluminum primer.

 

[Wes R]

Amazing work. On a side note you can usually find music box figures with round bases for the mirror in thrift stores, my great grandma had tons of them from the 60s and 70s when we cleaned out her house. Usually it just rotates a figure around as if it's dancing to the music.

 

[ahoudini]

Thanks, Wes. You are right, that is exactly the right kind of music box to power the mirror.

 

[ahoudini]

Much better spiral made by using a frame grab from the torrented cam video of the film:

 

[Chris Craig]

The way you've worked out the Mirror and Clown mechanism is brilliant, I haven't been able to touch mine ha college taking up too much time lately. Still waiting on my music box to arrive aswell haha Ive started the clown head and have made it a good bit smaller. It seems that it can get too bit too quickly .

 

[ahoudini]

Thanks, Chris. Definitely start small on the head!

Found some pretty good circus graphics to decoupage on the box so it will soon be finished!

 

[ahoudini]

Painting is started:

More pics following more coats…