Free Raygun Prop From Trash! (with Test!) Everything Was a Found Object.

Quick test fire... (Next time I'll remember goggles.)

Step 1: Raygun Prop From Trash! (with Test!)

Ok, this is my third Instructable. Here's how this started. It was a day of electronics recycling and there were to major finds in the bin. An old Oscilloscope from the 1960's and a trashbag full of old iMac speakers. The old round ones.

Hmmm what could I make out of that!

A RAYGUN!

Step 2:

Let's start with the items list:

1. iMac Speaker
2. Umbrella handle
3. Oscilloscope or a source for tubes and tube holders
4. scrap piece of pvc drain pipe
5. some cat5 cable
6. an old hard drive
7. an old 50 amp circuit breaker
8. ABS pipe reducer
9. old nozzle from a glue gun
10. some coax and heat shrink
11. imagination!

Ok, 11 is the most important. I used some JB Weld and some E6000 glue as well and various screws and bits from the junk bins.

Step 3:

I pulled the tubes from the scope, and a few of the tube bases. Using a step drill and a dremel, I created holes for the handle and the tube bases. The handle was just pulled free from the umbrella then a carriage bolt was jammed in and glued in with JB Weld. It was attached to the speaker housing with a simple nut on the end of the bolt.

The read head from a hard drive was used as a trigger assembly, and a hole was cut for that as well.

Step 4:

For the barrel, I wanted an emitter type of thing with a coil. So first, I used some hard drive parts and fitted it to the end of the umbrella, the tip part. Then sanded them down so the diameter would fit inside the PVC pipe.

Step 5:

The next step was to wrap Cat5 cable around the pvc pipe to give me a coil. What's a Raygun with out a coil!

The coil was coated with "Rub and Buff" to give it a bare wire look.

Step 6:

Ok, a bare coil and emitter are cool, but dangerous. We needed a bit of shielding to protect whomever is handling the device.

The chassis and housing of the oscilloscope came into play. I had to scrounge around the house for an ABS pipe reducer left over from an old plumbing project. Cut it in two and used that to hold my shielding.

Step 7:

I wanted something to act as a "Clip" or other bit of bulk under the barrel to give the Raygun some heft. At the same time I could add a guide emitter. I always liked the weapon from Blade runner with the two barrels, Deckard's handgun.

So I used a piece of scrap wood and bonded that, and the circuit breaker under the shielding. The guide emitter was an old glue gun nozzle glued to a drilled out knob from the scope.

Step 8:

It needed more greeble. A couple of spent CO2 containers, some coax wire, heat shrink and zip ties.... plus a fuse cover from the oscilloscope back panel.

Step 9:

Next was cutting one of the rings from the hard drive platter separation, and bending it out so it made a trigger guard. And Rayguns need fins. The chassis of the oscilloscope had some nice bits of aluminum!

The fin was bonded on with JB Weld and the trigger guard was glued on with E6000, some darn nice glue for building props!