Season 4 Handlink Replica. A 10 year quest.

[Replica Props]

After Mark Dickson shared photos from the set of season 4 episode "Play Ball" I became obsessed with making a handlink replica. Years ago I drew some cad drawings and over the years I refined them over and over again. Tracking down some of the little LEDs was a quest many QL fans pursued, but after watching and seeing how rare those leds were, I decided to CNC machine from aluminum all the tiles. My plan was to make molds and cast the parts in transparent resin



I ended up with this crude model


Not happy I decided to try the laser cutting route, and sent my cad drawings to a company to do the cutting. I got a few samples cut, but the quality was poor and without actually being there in their office, I could not fiddle with the size adjustments to compensate for the beam width on different power settings. It became apparent that I would need to buy a laser cutter and do it my self. So this year I took the plunge and purchased one from ebay.


After a little experimenting and learning the new machine, I came up with a mock up of the handlink body. This was and is still in the testing phase as I still needed to gather all the data on the electronics and light channeling.
But for a first cut, it was exciting.



I then went on to create another mock up of all the tiles to make sure before I committed to the full size color acrylic, it all fit together.


Happy with that, I purchased all the color acrylic and one by one cut batches of each tile.


Some colors were wrong (and still are, specifically the green) but it slowly came together.


I wont post the hundreds of photos I took during the process, you can see them here if you want. https://www.facebook.com/replicapropscom/

I am not done yet, I still have to find the proper green and work on the electronics, but I wanted to share what I have done to date with people who love the show.





Hope you enjoyed seeing the story of this prop replica.

[leaper1]

Wow! Talk about a labor of love.

You win the gold for dedication to fandom.

[Replica Props]

And the proper green I was waiting on just arrived.

[Lightning McQueenie]

I am so impressed. I'm sharing this with the QLP (y)

[feldon30]

Truly impressive. There have been discussions here and there about trying to recreate the handlink *exactly* as it was made. The problem is it was made using compound LEDs that were already out-of-production when the show was on the air.

Replica Props has come up with a solution that uses different parts, but he has certainly knocked it out of the park for coming up with a design that looks VERY close to how the screen-used model looks.

[Lightning McQueenie]

If anyone wants one of these handlink replicas, be sure to put your name on the waiting list here: http://replicaprops.com/Quantum-Leap-Handlink_p_62.html

[Al_Calavicci]

Do you have any for sale yet? I am seriously interested in buying one. You've made the most accurate one I've seen so far.

[Replica Props]

I'm still in the build phase. I do plan on selling as soon as they are complete.
Rob

[Replica Props]

I noticed all the photo links expired. Probably because they were all on facebook. If you want to see current progress update photos, they are on my facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/replicapropscom/