I’m not referring to the cat. He’s not that rare, there are loads of them all over town. I put the cat there for scale.

This Bart Simpson figure was part of a movie advertisement in select theaters, sometime in 2007 for the Simpsons Movie. From what I’ve read, they sent these to 1500 theaters across the country. Here is how he looked with the rest of the Simpsons:

I got him for a steal at $25! Seeing as our arcade is Noiseland Arcade, I figured we had to get him. Here is some good looking guy sitting next to him on our couch upstairs:

I have so little room in the arcade now, and had a hard time finding a good spot for him. We decided for now that he is best suited on top of our Simpsons Pinball Party machine:

I have been having some good luck with Craigslist lately. I’m hoping to pick up something else very cool tomorrow but I want mention what it is yet. I don’t want to jinx it!

Disclaimers

1. This post is going to be one part tutorial, and one part photo gallery. If you have a problem with that, you can bite my furry orange nose.
   
   
2. Warning! This post is a bit long, but it is SOOOO worth it.
   
   
3. The fabric looks like crap in some of the pictures, due to the flash. For some reason, it looks almost reflective when the flash hits it. It looks much nicer in person. You’ll have to trust me on that.
   
   

Inspiration

Awhile back, the wife and I made a Baby Pac-Man Topper:

It was a lot of fun to make, and came out pretty nice. I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to fix the sound in my Q*Bert lately. My wife dragged me to the craft store the other day, and while I was roaming every aisle in the store for the twelfth time the thought of making this came to me in the styrofoam aisle, and I started buying the components to put him together.

Supplies Needed

(1) 10″ styrofoam ball

I got this at AC Moore. The regular price was pretty high, but I had a coupon.

(1) Yard of Orange Q*Bert Fabric
Go to a fabric store and tell the person at the fabric counter that you are making a giant Q*Bert to go on top of your Q*Bert arcade game, and that you require one yard of their finest Q*Bert fabric. When they laugh at you, roam around until you find some orange Crushed Solid Panne Velvet and just have them cut it for you. I got this at JoAnn Fabrics, and it was $5.99/yard.

It seemed just right. It was slightly fuzzy, without being overly furry – a bit like the first beard I grew back when I was in middle school.

Puffy Paint – (1) Black, (1) White
(1) Foam Brush

(1) Roll of This Stuff

I don’t know what this is. It is a see through type material that your wife probably knows all about. I got this at JoAnn Fabrics, for the nose. Just about any tube would do for this, even a piece of PVC pipe. The color won’t matter as you’ll be putting fabric over it.

(1) Tube of Liquid Nails

I got this at Walmart at about 12:30 AM. For fun, try putting this right next to the toothpaste in the bathroom!

(4) Wooden Skewers

I think they have these at the craft store. We had them around the house.

(1) Roll of Bounty, the Quicker Picker Upper

(1 butt load) Pins with Round Plastic Heads

(1) Coated Stainless Steel Gas Connector

This is a little pricey. I got it at Home Depot.

(1) Piece of 2″ Thick Foam Padding

I got this at JoAnn Fabrics.

(2) Wooden Ovals

I got these at A.C. Moore. You could easily make your own blocks for this.

(1) Piece of Lead Flashing
I got this at Home Depot. It was about $8.

(1) Spool of Orange Thread

(1) Box of Sponge Bob Square Pants Band-Aids

These are to keep the blood from coming out of you. You may or may not need these, but it is probably a good idea to have them handy.

Tools Needed

(1) Flat head screwdriver

(1) Pair of Scissors (or 2 scissor, whichever you prefer)

(1) Curved Needle

This is so you can sew around corners without being seen by the enemy.

(1) Drill

(1) Sewing Machine

This is optional. If you don’t have one, you can just sew by hand like they did in the good old days.

(1) Wife and/or Girlfriend

This is also optional. This is used to operate the sewing machine. I found mine at a seedy bar. Price may vary.

(1) Large Bowl
I used one like this:

(1) Pair of Tin Snips

(1) Saw

(1) Utility Knife

(1) Stapler (not an office stapler) and some short (5/8″ ?) staples.

Step by Step Instructions

1. First, you’ll need to prepare the ball. When I made the Baby Pac-Man topper, I had a hard time getting the fabric to stretch tightly and smoothly around the ball. It gathered in the back, and you can’t see it unless you turn it around. I didn’t want to do this the same way. I wanted it to look good from all angles. To accomplish this, I hid the gathering of fabric inside the ball by cutting it into two pieces. To make the seam less noticeable, cut the ball in half but NOT down the middle. Instead, make one piece about 2/3, and the other 1/3. Use the saw, and cut it nice and straight. Here is my 2/3 piece to give you an idea how I cut mine:
   
   
   
   
2. Hold the tube you are using for the nose on the larger piece of the ball, wherever you want the nose to be attached.
   
   
   
3. Draw a line around it with a sharpie to mark the location
   
   
4. Cut along the line with the utility knife, about 2″ deep
   
   
5. You’ll need to dig out the inside area to make room for the nose. The easiest way to do this is to keep slicing across the circle area that you need to remove, and then dig it out until you have a nice cavity. It will look a bit like the death star. See above.
   
   
6. Now to prepare the nose. You’ll need to sew a tube of orange fabric to slip over the tube you are using for the nose:
   
   This might take a little trial and error. You’ll need to cut a piece of fabric longer than your tube so it sticks past each end about 2″ or so. The opening in the fabric tube must be smaller than the actual tube diameter, so it fits tightly over the nose.
   Here’s the fabric for the nose before we stitched it:
   
   You’ll want to sew a line down the edge with the fabric inside out. When done sewing, turn it right side out and slide the nose inside. It looks like I forgot to take a picture of this. Here is a finished pic of the nose:
   
   
   
   
7. You’ll need a cardboard paper tube that will fit tightly inside the nose. I used a tube from a roll of paper towels, and it fit perfectly. Color the inside of one end of the tube with a sharpie as far in as you can get it, including the edge. Fold the excess fabric from one end of the nose inside the nose, then slide the paper towel tube into that end and pull it out from the other end until it is flush with the tip of the nose. On mine, the paper towel tube was very snug and I had to pull it pretty hard to get it all the way in. This accomplishes 2 things – it makes the end of the nose look nice and dark inside, and it secures the fabric inside on that end of the nose.
   
   
   
   
8. Stuff the extra fabric on the other side of the nose into the nose tube. You are now done with the nose (I don’t think I’ve ever said that sentence before).
   
   
9. Take the larger 2/3 piece of the ball, and lay it flat on a table.
   
   
10. Drape the orange fabric over it, and stuff the nose into the hole you made earlier.
    
    
    
    
11. Take the orange fabric, and start stretching it over the ball. You’ll want to make it look nice and tight with no wrinkles. This is pretty tricky. I used pins to secure the fabric around the back side of the ball. Push the pins way in, and let the round heads sink into the styrofoam.
    
    
    
12. When you have all the fabric stretched around the ball and pinned around back, cut the excess fabric off with scissors.
    
    
13. Now, this part worked out great. Take the flat head screwdriver and push the loose cut ends of the fabric inside the foam. This will keep the fabric nice and flat on the inside of the ball and works to hold it securely.
    
    
    
    
14. Repeat this process for the smaller 1/3 piece of the ball. Here they are side by side.
    
    …and yes fellas, I know what you are thinking.
    
    
    
15. Now, to attach the two halves. Cut the wooden skewers into smaller pieces. Stick them into the smaller half of the ball with the points sticking up like so:
    
    
    
16. Slather on some Liquid Nails:
    
    
    
    
17. Carefully attach the larger half to the smaller. The wood skewers will help to keep the halves together until the Liquid Nails dries.
18. Rest the whole thing on a small bowl and wait 24 hours for it to dry:
    
    
    
    
19. The seam all the way around the ball may not look that hot now. Take the curved needle and thread, and carefully go all the way around the seem stitching it together. This took a lot of time, but ended up making a huge difference. Do the same all the way around the nose. Here is the nose before stitching:
    
    and after:
    
    If you do this right, the seams will just about disappear.
    
    
    
20. Put the whole thing back on/in a bowl to steady it.
    
    
21. Carefully draw 2 white ovals for the eyes using the puffy paint. I don’t have pictures of this, just look at one of the finished ones. The paint won’t lay flat. Cover the entire oval area with paint, and then smooth it out using the foam brush. This is a bit nerve wracking, as one mistake will basically ruin the entire project!!
    
    
22. Without waiting for the white to dry, outline each oval with black puffy paint. Draw the pupil right on top, leaving a small area of white as a reflection in the pupil. Smooth it out with the foam brush. Follow the instructions for drying time on the paint bottles.
    
    
23. Your Q*Bert should be nearing completion, minus some legs and feet. I wanted the legs to be very sturdy, but also a bit flexible so I could get just the right bend in them. For that reason, I chose yellow flexible gas line. It is pretty tough stuff. You’ll need a grinder or a Dremel with a cutting wheel to cut through it. Cut the gas line into two pieces using whatever tool you have handy. Use your judgment on the length. Some of the length will be stuck inside the feet, and inside the ball. I made mine like this:
    
    When you cut this, it will be super sharp at the ends. I filed the ends on mine and taped them temporarily with duct tape so I wouldn’t accidentally cut myself. If you enjoy cutting yourself, you can skip this step.
    
    
    
24. I needed to fatten up the legs a bit. For this, I took an old pair of sweat pants and cut some scraps from it. I wrapped the scraps around the legs a few times and put a couple of stitches in them to keep them rolled together. I left about 1″ of exposed pipe sticking out of the sweat pants material on each end. I forgot to take a picture of this, so I drew one for you:
    
    I included a picture of a bear smoking a cigar, in case you like that sort of thing.
    
    
    
25. On to the feet… Drill a hole in each wooden block large enough to fit the yellow gas pipe leg into each foot. Go almost all the way through. Drill two smaller holes (size does not matter much) where the creases in between the toes end. These two smaller holes must go all the way through the blocks. The one on the left in this picture has been done:
    
    
    
    
26. Trace outlines of the blocks 4 times onto the lead flashing:
    
    
    
    
27. Cut out each one with your snips.
    
    
28. Put one piece of lead on the bottom of a block and tack it down in several places with some small nails. Try to get it as flat as possible. Lay another piece of lead over the first and secure it the same way so you have two pieces of lead on the bottom of each block.
    
    This will give the feet some weight and keep the topper from toppling off of the top of your Q*Bert cabinet. It will also help to keep it in place.
    
    
29. Run your drill through the smaller holes again and drill through the lead. If you get burrs around the hole, just whack the lead a few times with a hammer to flatten them down.
    
    
30. I did not want the feet to look like wooden blocks wrapped in cloth. I also wanted to make toes that looked as much like toes as possible. So, I used some 2″ thick foam to contain the wooden blocks. Start by placing a block on the foam, and trace it’s outline.
    
    
31. Cut around the outline with a very sharp blade in your utility knife. It is much easier with a new sharp blade. The foam is 2″ thick, and the blade only sticks out of your knife about an inch or so. Cut down around the outline just about the length of the blade. Then, cut some lines all the way through the oval like this:
    
    
    
    
32. Rip the foam off piece by piece to make a hollowed out oval like so:
    
    
    
33. The piece of foam that is facing up is actually going to be the bottom of the foot. You’ll need to get the hollowed out area deep enough to fit the wooden block so it is flush to the foam:
    
    
    
34. Draw a shape resembling a foot around the oval, with 3 toes.
    
    This is not the Sistine chapel, so you don’t have to go all “hog wild” on it. “Hog normal” is perfectly fine for this.
    
    
35. This part is a bit tricky. You need a very sharp blade in your utility knife for this, it will make it much easier. Cut out the foot shape.
    
    You can’t do it all in one pass. You’ll need to cut around your lines, then spread the foam a bit and cut more, and keep going until you make it all the way through. When I did this, it felt like I was sharing shearing a sheep (note that I would never “share” a sheep. I like them all to myself).
    
    
36. After you get the foot free from the foam, take a pair of scissors and bevel the top edge of the foot all the way around at a 45 degree angle, so it won’t look like a hard edge under the fabric.
    
    
37. Wrap the fabric around the foot like you did for the ball. Pull it very tight around the bottom edge and it will squash the foam down into a pleasing shape (yes, I said pleasing). Use a heavy duty stapler and some short staples to secure it on the bottom. The staples should sink into the lead nicely. Again, I was too excited to take a picture of this. Here’s another crudely drawn picture to help you make yours:
    
    
    
    
38. Lay each foot on top of the orange fabric, and trace the outline. These pieces will be for the bottom of the foot and will cover over the lead and staples. You will be stretching this fabric quite a bit, so cut it out on your line, and then trim off about 1/4″ – 1/2″ all the way around each piece.
    
    
39. This takes some patience. Pin the fabric bottoms to each foot. You’ll need to stretch the fabric a bit to do this. It should look something like this:
    
    
    
40. With the curved needle, sew all the way around to secure the foot bottoms. You’ll need to use the needle and thread to stretch the fabric so it lines up with the edge of the foot.
    
    The picture above is a good example of how the flash makes the fabric look like ass!
    
    
    
41. With the bottoms now sewed on, take some black thread and a straight needle. Find each of the small holes on the bottom. Feed the needle through the hole and push it through the top. You may need to push down on the foam on the top of the foot so the needle can come through. Watch out for your fingers (or not, your call). Pull the thread through, around the front of the foot, and back through the hole a few times. Keep the thread nice and tight. Finish it off with a few stitches on the bottom to hold the thread securely. The toes should look very cool, like this:
    
    
    
42. Give the legs you made earlier the same fabric treatment as you did for the nose. Make some sleeves out of fabric, making sure that they fit tightly around each leg. Don’t actually put the fabric on yet, just make sure it is sized right to fit tightly.
    
    
43. Cut a small slit in the fabric on the top of each foot, right above the hole you drilled to hold the leg. You’ll need to cut/rip out some of the foam to get at the hole in the wood block.
    
    
44. Try to get some Liquid Nails inside the hole you drilled, without getting it all over the fabric. It helps to be sober for this part.
    
    
45. Push each leg down into the hole, and wait 24 hours for it to dry.
    
    
46. Put the fabric sleeves over the legs, and slide them down to touch the foot. Use the curved needle to stitch the leg to the foot. It should look like this:
    
    
    
    
47. If you’ve gotten this far, you need a drink. Grab a beer, and continue below…
    
    
48. OK, this is almost done. By now, I’m getting bored typing this. I found that I wanted the legs to stick into the ball more than the yellow gas line would. So, I got some dowels, cut them to about 4 or 5 inches long, and stuck them into the top end of the legs to make them a little longer.
    
    
49. Figure out where you want the legs on the ball, and cut small slits in those locations to get at the styrofoam. I used an awl to dig out a hold for each leg, making sure to make the holes a little smaller so the legs will fit tightly.
    
    
50. Squeeze a good amount of liquid nails into the holes.
    
    
51. Stuff each leg into the holes
    
    
52. Carefully turn it right side up, and stand it on it’s feet to dry for 24 hours.
    
    
53. All that is left to do is stitch the top of the legs. Use the curved needle. Here’s how that looks on mine:
    
    
    
54. Very carefully bend the legs, and you are done. Here’s a good shot showing the front and back of our orange buddy.
    
    
    

I bought this marquee about 2 years ago:

I figured I could make an enclosure for it and light it up someday, over the top of my change machine. I have a small, narrow change machine shown here on the left without its base:

Ignore the cats, they were curious.

I spotted the same TOKENS sign in a small arcade at the mall today, on top of a large change machine:

The picture is horrible, but you get the idea. I’d love to make a box out of sheet metal like this one for it, but I don’t have a large change machine to put it on. Someday when I decide to light this up, it will probably just go on the wall above my small one.

On another note, I saw a gentleman at the mall today that looked very cool. Picture the love child of Colonel Sanders and Mr. Miyagi and you’ll get the general idea. If he made me wax his cars, I bet I’d get a big bucket of chicken afterwords for helping out.

They are normally $21.99, and are on sale right now for 40% off. I saw the same exact one at Michaels for $34.99.

I didn’t buy the doll (not my thing) but snapped a pic of her because she is sooo creeepy. She looks like she wants to kill kill kill.

I did buy an old neon sign, which worked but needed some attention. Here’s before:

and after:

It looked pretty bad when lit because the block out paint between the letters was cracking and a lot of it was missing.

The sign was covered in dirt, and the metal frame and transformer had rust in many places. I decided to clean it up, and Googled for some info on the subject.

You can see in this shot that the tubes are secured via copper wire to posts on the frame:

The transformer had 2 wires coming from it, and they were attached to each end of the neon tube. I carefully disconnected those, removed all the copper wire holding the tubes to the frame, and removed them:

I used my compressor to blow off the loose paint. Then, I carefully scraped at what remained until I had most of it off. I layed it on an old Stargate bezel, sprayed it down with Bleche White and hosed it off after 10 mins or so:

That got it nice and clean.

The info I found online indicated that you could use regular oil based paint instead of block out paint. I opted for Rustoleum flat black.

The info I had said that you should paint the sign while lit. I didn’t want to get lit because I don’t paint very well while drunk. I opted to paint it with it turned off and completely sober. Here’s the back painted:

Here is the frame and transformer painted:

Here it is back together with the front of the tubes painted:

I plugged it in, crossed my fingers, and turned it on. I was a bit cautious as these transformers put out very high voltage. Some people use them to make jacob ladders. It lit up, but looked like total crap (sorry, no pic).

It turns out that you really *should* paint these while turned on. If the paint isn’t thick enough it will let light through. I touched it up while turned on, and it came out pretty nice. Here it is lit up:

I am an idiot, and didn’t take a pic of it lit up BEFORE I fixed it. Just imagine it looking even creepier than that doll and you’ll get the general idea.

I decided it would be good to get those keys out of the coin doors. What better place to put them then inside another coin door?

It holds 48 sets of keys. As you can see, I haven’t loaded many keys into it yet.  I bought some clear mini photo key chains to stick flyer pics in like a lot of folks have been doing lately. I’ll use those for any games that I don’t already have a related keychain for.

I bought the key safe for this at Home Depot. It was right in their tool section near the machine they use to cut keys. I think it was $24.95. The outside was the same color as the inside. I hit it with some black Rustoleum, and decided it would be cool to make it look like a coin door.

I hacked up the coin entry/return bezels and coin return buttons from a spare coin door using my dremel so they would fit on the outside of the cabinet. It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, the coin entry bezels I had were metal and not nearly as easy to cut as they would be if they were the plastic kind.

This pic shows what one of the coin entry bezels looked like after I cut it in 2:

A coin return button after it was cut (but not yet separated):

Finished coin thingies laying nice and flat:

Here are a couple more pics showing it in relation to its surroundings:

I’ve been having a lot of fun lately modifying and making things for our arcade. I may draft the wife to help make some more toppers in the future.

I was planning on taking pics of everything as I went along but in the excitement I forgot to. Here’s the gist of how this was made…

Parts from Walmart:

• 8″ white styrofoam ball
• Yellow woman’s top made out of spandex (need’s to be stretchy)
• Mickey Mouse (on clearance)
• Pacifier
• Black fabric paint
• Pink cloth
• Baby Sneakers

Other stuff we had lying around:

• Wooden broom handle
• Metal coat hangers
• Pins
• Thread & Needle
• LCD monitor stand
• Cardboard shirt box
• Finish nail
• Staple gun and staples
• Velcro

You can pretty much tell by the components how this went together. I severed the arms off Mickey (see last post). We made some tubes out of the yellow to go over the black dead mouse arms. I cut some wire from the coat hangers and used them to stick the arms into the foam ball. We made the legs the same way, stuffing them in the shoes and sewing them to the body.

The bonnet thing has a piece of cardboard we cut to shape, to make sure it would stick up.

For the nose, I cut the very tip off a broom handle and put a finish nail in the end. I wrapped the yellow cloth around the wood and stapled it to the bottom. Then I pushed it through the cloth and foam ball and it stuck pretty well.

I had an old LCD monitor stand that I never used and was saving for something like this. I used velcro on the back of her head to stick it to the stand. The stand has some velcro on the bottom to keep it in place, as does her sneakers.

Here’s a couple more pics:

Concept

I love neon and illuminated signs, and for awhile have been thinking about making some sort of POW block sign inspired by the POW block floating above the  middle of the ground floor in Mario Bros:

I made a 3D mockup for inspiration before starting:

I discovered El Wire online, which is an electroluminescent wire that has the appearance of neon and comes in different colors and thicknesses. The wires need to be powered by a driver to work, and that driver can be powered by batteries or a power supply. Drivers come in different types, and you can also use sequencers to get some serious blinking action going. I opted to use a sound activated driver, which can pulse the wires on and off to whatever music or other noise is going on in the room.

Materials

1. Black 10″ x 10″ x 10″ acrylic ballot box, $46 ish on eBay

2. 20 feet of white 2.5mm high bright El Wire and an audio activated driver – $40 at CoolNeon.com.

3. 10 feet of blue 2.5mm high bright El Wire with attached harness – $20.50 at CoolNeon.com.

I made the mistake of buying 5mm El Wire first which looks awesome lit, but was too thick to hold a good bend:

4. (2) POW vinyl stickers – custom made by Brian Jones at GameStencils.com

I figured that the sign wouldn’t look so hot when turned off if the design was only made with the El Wire, so I wanted to have a background for the wire to sit on. I made a vector representation of the POW block using a screenshot from Mario Bros and sent it to Brian who made some awesome stickers (thanks). Here’s the file if you need it.

5. Power switch – I got this one at Ace Hardware for a few bucks:

6. Fishing Line – again, got it at Ace Hardware for a few bucks. I believe I got the 8 lb line if I remember correctly.

7. (2) rubber grommets:

8. Screw hooks to hang from ceiling:

Tools

1. Drill or something else that can be used to drill holes. I’m guessing a drill would be best.

2. Superglue (or Krazy Glue if you are feeling crazy)

3. Gorilla Tape

4. Small lengths of wire to wire switch. No pic for this one…you’ll have to imagine how wires look.

5. Masking tape

6. A file smaller than the opening for the switch

How to Build It

1. First thing I did was to stick the custom stickers to opposite sides of the ballot box. Here’s what they looked like with the mask on:

Here’s one side positioned with some masking tape:

and finally, stuck to the box:

Repeat on the opposite side.

2. Next, I drilled 1 hole for each rubber grommet. One on the left side of the box and one on the right. Each hole is about 3 inches down from the top edge. Be VERY careful drilling, as this stuff is fragile. If you drill too close to the edge it will crack just like mine did. I had to fix the piece that cracked with some superglue. After you drill the holes, work the grommets into them. The one on the left here is in:

I put these in to pass the fishing line through for hanging later, and figured they would releave some strain on the acrylic to prevent cracking and also to prevent wear on the fishing line.

3. Drill a hole slightly smaller than the switch wherever you would like to place it. I chose the bottom right corner of the box.

4. Use the file to gradually make the hole a rectangle. When you get close to the size you want, you can use some masking tape to mark off the exact edges of the desired hole so you don’t make it too big. Here it is about 80% done:

5. Once you get the hole the correct size, work the switch into it. This was a bit tricky, and I ended up hitting it (gently) with a rubber mallet:

6. You should now have plastic crud all over the place. Clean the box the best you can inside and out, but don’t go nuts as you will be doing more drilling shortly. Keep in mind acrylic should not be cleaned with Windex as it will leave marks. If you don’t have any Novus, water will probably work better.

7. Grab a drill bit that will be big enough to pass the El Wire through twice. You’ll be feeding in and then back out that same hole. I’d recommend practicing to get the size right on a scrap piece of wood.

8. Drill a hole in the upper right corner of the letter P. You can see that hole here:

9. Put the entire length of white El Wire inside the box, and feed the end that doesn’t have the connector on it through the hole. Pull out almost all of it, leaving enough of the wire inside to connect to the driver later. Secure it to the inside of the box with some Gorilla Tape.

10. This is the tricky part – work the wire around the outer perimieter of the letter P, bending it at the corners. When you get to a bend, before you continue to the next one lift the wire up and put a few drops of super glue under the wire. Use it sparingly, as when it dries it turns white and less will look better. Push the wire down on the glue, and hold for 15 seconds. When it dries, continue to the next bend, following along as you see in the pic above.

11. When you get to the hole, feed the wire back into it. Pull it all the way back inside the box.

12. Tape it inside again with Gorilla Tape to hold it tight

13. Drill a hole in the corner of the O, and repeat the whole process, in and out of the box as you go to each letter.

14. Repeat for the light blue line, using the blue El Wire. Here is one side done…click to zoom in and see how I ran the wire along the edges.

15. I haven’t done this part yet, but the plan is to repeat the process for the opposite side

16. You’ll need to take the battery pack for the driver, and cut one of the wires going to it. Splice in some short pieces of wire, and run them to the switch. You should be able to figure this part out if you are an arcade geek. The driver has it’s own switch. I just left it on, and then use the switch I wired to turn the battery pack on and off.

17. Locate a ceiling joist using a stud finder, being careful to not get a false positive should the stud finder get too close to your manly self.

18. Screw the hooks in, 10″ apart making sure you catch the joist

19. Feed some fishing line through the grommets. I started on the right side, fed it through the inside of the box, and back out the left side.

20. Tie some loops in the line, one on each side

21. Hang it!

That’s about it. View my last post prior to this one to see a video of it. I’m sure I probably left something out. If you have any questions, post a comment and I’d be glad to help.

or does it?

I got 2 different lengths and colors of El Wire, and have them hooked to a sound activated driver. The driver has a sensitivity setting on it which can be dialed up or down as needed. Stay tuned for more info.