new ideas for halloween display

[foothead]

A simple motor run off a 9 volt battery with an offset weight.

Great idea! So much simpler than what I was thinking.

Maybe have one corpse completely wrapped in web wiggling around screaming :D

That's what I just said lol. I can't do the screaming though because it would disturb the neighbors.

 

[BK_123]

The pictures look wicked Foothead good work...

 

[jmacavali]

You could get a recording of screaming and only play it on trick or treat night when there are lots of people in the neighborhood.

 

[cboucher]

How about adding a Michael Jackson zombie? That would be tight...

 

[foothead]

The pictures look wicked Foothead good work...

Thanks!

You could get a recording of screaming and only play it on trick or treat night when there are lots of people in the neighborhood.

I just don't know about the screaming. If most of the display was animated, I'd completely agree, but it just wouldn't seem right if nothing is moving.

How about adding a Michael Jackson zombie? That would be tight...

LOL. Maybe if I can find a Michael Jackson zombie face somewhere.,

 

[cboucher]

You gotta get that red jacket with all the zippers, too.

 

[RHoptowit]

wow, i can remember way back when i use to get all excited to put up halloween decorations. i really miss the seasons, living in the tropics gets boring.

 

[foothead]

Okay, we are probably going to start construction tomorrow, but I need a little help with one idea. What we want to do is have the spider appear to be slowly wrapping Tim in web. I've figured out how to do the web and the mechanics, but finding an appropriate motor is proving tricky. It needs to be silent and move very slowly (4 RPM would be optimal) The only ideas I really have are an old ceiling fan and the motor out of a microwave. I don't have an old ceiling fan, and the motor I pulled out of an old microwave we had laying around seems awfully small, though I haven't tried it out yet. There wasn't anything at the local thrift shop either. Am I missing something obvious? Ideas?

 

[foothead]

Update: We are going to try the microwave motor geared down about 2:1 and see how that goes. If it doesn't work, we'll still have about a week to come up with something else.

Here's the rig as of now.

Here's the motor we're gonna use.

and here's some fake web. This is about how much we'll need.

The motor is going to have a small pulley mounted on it, which will drive an improvised belt (windshield wiper hose) to the larger pulley which we threaded and screwed onto the piece of threaded rod. The rod will be bent and there'll be one leg of the spider on each end (think crankshaft) with the body in the middle.

 

[foothead]

YAY! Finally got it working. Check out a video here.

Plans have changed a bit since my last update. I found an old rotisserie motor, so we ended up using that to spin the rod. It eliminated the need for any pulleys. The body is made out of fun noodles and expandable canned foam. It has a piece of conduit running through the middle, and is held in place by some lock nuts and washers. The plans for moving the spider legs have changed quite a bit as well, but that's too hard to explain right now.