Introduction: 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

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

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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.

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