My theater company was showing a production of Newsies and needed several time-appropriate phones. We found one in the thrift stores, but we needed several so the Props Committee asked me to 3D print a few. To begin I found an .stl design on Thingiverse. Click here for the files I used – there are seven in all. The only other materials I needed was black filament, a long cord, glue and sandpaper.
The printing process was very easy. After everything was printed I sanded where the pieces connected to other pieces. I used hot glue to secure the parts together. Then I cut the cord into three parts. To keep the cord from unraveling I heated the ends with a lighter and carefully squished each one together, mindful not to burn myself. Once these cord tips hardened, I filled the hole in the base of the phone and the end of the mouthpiece with glue and stuffed both ends of the cord in.
The cord on the mouthpiece was coming off, so I used hot glue to keep it in. Once the hot glue dried I used black paint to cover the white glue. The phone rest that held up the mouthpiece – it looks like a wishbone, or a football goal – was not strong enough for theater use. I went back into my CAD software and edited the file to make this part sturdier, then reprinted it. To strengthen, it I printed it with 100% infill and this fixed the problem.
At this point, I was finished. Because the theater is large – the nearest seat is 40′ from the stage edge – I did not need to create a lot of details. So now those vintage candlestick phones can ‘ring off the hooks’ in Pulitzer’s office.
Phone 3D File: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1639982
