DIY Old Timey Skype Phone

by technick29

17K3823

Intro: DIY Old Timey Skype Phone

I happened upon this cool looking phone toy that looked like it was from an old phone booth. Inspiration hit, and soon I was dreaming up ways on how to use this toy. I finally decided on turning it into a Skype (or any online talk service) phone. Luckily, I also had a broken computer headset lying around too.

Items needed for this project:
~Old phone looking toy
~Computer Headset
~Hot Glue Gun
~Soldering Iron
~Dremel/Hacksaw

Please rate this if you like it!

Now in Popular Science Magazine, How 2.0 Section, July 2007 Issue, page 91.

Please vote for me in the book contest if you enjoyed this Instructable! Thanks!

STEP 1: Putting in the Mic

I figured I would strip down the headset to get the smallest components possible. The headphone would go in the ear piece, and the microphone would be placed inside the microphone part.

After detaching the microphone from the broken headset, I got rid of all excess plastic casing and cut the wires halfway through. I cut the wires because I had to wire it through a small hole that the microphone jack wouldn't fit through.

STEP 2: Putting in the Headphone

I had to cut out and sand down the head phone to fit it into the ear piece, and it was then hot glued into place. The wire running to the headphone jack also was glued into place because it kept getting yanked and moved. I was afraid that the wires might snap at some point, hence the glue

STEP 3: Adding an Ear Piece Hook

I decided I wanted the ear pie to hang from the side, so utilizing a peg board hook, I did just that. I had to drill another hole in order to fit the other peg in and Dremel away part of one of the pegs. Add a little hot glue, and it's done.

STEP 4: Aesthetic Changes

After I was done all of the down and dirty parts, I moved onto the aesthetic changes to make it look better. Part of this was spray painting the dull colored "bells", speaking piece, and crank on the side. I added a clear coating over the gold coat to make sure it stayed bright and shiny.

I painted the hot glue on the bottom on the ear piece black to match, and then added headphone padding to the ear piece and the microphone.

STEP 5: Fin

And here is the final product!

STEP 6: More Final Pics!

Here are some additional pictures of the Old Timey Skype phone.

23 Comments

bwpatton1 15 years ago

Now all you have to do is wrap some cloth around the cord to give it that "authentic look", u know how old electronics have that cloth covered cord. actually been thinking about doing this myself, except with a real antique phone (to make it work with a modern phone line {the old phones dont have the dialer buttons})

31mimo 12 years ago

You can use the wire cloth cover of an electric iron to finish it

ttf-ent 14 years ago

This would be a great idea if you could some how wire it up to use as a REAL phone. If you do this, please message me. It'd make a great movie prop.

tylerbrainerd 13 years ago

why would you need a real phone for a movie prop?

Dr Qui 13 years ago

Nice job.

The phone reminds me of Beaker from the Muppet show.

oktane 16 years ago

Very cool! You could make it USB too if you wanted.. (see here)

technick29 16 years ago

That'd be pretty cool! I'll have to try that when I get a hold of one. Thanks for the input!

DIY Dave 17 years ago

Where did you get the old phone?

technick29 17 years ago

I found it at a second hand shop.

bullzebub 17 years ago

a mini itx would be nice in that case :-)

technick29 17 years ago

That would be pretty sweet...

Sgt.Waffles 17 years ago

Cool, creative, inovative, but impractical. good job on the instructable!

LasVegas 17 years ago

Pretty impressive! I would have cried had the phone had it's original interior hardware, but a great use for a previously gutted antique.

technick29 17 years ago

Yea, that would be terrible. Thanks!

Weissensteinburg 17 years ago

Just so you don't get your hopes up. I noticed that you put this in pop sci, and asked people to rate it...I put two and two together. Incase you didn't realize it, the contest is over. (again, just so you don't get your hopes up) But still, this was a GREAT idea. I really like it.
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