Team Stampie Project Ding Dong

My house was built in the 50s and didn't come with a doorbell. I think you guys know me well enough to know that a stick on battery operated doorbell wouldn't cut it.

Today after searching for a couple of years I finally found a period correct mechanical doorbell.

First we drilled a hole in the door.

Next we mounted the outside lever to the door.

Then we mounted the inside bell.

Then we took it all apart because I realized I put the lever in upside down.

Video to entertain Angry.

And cover mounted inside. I need to clean and maybe paint it.

That's awesome 

In reply to Stampie :

Shame you’re not on facebook, the MCM group would go nuts over that doorbell. 

Ding dong motherberkeleyer

In reply to EvanB :

Now I want an electronic doorbell to play that and scare all the motherberkeleyers away. 

In reply to Stampie :

I was thinking the same thing as i posted it.

I must admit that I opened this thread with some trepidation.  A title with the words "Stampie" and "Ding Dong" had me a bit concerned... :)

My question is:  Will anybody know what this is and how to use it?  I ain't a kid and I have never seen a doorbell like this.  Prior to this thread, I would have just knocked on the door because I would not have recognized that that was a doorbell...

But it is a really cool doorbell...

A little signage goes a long way, "twist to ring bell"

Very cool.  As an owner of a 1949 house, I've got some similar details.  I can appreciate some old hardware like that.

Where did you find the bell?  I wouldn't know where to start ....

914Driver said:

Where did you find the bell?  I wouldn't know where to start ....

Search for mechanical doorbell - I see that Home Depot, Restoration Hardware and other places still sell new ones for a reasonable price.

When I was a kid we had one on our front door, it looked more or less like this:

914Driver said:

Where did you find the bell?  I wouldn't know where to start ....

I took it off a door that a customer was going to replace. You can find them on eBay. For this one search "MC-302 doorbell". My problem is I didn't want something that looked new. I wanted it to look like it has been there since the house was built. 

In reply to stuart in mn :

We had a doorbell chime similar to that on our turn of the century farmhouse (from the previous century), but it was missing the handle/key. Surprisingly, our local old-time hardware store (that had replacement parts for knob and tube wiring) had a new one on the shelf, that had somewhat interchangeable parts.

In reply to Stampie :

that's cool.  but i'd be trying to figure out how to knock with it.