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Yes, that is a Wheelock 7002T up there…

September 10, 2014, 7:03 PM

So as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m doing a bit of cleaning/redecorating around the house.  I’ve purged the house of much junk, I’ve put pictures in the frames, and I’ve removed the bulletin board, whiteboard, and Scientology letter from the walls.  Of the items removed from the walls, the bulletin board got moved to the kitchen, and the Scientology letter is going back up somewhere else in the house, but I’m not entirely sure where yet, as I still have to figure out the master decor plan.  I gave the whiteboard away, and I’m told it ultimately ended up at the American Legion in Wheaton.

But I did put a new piece of decor up that is very relevant to my interests: a Wheelock 7002T.  This came about after my friend Elyse referred me to an eBay auction where someone was selling two Wheelock 7002T horn/strobes that had been completely gutted, marketed as wall decor.  The opening price was ridiculously low, and there were no other bidders.  In a word: mine.  The idea was to get these, dig up some trim plates, and then put them up on the wall.  This only worked because they were empty.  Without the guts, they were light enough to where if I put one up, I wouldn’t have to worry about their falling off of the wall on account of weight, and also, there was nothing protruding out of the back, which meant that it would go flat against the wall.

This is what I started with:

Two empty Wheelock 7002Ts

And there you have it, as they are stripped bare inside.  No guts.  And then when you flip them over, they look pretty normal:

The front of my empty 7002Ts

So as you can see, perfect.  And then I chose this as the site:

The site where the empty horn would go.

This wall, near my Metro map.  And then I mated the wall decor with its other half, i.e. the trim plate:

Mated with its trim plate.

Then after prepping the area, I got one side up:

My gutted fire alarm, hanging by one screw before I put the other one in.

By the way, this amused me far more than it should have.  I even sent this pic to Elyse, saying, “All done!  How’s it look?”  She got a kick out of it as well.  And then once I got the other screw in, I checked to make sure that it was level:

Perfectly level.

Perfect.  It made me think of a scene from a 1990s-era Wheelock promotional video, showing an AS:

  
Images: Wheelock Inc.

And here’s the final product, after I tightened up the screws:

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?  I wanted this piece of decor to look like a fire alarm horn, and I think I succeeded.

And if you’re wondering what the actual fire alarm looks like where I live, here you go:

That is a 120V EllBell by Ellenco.  And these are the pull stations, which are also Ellenco.  So no confusing this for the real alarm.  And now there’s something related to fire alarms as part of the decor, right next to something transit-related.  Not too shabby.  Now to do everything else in the plan.

Categories: Fire alarms, House