Haunted Spider

There are two buttons which operate each solenoid separately. The air cannon releases compressed air with the solenoid when the button is pushed. When you release the button, it closes the valve (solenoid) and the air refills in the chamber to shoot again. The cylinder pushes up the mouse trap arm. It is run on a separate solenoid. When you push the button the air goes in. When you let off the button the air comes back down the airline out of the cylinder and through the exit port on the solenoid making the cylinder come back down. This cylinder has a stout spring inside so it comes down quickly.My advice. Don't use pvc. When starting out making my first haunt props years ago I did and it kind of worked but was dangerous and not designed to work over and over. Spring door cylinders are ...

There are two buttons which operate each solenoid separately. The air cannon releases compressed air with the solenoid when the button is pushed. When you release the button, it closes the valve (solenoid) and the air refills in the chamber to shoot again. The cylinder pushes up the mouse trap arm. It is run on a separate solenoid. When you push the button the air goes in. When you let off the button the air comes back down the airline out of the cylinder and through the exit port on the solenoid making the cylinder come back down. This cylinder has a stout spring inside so it comes down quickly.My advice. Don't use pvc. When starting out making my first haunt props years ago I did and it kind of worked but was dangerous and not designed to work over and over. Spring door cylinders are not good either. They are not designed for air pressure, just normal atmospher psi. A cylinder can be purchased pretty cheap and will work for years. Do it right and buy one. You can get them a ton of places. The cyclinder on the mousetrap was from ebay for less than 10 dollars. You can buy them from haunt suppliers or wherever you want. Just don't go cheap and try to make one, it just isn't worth it.

I have two actually. I bought one and I inherited my Grandfathers. Just one set of add ons though. I got rid of the old greenies and kept the stuff 30 years newer, but it is nice to have two powerstocks to work with.

The idea of making some move is fun but in this case we wanted a maze you could not get lost or turned around in as it was for little ones. I have created moving panels in the past for dark mazes in a haunted house. That makes it fun for adults for sure.

Thanks, It was nice indeed that the city wanted to put on a fun event. 500 volunteer hours to create and put it on. No city overtime, just a couple of police day of. That helped keep cost down and let us put on the event. Here is to hoping they do it again next year as promised.

Tedious indeed. I haven't tied a knot in 2 weeks and my left pointer finger is still numb half the day. My nerves decided they didn't want to play anymore. I think we had a total of about 200 hours in creating the maze start to finish.

Thanks for the advice on the bed armor. I will have to try that out. The black paint has held up fairly well so far. As for an update, both my son (now almost 5) and my daughter (2.5) play in the space all the time. The picture attached is of my son discovering the tunnel/ cave. He had a hardhat on and lantern to check out the new area. I sat inside and filmed it in the dark until he got to the light and turned it on to see his face. He knew I was in there so he wasn't scared, plus he had his trusty lantern. He loves the space and continues to play in it.

I am glad you liked it. My kid enjoyed it as well, although he did choose to be Optimus Prime for Halloween Trick or Treat. I can't really blame him though. Who wouldn't want to be a transforming robot who leads of team of Autobots.

Me making this is like the amateur painters trying to follow along with Bob Ross and his happy little trees and bushes he painted. It would end up looking like an uneven childs birthday cake and likely smashed with a rolling pin an hour in due to frustration. On that note your ability to create a spectacular cake is just amazing. I wish I had that talent. I will use the cocoa powder vodka trick someday though. Nice touch for aging the chocolate.

haha. I want 8 foot speakers. The batmobile itself doesn't have sound but my display did. I had 5 surround sound speakers across the front half of the display. I could drown out almost anything around if I wanted to. When I played the LEGO Batman movie on the projection screen each night, you could hear it from 3 rows of campsites away.

I guess that depends on your perspective. My iphone cost around 800 dollars and the new iphoneX is over a grand. Most people spend 2500 on coffee at shops each year ( I don't drink coffee). I set a limit of $1000 per Halloween as it is my hobby that I like. It may be out of some price ranges but well under others. Even though the price doesn't fit well for you, I hope you still liked it. I was very happy with the results and actually thought I did pretty well at keeping the cost down.

It would be possible but tough to do. The wheels are not on a continuous axle. The way the model is built, the axle has to be split as the wheels stick out in front and rotate up and down and left to right. It is a cool design but not very functional in the real world. As well, I don't have welding in my wheelhouse and do not own a golf cart. Although I agree it would be cool if it did drive.

Your minifig was likely way more accurate than mine. I tried to get a close as I could to the original characters and some aspects were easier but it also doesn't move in the end. I position the arms and legs where I want them to go and they stay after that, until they fall off my son's dresser then I get to choose again when I re-glue them. I will likely make one from your instructable at some point just to have a movable character.

Cost breakdown best guessTires 120, Foam - craigslist 150, paint 100, wood 40, LEDs 80, glues - 30, PVC 40, lego set to build from 50 and other random probably 50 ish so likely $600 to $700 total would be my guess, not including fog machine/fan/solution. The actual build started Aug 18 and ended September 25th. Way too many hours during that time and supply gathering over the last 6 months.

I may have to think about that. I could likely lay out some instructions on those pretty easily.

Me too :)

Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed the ible.

I am currently building a large styrofoam build. I think you will find if you build in the future with foam that bamboo skewers are the way to go to secure foam. They work better than screws, are easier to hide as you just cut to length and push them into place, and they don't require a drill to install. Plus I can put a skewer through 8 inches of foam if needed. The build came out great. You are right on the PL300 or loctite foam board glue. They work well but take forever to dry. If you need a piece to dry in a hurry, use the pro version of great stuff foam. It dried in minutes, minimally expands, and makes a super strong fast joint better than the glue. Just keep pressure on it for 10 minutes while it dries and go light with it so it doesn't try to push out. Again, the pro version no...

I am currently building a large styrofoam build. I think you will find if you build in the future with foam that bamboo skewers are the way to go to secure foam. They work better than screws, are easier to hide as you just cut to length and push them into place, and they don't require a drill to install. Plus I can put a skewer through 8 inches of foam if needed. The build came out great. You are right on the PL300 or loctite foam board glue. They work well but take forever to dry. If you need a piece to dry in a hurry, use the pro version of great stuff foam. It dried in minutes, minimally expands, and makes a super strong fast joint better than the glue. Just keep pressure on it for 10 minutes while it dries and go light with it so it doesn't try to push out. Again, the pro version not the regular stuff. There is a huge difference.

Good luck on building the harness. I found out my son wanted input on which side his tool pocket went vs hammer. He is specific to mirror how Bob uses his tools. You're child may be the same, so maybe ask :)

Thanks for the tip. I had put it in the props contest but although I would say it is a prop, it isn't by the contest definition. So I just changed it to the decor contest. Thanks for the tip and glad you like the scare.

Hello Dave, Nice to meet you as well. Have fun with the project this winter. If you need help, feel free to message me and I can try to give you a hand the best I can.

The chicken run looks very nice. I think you will find that the area given to the chickens, although larger than the recommended, will start to smell putrid in a hurry. Chickens are good diggers but they only dig when there is something to find. After a short while they learn that the dirt no longer holds any value as a food source for bugs and grubs. They quickly matte it down and trample in poop which becomes foul in a hurry. The solution is to put down concrete sand, not playsand. The concrete sand makes a giant litter box basically. The chickens can't matte it down and will continue to dig small nests to rest in during the day. As it doesn't matte, they will also scratch and play. Another benefit is it also helps with their ability to eat as they eat small stones for digestion and t...

The chicken run looks very nice. I think you will find that the area given to the chickens, although larger than the recommended, will start to smell putrid in a hurry. Chickens are good diggers but they only dig when there is something to find. After a short while they learn that the dirt no longer holds any value as a food source for bugs and grubs. They quickly matte it down and trample in poop which becomes foul in a hurry. The solution is to put down concrete sand, not playsand. The concrete sand makes a giant litter box basically. The chickens can't matte it down and will continue to dig small nests to rest in during the day. As it doesn't matte, they will also scratch and play. Another benefit is it also helps with their ability to eat as they eat small stones for digestion and this provides plenty to choose from. In my run, I use an 89 cent cat litter scoop to pick up anything on the surface every week or two. 3 months running and no smell at all, with the coop 8 feet from my house with 5 chickens. My neighbors 3 houses down have the coop 50 feet from their house on a dirt floor run and they can smell it all day and night. The concrete sand really does work wonders.