My phone booth

[Bill LaPointe]

Last winter I realized that I did not own a phone booth. I figured that everyone my age had owned at least one! Even my brother-in-law had one! (You can't really count his 'cause it was aluminum.) Searched the internet for any kind of plans or drawings and found absolutely nothing. Found lots of pictures but that was all. Called my brother-in-law and got the inside dimensions on his ugly one. Since he also has a small saw mill I got some air dried 4/4 red oak from him. All of the Bell System phone booths had plywood sides so that they could be easily placed side by side. Functional but not too pretty. Honestly, the seat was the biggest challenge. Messed with that trying to get the proportions right from photos for about 6 hours until it dawned on me that the seat looked pretty much like a 5 gal bucket. Worked out just fine. Ceiling light came from a salvage store and is operated by a low voltage relay and magnetic switch when the door closes. Graffiti on the walls is in removable marker. I bought the dial pay phone, with no keys, on Ebay for $129, delivered. When I opened it there was $186.50 in the coin box. (Getting it open without destroying the phone is a whole story by itself) It was a fun project and the phone booth is now living in one of my retail stores. Gets a huge amount of comments from our customers and have had several offers to buy it. My LOML wanted to know why I was building a phone booth. Told her I never had one. I have a really nice one now!

[Mark Ball]

Very interesting!! Is this installed in your home?

[Bill LaPointe]

No, I took it to one of my stores as a display. My LOML said that if I wanted it in the house my slot machines would have to go. Kept the slots.

[Rick Moyer]

Interesting. I once considered getting an old phone booth as a conversation pc. for the finished basement. I think you should put a Superman suit in it on a hanger! Of course no one under 40-50 would get the significance.

[Zach England]

I love it. It is almost absurdist.

[Zach England]

I should add that I am too young to have ever seen a real, working phone booth. They exist only in films or displays intended solely for their irony.

Come to think of it, the payphone itself has been an anachronism most of my life.

[Bill LaPointe]

The brother-in-law that I referenced in the original post has a blow-up doll in a Superman suit in his. Zach's comment really made me feel old!

[Joe Shinall]

Hey now, only 26 here and I get it. I've also seen all the original Batman episodes as well, so I guess I may be an exception to the rule though.

[Jeff Considine]

You have my ringing endorsement! the project was obviously a good call.

Best,

Jeff

[Mark Ottenheimer]

If you had problems opening the coin box you should have posted here, I am sure someone on here has worked coin box at some point in their career and has a key. I probably could have found you one. Looks great. If you need parts let me know I can look around the office and see if we have any buried.

[Jay Jolliffe]

I think it's great. They should of never got ride of the phone booths. Who want's to stand in the rain to make a phone. O, forgot now we have cell phones. Let see stand in the rain or brain tumor from cell phone.....I'll take the phone booth Great job

[John Keeton]

You guys are WAY too young!! Everyone knows that Superman changed in a phone booth!



Great job, Bill, and I bet it is a great conversation piece in your store!!

[Scott Gibbons]

Hey now, only 26 here and I get it. I've also seen all the original Batman episodes as well, so I guess I may be an exception to the rule though.

Im 32, and I am right with you.

[Bill LaPointe]

The coin box mechanism is very similar to a safe. The lock only allows the bolt to function. Bell System never published a way to get in the lock. Their procedure was to destroy the phone so as not to publish a way "to get in". As I said in the original post, That's a whole story on it's own.

[Christopher Pine]

There was more money in the coin box than you paid for the phone? That is awesome!

Love the booth! The phone is not hooked up? Would be even cooler if it worked and all!

Thanks for sharing

Chris