Piecax the Poltergeist. a Troublesome Spirit in a Box.

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Poltergeist : From the German for “noisy ghost”.
A metaphysical entity which announces its presence with rapping, banging and general mischief making.

It wasn’t easy, but I’ve got one shut up in this box. I call him Piecax. Sometimes he will lie quietly and make you think he’s gone, then startle you with frenzied knocking. Other times Piecax will have fun by echoing you. Find his favourite number and he might play you a spooky tune. Watch the video to see Piecax in action.

Thanks and credit go to JKestner whose Knock Block gave me the inspiration for this project.

I did this first so I wouldn’t be waiting for varnish to dry once I’d built the circuitry.

I started with a cheap softwood box from a craft shop.  I clamped a rotary sander upside-down in a vice and rounded the corners and smoothed the sides, starting with a coarse sanding sheet and finishing off with fine.  A final rub over with very fine paper and I had a smooth rounded box but a bit of a boring colour.

To bring out the grain I gave it two coats of walnut woodstain  and then for the gloss, three coats of yacht varnish.  The first coat was diluted with thinners to make it soak into the wood and give it more hardness and a good base for the other coats.

A quick raid on my sons' lego sets and I had a casket fit for a ghost.

The various parts are stuck on with contact adhesive (that’s the type where you apply a thin coat to both surfaces, wait a few minutes, then it sticks hard immediately you put the parts together.)  The sounder is glued to the lid so it picks up the vibrations directly as the top is tapped.

For the ‘knocker’ I used a small 3V DC motor with a piece of brass strip bent fixed to the shaft.  I bent this to shape with a pair of pliers so it was a push-fit onto the shaft.   Be careful as you push it on as the plastic back of the motor is likely to push out, so put a hard object on the end and push against that.

The motor came with a solar cell kit and had the plastic clip with it.  Alternatively you could use a piece of split overflow pipe with one side sanded down, or use double-sided sticky foam to attach the motor to the box.  Later on, I added solder to the end to give a good solid knock.  A bit of trial and error is required to give the best weight.

With the box size I used, everything goes in pretty easily and neatly. You will need to adapt the layout if you use a different size or shape of box.

The battery is held in with double-sided sticky foam so it can be replaced.  The circuit board in held in the same way, and has to go in before the motor if you're using a small box.

Gluing a small piece of brass strip to the lid where the knocker hits gives a sharper knock and helps the knocker to return quickly.  The final picture shows a piece of foam glued in to dampen the 'clunk' when the arm returns.

Click HERE for information about the standard training video for containment of supernatural beings.