- October 30th, 2021, 11:25 pm#4958703
It's been a while since I made this, but I just found some pictures of my Walmart Trap modification I did for a commission.
I was originally just going to give the paint job an overhaul, but I felt the electronics weren't really as good as they could've been (mainly the length of the pedal cord). This was actually the first prop I made for someone, as well as being the first one where I improved any sort of electronics, and I wanted to have a good starting point.
I started by taking apart the body, removing the electronics, and separating each element of the trap (knobs, tubes, etc.). I removed the black knob on the right side of the trap so I could add the missing panel that had been omitted from the design, and I made a new one out of a sheet of thin styrene (1/4" thickness, I believe?). I placed it carefully onto the trap with some super glue, drilled some holes where I was going to put cosmetic socket screws, and prepped it for paint.
I lightly sanded the parts I wanted painted, taped off the white panels, and gave the main body, handle, and doors a coat of flat black Rustoleum spray paint. Same for the panels, only I taped off the black body and front panel knobs, and sprayed the panels with Rustoleum aluminum spray paint. The reason why I pointed the doors was because I wanted to redo the caution striping with actual tape, similar to the GB2 trap that sold at auction a few years ago.
For the electronics, I surprisingly didn't need to do as much as I originally thought. I began my unplugging each component from the main board, and inspected each one carefully. For the yellow bar graph light, I was annoyed that the lights were going in the wrong direction. I carefully melted the black plastic tabs holding the LED board in the frame, flipped it around, and re-glued it back inside the frame. Now the LEDs were going in the proper direction (left-to-right, not the original right-to-left).
For the power panel, I replaced the original switch with an SPST toggle switch, and colored the red LED housing with a red Sharpie to appear a more accurate color when off. I still wish I found some way to change how it operated, so that it would only blink when the doors were shut, rather than open.
Lengthening the pedal cord was pretty easy. When I stripped the trap, I made a large, more accurately placed hole for the cord. I cut the cord roughly in the middle so I didn't have to disconnect it from the board, added about 5 feet of solid core 22 AWG wire, and wrapped the cord in split loom. Using hot glue, I secured the loom on the inside of the trap. The trap had to be done in about 2 weeks, so I didn't have quite enough time to make a new foot pedal, or new connection ports, so I just wrapped each end of the cord in red electrical tape and added a white zip-tie.
Both the client and myself were extremely satisfied with the finished product, and I can't wait to make another! Unfortunately, Walmart no longer sells these, and they're very expensive secondhand. Thankfully, I already have a spare, but it will likely be my last unless they start selling more.
I was originally just going to give the paint job an overhaul, but I felt the electronics weren't really as good as they could've been (mainly the length of the pedal cord). This was actually the first prop I made for someone, as well as being the first one where I improved any sort of electronics, and I wanted to have a good starting point.
I started by taking apart the body, removing the electronics, and separating each element of the trap (knobs, tubes, etc.). I removed the black knob on the right side of the trap so I could add the missing panel that had been omitted from the design, and I made a new one out of a sheet of thin styrene (1/4" thickness, I believe?). I placed it carefully onto the trap with some super glue, drilled some holes where I was going to put cosmetic socket screws, and prepped it for paint.
I lightly sanded the parts I wanted painted, taped off the white panels, and gave the main body, handle, and doors a coat of flat black Rustoleum spray paint. Same for the panels, only I taped off the black body and front panel knobs, and sprayed the panels with Rustoleum aluminum spray paint. The reason why I pointed the doors was because I wanted to redo the caution striping with actual tape, similar to the GB2 trap that sold at auction a few years ago.
For the electronics, I surprisingly didn't need to do as much as I originally thought. I began my unplugging each component from the main board, and inspected each one carefully. For the yellow bar graph light, I was annoyed that the lights were going in the wrong direction. I carefully melted the black plastic tabs holding the LED board in the frame, flipped it around, and re-glued it back inside the frame. Now the LEDs were going in the proper direction (left-to-right, not the original right-to-left).
For the power panel, I replaced the original switch with an SPST toggle switch, and colored the red LED housing with a red Sharpie to appear a more accurate color when off. I still wish I found some way to change how it operated, so that it would only blink when the doors were shut, rather than open.
Lengthening the pedal cord was pretty easy. When I stripped the trap, I made a large, more accurately placed hole for the cord. I cut the cord roughly in the middle so I didn't have to disconnect it from the board, added about 5 feet of solid core 22 AWG wire, and wrapped the cord in split loom. Using hot glue, I secured the loom on the inside of the trap. The trap had to be done in about 2 weeks, so I didn't have quite enough time to make a new foot pedal, or new connection ports, so I just wrapped each end of the cord in red electrical tape and added a white zip-tie.
Both the client and myself were extremely satisfied with the finished product, and I can't wait to make another! Unfortunately, Walmart no longer sells these, and they're very expensive secondhand. Thankfully, I already have a spare, but it will likely be my last unless they start selling more.
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