A Get Smart Style Phone Booth

This is another in my Get Smart series, which also includes two different real working wearable shoe phones (instructable 1 and instructable 2) and a cone of silence.

I tried quite hard to borrow a phone booth for the skit I was organising from Telstra, the Australian national telephone company, but they didn't have any they could lend me. So I racked my brains as to how I could make one, and then it dawned on me: Use a 19" computer rack!

Step 1 Get yourself a rack and a replica pay phone

Get yourself a replica pay phone. They are readily available on the internet these days for about AU$50.

If you can't find somewhere that stocks them, try here. I don't know if that place is any good, it was just the first place I found with Google.

You will also need to get yourself a full-height 19" rack with a clear front door (most important), and solid sides (moderately important), and a solid rear panel or door (less important). The sides and back are most important if you want to be able to put the rack somewhere as a stand-alone phone booth, like I did as a prop on stage.

Full height racks are about A$4000 to buy new with the door and all sides. But you can usually get them in good condition for a few hundred dollars or less at auction. You could even look on
ebay. Remember that they are really big, and really heavy (mine is about 120KG), so think ahead about delivery! You can often get racks cheap from government and business auctions, or if you know geeks who work in a big company. If you are in the right place at the right time, you can often get people to give you a rack for free if you promise to take it away for them (that's how I got mine - thanks Alasdair :)

Comments

[Foaly7]

If you set this up correctly, (I don't really know how) you could make this into a working skype phone.

[gardners]

Yes, or you could just plug it into a phone jack in the wall, or into one of those phone router boxes that you use with VoIP services.  I have done both with mine, and as you'd expect, it works fine.

Paul.

[Foaly7]

Thank you. That's much better than my idea, and seems easier.

[greensteam]

That is the most georgeous pay phone i ever saw. all that fabby chrome. I love it just for itself. Can I suggest that Dexion shelving system would be an easier way to make and store than the computer frame? It is often available dirt cheap or even dumped. Once painted, no one would know the difference (as you say, we assume something is what it is pretending to be anyway) and you can take it to bits quickly like giant meccano and bung all the bits in the back of even a small car or bike trailer.

[jeff-o]

I suppose you could also build your own phone booth with wood and polycarb panels for the windows. That would probably end up costing between $100-$200.

[gardners]

You're absolutely right. But I am pretty poor with woodwork, and I didn't have heaps of time, but I did have a full height rack. So, I agree, my method is certainly not the only, and probably not the cheapest, but it did work.