This one has been on my list of "need to build" for a long time. I've loved Futurama since it debuted 13 (!!!) years ago and I've probably seen every episode dozens of times. The Holophoner embodies the entire series to me - over the top absolutely impossible brightly colored technology.
I had a client express interest in having a full scale real world model built, so I started gathering about a billion screencaps from the series. Since Futurama is hand drawn, the Holophoner varies wildly from shot to shot. Sometimes whole sets of keys are missing, sometimes it looks about a foot shorter then normal, and the lower bell seems to be anywhere from 6" around to over 18" depending on which frame you're looking at. I fired up Netflix and grabbed a ton of reference:
The keys in some of the more detailed shots reminded me of a clarinet. The more I checked, the more that I was certain the Holophoner was inspired by one - the grouping of the 4 long keys at the bottom, the same number of front facing valves, even the very long upper hinged keys. I drew up some blueprints...
...then started scouring craigslist for a donor clarinet.
...and man did I find one. $70 "Vito" brand clarinet at a thrift shop downtown. This thing was disgusting. I don't know who owned it or for how long, but it was filled with... well, it was gross. We'll leave it at that.
Referencing the blueprints, I marked keys and triggers with different color paint pen before disassembly. This way I know which ones to paint what color later on down the road. I also took a ton of photos like this, as well as some time lapse shots of the teardown, so I'd know how things went together later on.
Fun fact if you're planning on doing this - cheap plastic clarinets are injection molded ABS plastic. Those little standoffs in the pic above aren't screwed in - they're pressed in place while the peg is heated, and the cooling plastic keeps them locked in. To remove them, I heated each peg carefully with a blowtorch to soften the surrounding plastic, then pulled them out before it cooled.
Here's the body stripped to bare bones
...and the keys/standoffs removed as well.
The body isn't a perfect match - the lowermost valve is missing on the holophoner, and has been replaced with a widened bell that flares out before meeting up with the illuminated ball on the end of the instrument. I had to lop about 2" off the bottom of the clarinet body, which I did with my lathe.
The holophoner also doesn't have any open keys, so these need to be plugged. The body of the clarinet has raised portions here that also needed to be milled flush if the keys were getting capped off.
Now... its time for a lot of lathe work.
The lower ball is going to be made from two styrene halves. I made the vacform buck from some 20# urethane tooling foam.
For the rest of the parts, I made some turning blanks out of smooth cast 300 and black dye. I think the dye actually makes lathing this a bit easier since you can more readily see what you're doing than with white plastic.
Various lathed bits follow.
The "mouthpiece" where the eventual reed will sit:
Flared bell to replace the 2" of the clarinet body I lopped off:
The lower horn:
Lower horn with bulb blank inserted. The bulb will eventually be vacformed from clear PETG and dyed red. This is just the vacform buck:
Lower bell in place. These two parts need to be blended into one another, so I left a V-shaped notch in the seam which will get filled with some filler putty later on.
Mouthpiece and bell:
There's a LOT more to go, especially with the electronics. I'll be plunking an arduino into this guy to make all the lights blink and fade, and it will have a pretty cool "Devil Hands" display stand too with a wall power adapter so it can be powered on all the time. Hoping to have this thing done this month if all goes to plan!
I had a client express interest in having a full scale real world model built, so I started gathering about a billion screencaps from the series. Since Futurama is hand drawn, the Holophoner varies wildly from shot to shot. Sometimes whole sets of keys are missing, sometimes it looks about a foot shorter then normal, and the lower bell seems to be anywhere from 6" around to over 18" depending on which frame you're looking at. I fired up Netflix and grabbed a ton of reference:
The keys in some of the more detailed shots reminded me of a clarinet. The more I checked, the more that I was certain the Holophoner was inspired by one - the grouping of the 4 long keys at the bottom, the same number of front facing valves, even the very long upper hinged keys. I drew up some blueprints...
...then started scouring craigslist for a donor clarinet.
...and man did I find one. $70 "Vito" brand clarinet at a thrift shop downtown. This thing was disgusting. I don't know who owned it or for how long, but it was filled with... well, it was gross. We'll leave it at that.
Referencing the blueprints, I marked keys and triggers with different color paint pen before disassembly. This way I know which ones to paint what color later on down the road. I also took a ton of photos like this, as well as some time lapse shots of the teardown, so I'd know how things went together later on.
Fun fact if you're planning on doing this - cheap plastic clarinets are injection molded ABS plastic. Those little standoffs in the pic above aren't screwed in - they're pressed in place while the peg is heated, and the cooling plastic keeps them locked in. To remove them, I heated each peg carefully with a blowtorch to soften the surrounding plastic, then pulled them out before it cooled.
Here's the body stripped to bare bones
...and the keys/standoffs removed as well.
The body isn't a perfect match - the lowermost valve is missing on the holophoner, and has been replaced with a widened bell that flares out before meeting up with the illuminated ball on the end of the instrument. I had to lop about 2" off the bottom of the clarinet body, which I did with my lathe.
The holophoner also doesn't have any open keys, so these need to be plugged. The body of the clarinet has raised portions here that also needed to be milled flush if the keys were getting capped off.
Now... its time for a lot of lathe work.
The lower ball is going to be made from two styrene halves. I made the vacform buck from some 20# urethane tooling foam.
For the rest of the parts, I made some turning blanks out of smooth cast 300 and black dye. I think the dye actually makes lathing this a bit easier since you can more readily see what you're doing than with white plastic.
Various lathed bits follow.
The "mouthpiece" where the eventual reed will sit:
Flared bell to replace the 2" of the clarinet body I lopped off:
The lower horn:
Lower horn with bulb blank inserted. The bulb will eventually be vacformed from clear PETG and dyed red. This is just the vacform buck:
Lower bell in place. These two parts need to be blended into one another, so I left a V-shaped notch in the seam which will get filled with some filler putty later on.
Mouthpiece and bell:
There's a LOT more to go, especially with the electronics. I'll be plunking an arduino into this guy to make all the lights blink and fade, and it will have a pretty cool "Devil Hands" display stand too with a wall power adapter so it can be powered on all the time. Hoping to have this thing done this month if all goes to plan!
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