Grave Jumper Progress 2 (green skull)

The skull that is to be attached is a plastic skull painted flourescent green.  The teeth are painted with glow-in- the-dark paint.



I glued in two yellow rubber balls with caulking.  I had to use a saw to cut open the back and I could barely fit my hand inside.

I then put a threaded nipple from a lamp kit inside, then added two washers for extra weight.  On the top I added ringed finnial so I could use something to hold onto while adjusting the tightness of the nut on the bottom.  On the bottom I put another washer and then a nut.  I'm going to have to get a thread reducer and a coupling nut for the cylinder rod when I get a new cylinder.                                                                     

Grave Jumper Progress

I first encountered (what is known on the internet as) a "Grave Jumper" while riding The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in 1995.  What is a grave jumper?  It's basically a head or skull mounted on an air cylinder.  When air goes into the cylinder, the rod inside the cylinder is forced upwards very quickly.  Done right, it is a startling effect.
Some Grave Jumpers are very elaborate, but I'm making this one simple.  I think my only mistake so far is using an air pump as a cylinder.  It only went slow, and was leaking air.  This time I will get a proper cylinder, one that's made for exactly this application. 



This project was planned as early as 2004, and was started in August of 2010 when I finally got an air compressor.   Preliminary planning started in July of 2010 with the construction of a frame made from a 21 inch(53 1/2cm)  "2x"4 attached to a "12 x "12 (30cm x 30cm) plywood base with two screws.

                                                                    (Painted Black)

                                                          (With air pump attached)

A short time after the frame was built, I recieved a 3 way Solenoid valve from Frightprops.com in September of 2010.

     

The solenoid is a 1/4"port 3 way STC brand solenoid.

This model is 110 volt AC and can handle up to 115 PSI

A Work of Sound Design. (Scrooge and Marley)

This is an exercise in sound design. Some sounds can be used to create scenes in sound. Sound effect records do this if the record has a theme. (Example: 1964's Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House). That record was effective in telling stories using sounds that were layered. A five channel mixer can be used to achieve this. Or a computer program such as Wavepad can also be used. These kind of programs can be easy to use. In 2002, I decided to recreate the conversation between Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley using one microphone, a cup, a chain, and a metal toolbox full of wrenches. I am a fan of the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol" and try to impersonate Alastair Sim, but it seems to be very tongue in cheek. Last year I used a program to add a reverb to Jacob Marley's parts. Now the following is not to be taken seriously, but as a guide to the wonderful world of sound design.









(Note: I had tried several times to upload the audio to a mp3 flash player site. I had decided to make a movie, then upload it directly here. ) (( This book was published by Castle Books, sound editing was done on wavepad))

Light set

Have a light set you don't know what to do with? Have some scrap wood?
In 2008 I needed a better way to illuminate my nutcrackers, so I decided to come up with a solution. "Tack the lights I was using to some wood to get the lights to stand on end!!!"
For this you will need:
*Light set
*Scrap wood
*Wire staples
*Small hammer



If you have more than three lights, you will need one piece of wood for each light. And as for light sets you could use the standard C6 light sets or the strings of 3 to 5 lights that are used for those porcelain Christmas villages. I used a set of 3 lights that came from a lawn decoration.
If you have a long piece of scrap wood, you can use that instead of cutting small pieces. Now the scrap wood has to be a little bit longer than your light socket. (About 5" or 13cm)
Now you will need to place the socket in the center of the scrap wood and you will need two staples for each light. Place each staple about 2" or 5cm away from the socket and carefully tack it with a small hammer. Do the same for the other side of the socket. It will be time consuming, so don't rush or you could peirce the wire.

If you have some kind of reflector or small mirror, it will help make the lights brighter. I had some more wood that I cut into three pieces and painted red. I hope to paint a stenciled design on them someday.

Everything should be to your personal taste. If want to do something different; go ahead.

All lit up

What the picture doesn't show is the five different shades of yellow lights. It really is a sight to see live.

more pumpkin quintet

Not a how to, just a Halloween picture .  
The pumpkin quintet.  In 2008, I had the idea to make singing pumpkins as a side project.  They were inspired by the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.  These five were named after the singing busts in the graveyard jamboree scene at the end.
Their names are starting with the top titled one: Uncle Theodore
Row 2: the one with the left is Rollo Rumkin, the one on the right is Cousin Al.
Row 3: The one on the left with the goofy grin is Phineas Pock, the one on the right with the crescent shaped eyes is Ned Nub.