Hudsons Halloween Thread - Final Vids

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Hudson Carpentry

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As one or two of you have said you'll be looking forwards to seeing the picture of the stuff I come up with regarding the motors, I thought ill do a thread type blog thing showing everything. You may even get idea for your own Halloween do's or even offer better ideas for mine. feel free to copy, improve or simplify anything you see.

I love Halloween, its the only yearly celebration I enjoy. Can't stand xmas, birthdays, even valentines day. Last year we did a bash that was good. But this year im starting early and taking things to the next level.

First of all, note the hour I plan to spend some hours in the shop at night holding a paint brush. Safety things to remember while working at night. Don't go home with your safety specs still on your head. Don't leave trays of screwdrivers near the front door, you will stand on them and end up picking them all up again (hammer) . Finally don't back yourself into a corner of the workshop where you haven't yet sprayed the floor with antislip while painting. Oh don't come home without first painting everything #-o Ill do that lid tomorrow :roll:

As its late Ill post the pictures up tomorrow but I will upload the stuff I did last year.

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The last image is Alice. She replaced George which you can see on the headstone. Alice has a story which Ill get to.

George used to live in the celler of the old house. Once halloween I had a music player down there and put together some sound effects of noises that sound like a human getting chopped up buy something large and non human. The kids asked and I told them it was geogre and he eats kids. Stopped them going in the celler till we moved :D.

Here is the invite that gone out which kind of sets the mood and a continuing story for the evening.

halloweenInvites2011small.jpg


I hope you can read it. I had to reduce the size to upload. The invites was burnt around the ends to which created a nice effect. Ill take a picture of one.
 

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Here are the finished invites.

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Alice I made last year. It was robust foam/rubber skeleton. I put the wig on her, repainted her face and made the clothes.

Here is her coffin for this year.

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Its 18mm MDF. The top and bottom are just but joints glued and screwed. The shoulder joint is mitred, glued with biscuits and left 24 hours to cure. There is a batten across the back for mechanical fixing to reinforce the joint plus I fabricated some brackets thats hidden under the fabric. I used crown staples to attach the fabric and pillow.

The fabric was donated by my mother and the pillow was stolen from the kids :twisted: (it was a small pillow not one then sleep on).

I then stitched through the pillow to make what I think is called a pleit?

Its primed with normal wood primer.

This is the cross grave memorial I have made.

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The base is just made of MDF and ply that I had as scrap. It was just butted and screwed. The raised ends are just lengths of MDF cut with a mitre and braded on. The top is MDF with a routed profile. The cross its self is redwood and half lapped. Its mortised into the bottom detailing which is redwood and layers of MDF laminated after the routed profile was machined. the cross is only light but its still a tight mortise with 4 screws through the detailing and a further 8 screws from under the box top anchoring the detailing and cross.

This box will hide either a speaker or some electronics for things happening in the yard.

Here is it primed.
 

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Today I had been playing with the wiper motor kindly donated. After attaching a power source I deciding its use was perfect unmodified, for the head floating around a window.

I set the motor up on the floor with a length of off cut oak on the spindle and measure to see what length of wood I would need to have the head reach from one side to the other of the window. I also put a m/meter in there to see what current it used so I can match it with a suitable power supply or battery.

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0.6amps under the load of the oak, which is about the same weight as the head and rig it needs to move. I added more weight and the current stayed the same so I know im within its normal torque load.

I then set up a small rig at the window to for see any issues that may need correcting/troubleshooting.

headAtWindow.jpg


It had a problem where the spindle would work its grip lose on the wood, even tighten the nut didn't help. So a metal bracket attached to the wood and a washer smaller than the tapering part of the spindle worked a treat. The head is bottom weighted and on a spindle its self where the wood length and head joint. This enables the head to stay at 90deg rather then follow the angle of wood length. There was an issue with how this worked but a bit of tweaking sorted it.

The pneumatic actuator I made is shown below.

acturater.jpg


This is for the spiders that fall on you quickly as the front door is opened. It needs to be a foot and half worth or movement so this is what I came up with.

Its 22mm copper pipe with a stop end (speedfit so if there is issues I can get access to parts inside). The arm is an old cots spindle, I have loads of them is the store so one came in handly for this. The spigot is some 15mm copper pipe that I cut and reshaped to a tapped 10mm hole. I cut a hole in the 22mm pipe and soldered this spigot in. Works a dream with no leaks even at 8bar (I was shooting the spindle across the shop at different bar to make sure one, its safe and two, to see how far it would shoot it (hammer) .

The spindle has a rubber washer on the end to form the seal, shown below.

washerOnAct.jpg


I would have trouble finding a spring that would compress as much as it would need without shooting the arm to far back up the pipe aggressively and keeping it in the right normal position. So instead I used some elastic bands. These fit around the metal washer and then a nail acts as a pin that sits through the bands near the spigot inside. It works great at under 2 bar. I drilled some holes near the end to allow air to escape and help slow the arm down if there is a over pressure fail. I also plan to plane down a side of the spindle and put a "grub" screw near then end just encase. I wouldn't want it to shoot into someones head.
 

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looking forward to a youtube video when it is all done.
 
Ordered the leds, resisters, strobe and switches today.

It been a day where it wasn't worth doing anything big and long so I have been tinkering. I have adapted an old 2 way paging car alarm into a wireless trigger and built a pressure mat.

Making the mat is quite simple.
Using cardboard from boxes you cut to size two identical rectangles (or shape you require). Apply glue (pva will do) to one side and lay foil over the top as flat and smooth as you can. Do the same to the other piece

mat1.jpg


Next cut some strips to use as spaces to ensure the two surfaces don't stay touching.
Strip some cable bear. I used some old floppy drive power cables. Lay one flat on each face of a spacer and tap down at the two ends only, leaving cable over one end so you can connect it to your circuit.

At this stage I tested it and found that if I stepped on the ends it would take some time before the cardboard to spring out of continuity. So a few spaces at the ends stored this. Tape all the spaces down with some sort of tape (don't use foil tape :roll: ), I used gaffa tape.

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Lay the other half on top (foil down (hammer) ) and tape the ends to seal. Connect a continuity tester to the leads and stand on it. I found a disused rug so laid that on top to mimic the carpet its going under and stepped on off a few times and in different places to make sure it works over time. Found a toddler upto no good in the garden so grabbed him to walk on it to make sure kids get the scary effect to :twisted:

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EDIT: If anyone actually reads this dribble, DO NOT make a pressure mat to directly switch anything higher than say 24v. If you want to use a homemade pressure mat to switch 230v then send 12v thought the mat to a relay that will switch the 230v.
 

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Well over the last few days I have been quite busy with work but managed to fit in some time here and there.

First the strobe arrived. Its more a flashing LEDs light that strobe but it has the same effect, if not as powerful, anyhow it will do. Case removed, hole drilled and new cables soldered so it can be activated by a micro switch.

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Painted the coffin but forgot to take picture both times (hammer) .

Painted the cardboard the mask goes over and the arms that move it.

Last night I decided to watch Genesis in the cinema while doing some of the electronics for the head. So 1am, only the light off the projected DVD and here I am soldering and using hot glue guns :roll: I ended up resting my phone on the soldering hold rig with the phones LED touch on.

After soldering all I glued the LEDS to the mask.

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Tested all is working still.

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Next I glued the mask to the cardboard.

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Then assembled the arm gluing the nut just encase it works loose (no locking nuts in stock at this size). Then I glued the cables up the arm to hide them and stop them getting caught up in the movements.

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Today I set about starting to make the rig that will hold the swinging head.

Just some off cuts screwed together, it will be out of sight so no need for paint or pretty.

Screwed the strobe in place

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Then set about locating the motor and making the arm that holds the micro switch. This arm just pivots when forced upon. As the arm swings I don't want the strobe to be flashing constantly. As the arms swings it pushes the switch and turns on the strobe but as a stationary switch would only be about 1 second of strobe, I came up with this. As the arm pushes the switch it then continues to swing the arm the switch is on keeping the switch connected. The arm returns buy means of elastic bands but when I find my pot of springs ill replace with a more reliable spring.

Its also adjustable simply by moving the stop and the rollor on the switch makes a smooth action.

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Also I have put together some scraps and primed for the spider/bat board. There will be aload of spiders and bats handing from this but hidden is a motor that will lower a spider onto the person standing under it.

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So where do we buy the tickets for this house of horrors, I keep looking in the Nottingham Events magazine but I haven't found it yet?
 
Chems":2tycczrq said:
So where do we buy the tickets for this house of horrors, I keep looking in the Nottingham Events magazine but I haven't found it yet?

Not classy enough for this event :wink:
You pay Bob upon entry. He is a skeleton butler.
 
Done bits and bobs over the week but little inform of photo's. The only photo I have to show is the start to mask mould. This will be the 2nd "3D" carving I have done and its going ok up to yet. Its far from done but I have made a good start.
 

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Other half came home from work at 10pm and wanted to watch that downton abby she sky+'ed. I can't stand it so head out the door to do a bit more.
 

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I built the vacuum former the other night.

In the day I found a piece to a drill extraction set that would be perfect to attach a vacuum hose to, I put it to one side and guess what, laster that night I found it straight away :eek:

Anyhow after measuring the internal oven size I set about making the platen out of 18mm MDF.
You need to make the platen about 2inch bigger each way just to give you some leeway. Find the centre and drill a hole where the air can be sucked from. You also need a way to attach an extraction or hoover hose I used a part from an incomplete (and useless when complete) metabo drill extraction kit. I attached the hose part using a few screws and some sealant.

platen.jpg


Have you ever noticed that family think that you can make use of the poor DIY products they buy and no longer use. They palm them off to you not taking not for an answer. They sit on the shelf for years to come. I sealed the underside of the hose part with just a product. A wilkco brand sealant in a toothpaste type tube but larger. Ill never use it in a professional situation but to get rid, this application of over sealing this tube, it was fine other then its messy results. It so messy and I sealed where the screws poked through and a crack a screw made.

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It needs some sort of stand so I quickly knocked up some MDF legs using glue and brads. This can be anything really as long as it will stand up to you pushing the plastic down and will raise the platen enough for the hose to be attached under.

Before that, I cut the tube down to size and at an angle to ease slipping on pipes.

Platenstand.jpg


I did put some more battens around the bottom but ill not show you that as I was rushing and put them on wonky :oops: (hammer) :lol:

Using some seal foam put 3 strips at the ends of the platen to create the seal required.

Platenseal.jpg


Then you need to make 2 frames out of metal or wood that will hold the plastic between. Nothing special but make sure there sealed at the joints. I knocked mine up from MDF glue and brads. As an after thought im not sure MDF was the best choose :roll:
 

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Today I decided to start looking if my idea on how to do the bats flying does work.

So I taken one of the drills apart and sawn off the handle part as it was quite large. Naturally I want the box it will be in to be as small as possible. Im not taking the motor out as I wish the speed to be adjustable and thought I may need the torque the gearing will give so I have left it all in the case. Plus the chuck will make it easy to attach the drive wheel.

I hot glued the bits and bobs on to some MDF and used banding to keep the drill in place. I positioned the the direction switch in a cradle and in a place so I can change the direction if required without going inside the box once done. The tripper is placed in place where a T nut and bolt will be able to adjust the speed from the outside again.

The drive wheel is just some Iroko that was once a spigot for a turning. I found it on the shelf so saved me turning something just for testing the idea.

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After the first test it was obvious the wood alone isn't going to turn the fishing wire so I placed some elastic bands around and it worked great. I put a weight on the line to see it will work when something is attached. It worked but the groove I quickly turned into the wheel wasn't able to keep the line on the wheel when the weight when around the wheel. I turned a bigger groove and it worked great.

Here is the video of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y59a2LlzOPY

I did plan to use larger diameter wheels but this test shown me to keep it stable I may need even bigger wheels.
 

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Well we had the party last night and it turned out a bit of a disaster prop wise.

Ran out of time so quite a few things never happened but what did get built had issues, both solenoids burnt out within a hour & bats moving worked for about 30mins before the spindle fell out. So the spiders falling on you as the door opened stopped working but got a couple of people, the figure that blow air at you as you stood on a pressure mat didn't get anyone as the kids burnt that out but the red eyes still worked with did freak a few, oh and one of the smoke machines didn't work and still don't yet powers up and get hot. Any how due to this no videos of the night but I taken some today after fixing a couple just to show. Next year I plan to use brought air valves instead of home made ones.

This video is of the Hunter that had the pressure mat. I didn't bother fixing the air valve so just the eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXVBRE6Dl60

This is of a bat that came down onto peoples heads or in there faces. Worked quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhB5rZXGWSg

This is of a bat flying around. This is the one I made from the shredder. No pictures of the WIP but have some if people wish to see the progress pics (let me know). This did have 3 bats on the wire but I taken 2 off after it broke so kids to play with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsPbjZ1ccao

The spiders over the door: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99dKK0hVHMA

Alice coming out of the coffin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu9oMjBkmnc

The swinging head minus its curtain. The curtain got wet in the rain over night.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyejtMofy9c
 
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