Halloween Projects Part 2

Here is the continuation of my Halloween projects. These are just a few things I have done that were good enough to keep. There are many more projects that I have done or would like to do, but these should give you a taste. To see part one of this series look here.

Flaming Wizard Staff

This project is a bit dangerous and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone. I was crazy enough to do it and it was quite cool as long as I only used it in a safe place. The staff was designed to look like twisted wood with a glowing glass ball and a twisted metal top. The staff can shoot flames a few feet in the air on command. It was made from PVC pipe which I heated and twisted to give it the twisted wood shape. The top was left as pipe so that a canister for refilling butane lighters would fit in it. On the bottom of the staff I made a place for a BBQ grill push button sparker and ran an insulated cable the length of it. The glass orb was made from a cleaned out light bulb with a tri color LED under it. The metal top is copper pipe where the flame comes out. To make this, I twisted the pipe by hand into my desired shape. In doing this I learned a trick for shaping copper tubing, if you fill it with salt you can bend it without it collapsing. When your done shaping the pipe you dump the salt out. To complete the look I covered the top portion with expanding foam which I painted. The butane is connected to the copper with a tube and I installed a lever to push down the top of the butane can. To get it to flame you need to both turn on the gas and tap the bottom on the ground to make it spark.

Low Lying Fog

I have tried dry ice to make low lying fog, but I never seem to get enough or get it to stay. Instead of dry ice you can use a fog machine and chill the fog so that it will stay on the ground. At the time I made this, fog machines were expensive. Now they have begun selling fog machines that create low lying fog, but I don't know how well they work. I made my chiller out of a cooler with two holes in it for the input and output. To chill the fog, I filled the cooler with closed 16oz bottles of salt water that I froze. I connected some PVC pipe so the fog machine can sit on top of the cooler, and from a hole on the bottom for the output. The effect looks very similar to dry ice, except it lasts a lot longer. One downside for using these machines indoors is that I have found it leaves a slippery residue on the ground.

Flickering Lights

Getting a light bulb to flicker like a candle isn't that easy to do with pure electronics since it's hard to get it random. To solve this I used a flicker bulb meant to look like a candle, and a CdS (cadmium sulfide cell) light sensor to detect and mimic the bulb's light to whatever bulb I want to control. The electronics involved consist of a light dimmer to which the CdS cell can be connected. I simply connect the sensor between the potentiometer and the rest of the circuit. Using the adjustment of the light dimmer I can adjust it so the lights are dim and flicker just right. I found that in order to get a good effect I needed to tape the flicker bulb so the CdS cell can only see one portion. Using this circuit I was able to get a very nice effect.

Guillotine

My guillotine is made mostly of 2x4 sections of wood. I wanted to have some movement to it so that I could slide the blade up and down and also slide the part that holds the head. I started by cutting slots in the wood with a circular saw; I made these slots wide enough for my wood blade and head-holding device. After I'd made all the slots, I assembled the wood into a rectangular shape and added some legs. The blade and part to hold the head were made from thin particle board, which I painted. I added a loop on the top for a rope that connected to the blade. By utilizing a gear motor it was easy to make the blade slowly move up and down. Perhaps next year I can add a cut off head where the eyes and lips move.

Skeleton hands

For some reason I decided that the run of the mill skeleton-hand gloves just weren't good enough for me. I wanted something that looked like real skeleton hands, the gloves just don't look real and it was ruining my costume. I devised a plan to make hands that would look like bones, and move with my fingers. That was the plan at least; I haven't quite yet achieved the look I was going for, but is still quite spooky and better than the gloves. I made the fingers out of bicycle chain; I found one length of chain was enough to make both hands. I laid the chain out and welded some of the links together. For the fingertips I used one link and added a link for each part of the finger going back. For the pinky I just did one link for the tip and two for the other parts. I also welded a number of links together to form the straight part for the wrist. I then welded these links together as a set of five, and added two pieces of metal for the bones that the hand connects to. To act as springs that would hold the fingers in a natural position, I wove some metal guitar strings through it. To these metal fingers I connected fishing line to go to gloves on my hands. A coat of white spray paint gave the hands a completed look. My original plan was to use white modeling clay to make it look more like bone, but I ran out of time and was afraid it would restrict the motion.

I hope these projects help you out with your haunts. If you have some cool projects you would like to post, please contact me.