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