Making a Working Ghostbusters Ghost Trap!

We’re super excited to reveal a project we’ve been working on for the past few months. Sean Charlesworth has designed and built a replica of the ghost trap prop from the original Ghostbusters films. This prop pulls the best features from the traps that appear in the films, using as many original found parts as possible and the rest 3D printed. It even has a working pedal to activate lights, sound, and smoke! (Thanks to Dremel for providing the 3D printer and tools for us to build this project! Learn more about the Dremel 3D Idea Builder here.)

Shot and edited by Joey Fameli

Comments (41)

41 thoughts on “Making a Working Ghostbusters Ghost Trap!

  1. It would be awesome if premium members would get the plans for said projects =D

    (just an idea to give premium members some extra’s)

    and yes i know more is comming

  2. Awesome! I’d really love a full breakdown of this. Hoping for bill of materials, wiring, code, etc.

    If Tested does more of these, it’d be cool to have a part of the site with a project directory and instructions paired with the video. Tested’s own Make Magazine type thing!

    The scanlines in the commercial intro was a nice touch Joey!.

  3. I’ve been playing with ecigs for something similar. Any specifics that you could share about how you did it? I would build a small alter to praise your name.

  4. Nice work

    I can sympathize with you on sourcing original parts. Last year I built the Key Master’s “colander hat” and used as many original components as I could find. I’ve also started gathering parts for a proton pack.

    Cheers!

  5. Superb work!

    In the next video I would like to hear more about why and how you went about designing (cad:ing) it, get nerdy with me please 🙂

    How come you don’t model in a solid modeler like solidworks? Or fusion 360 for that matter witch is sort of free. How much control do you have over print direction and such? What are the tricks for getting good surfaces (print direction)? Where do you split parts? Do you add material for interference/press fitting parts together?

    Thanks!

  6. Yeah, it started to drive me crazy after a while, also generated a lot of spreadsheets. I really want to make the colander! – such an oddball prop. I think the hardest part must be finding the right colander.

  7. This is great. One of the coolest things I’ve seen built on this site. You will have to do the matching PKE Meter to go with it. Might have to do both PKE meters though, it is hard to pick between them.

  8. This is great. One of the coolest things I’ve seen built on this site. You will have to do the matching PKE Meter to go with it. Might have to do both PKE meters though, it is hard to pick between them.

  9. Did you consider just using the hose as a hose? It seems to me you could send a decent blast of air through the hose with a pump of the foot… enough to throw a switch on the far end.

    Air pressure can be pretty powerful… I recently saw a ping pong ball destroy a soda can!!
    )

  10. This project is fabulous!

    Sean is an absolute optimal addition to the tested team in my opinion and he proved it once again!!

    And I really like your bloopers at the end, it give something.. not sure how to put it.. a kind of charismatic touch? Maybe this is just me.

    Anyway it doesn’t have to become a trend but i found it lively and refreshing to see this kind of quirky human side from time to time.

  11. Amazing build!

    So I’ve gotta ask… instead of a complicated solution to run wire down the air hose, why didn’t you just use it as an air hose, with a bellows under the pedal and a pressure sensor in the trap?

  12. Thanks! ‘Complicated’ is relative. For someone with a lot of electronics and sensor knowledge this may have been easy. I am not an electronics expert, so I went with the ‘hardwired’ version which was pretty straight forward. We had enough problems getting everything to work and add smoke without adding a pneumatic system. The cost of the electronics was also going way up and I wanted to get it as low as possible. Anyone with a soldering iron can do the hardwire, harder to add the air system, but it would be really cool – I know someone will do it. 😉

  13. Nice project. So you tested the Dremel? Nice product placement but how did it work?

    I’d like to see more about how Jeremy set up the electronics. Thanks guys!

  14. Longshot – Maybe tune in tomorrow….

    The Dremel worked very well, print bed is decent size, it did well down to .1mm layers and I really like the touch screen especially when it shows a render of the 3D model. Software was a bit rough but they now teamed with AutoDesk to use their Print Studio which makes things much better. Had a few quality problems on filament rolls, but easy to make a spool holder that mounts about to use other filament. Overall a good value for the money.

  15. Awesome project- puts my old ghost trap to shame! I used to have a whole stash of those gold anodized Dale resistors and other GB parts I found at an electronics surplus shop ages ago. Nice to hear that gbfans is still around. The ghostheads on the old ASAP forum were a pretty tight knit group back in the day and those guys did an enormous amount of work tracking down all of the original parts and info.

  16. cool site, will check it out. The skirted knob has been researched by dozens of folks over the years, does not seem to exist in any form. 🙁

  17. This seriously just made my entire day

    I am going to make one of these ASAP

    My 90’s kid excitement is pouring out of my face with joy right now

    Best,

    James

  18. I was having similar ideas with vaping, since I fell into the same rabbit hole. Want to work it into a costume idea I have. Also those knobs kind of resemble guitar amp volume knobs, not sure if it was vox, fender, or line 6. They have a similar skirt, not that it matters, the 3d print ones look great. Fine job.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

One Day Builds

Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Life-Size Velocirapt…

Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…

Show And Tell

Adam Savage’s King George Costume!

Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…

Podcast - This Is Only a Test

All Eyes On Perserverance – This is Only a Test 58…

We get excited for the Perserverance rover Mars landing happening later today in this week's episode. Jeremy finally watches In and Of Itself, we get hyped for The Last of Us casting, and try to deciper the new Chevy Bolt announcements. Plus, Kishore gets a Pelaton and we wrack our brains around reverse engineering the source code to GTA …

One Day Builds

Mandalorian Blaster Prop Replica Kit Assembly!

Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…

Podcast - This Is Only a Test

House of MCU – This is Only a Test 586 – 2/11/21

The gang gets together to recap their favorite bits from this past weekend's Superb Owl, including the new camera tech used for the broadcast and the best chicken wing recipes. Kishore shares tips for streamlining your streaming services, and Will guests this week to dive into the mind-bending implications of the latest WandaVision episod…

One Day Builds

Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Royal Crown of Engla…

One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…

Making

Adam Savage Tests the AIR Active Filtration Helmet…

Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…

Making

Weta Workshop’s 3D-Printed Giant Eyeballs!

When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …

One Day Builds

Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Wire Storage Solutio…

Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…

Show And Tell

Mechanical Dragonfly Automata Kit Build and Review

Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…