ISSUE 40 : WORKSHOPSBuilding a Seance TableCharity Kee describes how-to-build, prop and decorate a ghostly seance table for your queue line or entry room entertainment. Please see Haunted Attraction Magazine Issue 40 for relevant illustrations and diagrams. The Kicking Guy AnimationCliff Martin offers a step-by-step description on how to build a "kicking" animation with an assorted number of haunted attraction uses. Please see Haunted Attraction Magazine Issue 40 for relevant illustrations and diagrams. Fog on the RocksThrough in-depth experimentation, Wil Schock has developed a fog chiller to efficiently create dense ground-huggin fog and shows us how to build it. Please see Haunted Attraction Magazine Issue 40 for relevant illustrations and diagrams.
Building a Séance TableBy Charity KeeImagine This Scene: You enter a room that seems normal, except for the large crystal ball on a table against one wall. A person, wrapped in silk scarves draped in beads, tells you to come close to the crystal ball and the medium asks you to place your hands on the table. Explaining that you are about to participate in a séance, the medium concentrates on the crystal ball and calls for the spirits to come and haunt this place. Suddenly the lights go out and everything changes. Pictures change into sinister visions, ghostly hand prints appear on the table, and the crystal ball fills with a green, swirling mist. The medium laughs and wishes you a safe journey through this now-haunted house. Whether they admit it or not, most people have a deep seated fear of ghosts and spirits. I know people who will not even allow an Ouija game board in their house, because it might open a doorway best left tightly closed. This fear can be beautifully exploited by staging a séance in your haunt. A séance scene can also make the perfect queue line entertainment. One actor can work the effects, summoning the "spirits" that haunt the rest of the experience, setting the stage for a great Haunted House. A séance can tie together an inconsistent theme or set of room designs. Since the ghosts your patrons encounter later were all just summoned by a medium, they do not necessarily have to fit a specific theme, local or even time frame. All you will need is a place to haunt - a house, building, warehouse, – and a bunch of freshly-channeled ghoulies. As line entertainment the séance will need to be inside a tent or small building some where along the queue. As the line flows through the room, the actor can perform the séances. A good improvisational actor can handle an uninterrupted audience – the actor can start and stop the show as needed. Or groups of patrons can be let in at a time for the séance, and then get another group. When you decorate the Séance Scene, it should appear normal– normal pictures on the walls, maybe some bookshelves. You will need a Séance Table (instructions below), and an actor in full costume. Gypsy/ palm reader costume is best, because your patrons will not come to the séance table if your actor is too scary! The Séance Table and crystal ball are easy props to make, and should be all you have to build for this scene.
Supplies
Step 1Completely fill the gazing ball with bleach water and set it aside for a few hours. The bleach water will eat off the silver paint inside the ball, leaving you with a clear "crystal ball." When the paint is gone, rinse it well and let it dry.
Step 2Drill a hole in the bottom of your decorative potted plant holder large enough to run a small strand of green lights and the end of the tube from the smoke machine.
Step 3 - The TableYou need a sturdy table, so wood is really best. It does not have to be fancy or look good, but it does need to be able to hold up to having your patrons put their hands on it repeatedly. Drill a hole in the center of the table where you will be putting the crystal ball. Put a small bead of silicone on the bottom of the decorative potted plant holder and put it on the table (do not forget to line up the holes!). Let dry. Staple the cloth all along the edge of the table (neatness counts). Make sure the cloth goes all the way to the floor, and that there are no sharp staples sticking out anywhere. Put the lights and the smoke machine in the plant holder, with the wires running under the table. Place the Séance Table against one of the side walls and provide room around it for your patrons to gather in close. Plug in two breaker bars and hide them under the Séance Table. Plug in the smoke machine and hide it under the table as well, making sure that the devise that activates the machine is in a secure place and easy to find by the actor. Hang up the black lights and regular lights, and run the cords to plug them in under the Séance Table. Run the wires across the ceiling and down the wall behind the table if possible, so they will not be a trip hazard. Disguise the wires. All of the regular lights should be plugged into one breaker bar (we will call it Breaker Bar A), and the black lights and strand of green lights should be plugged into the other breaker bar (Breaker Bar B). The smoke machine should be plugged up to your main power source, not into a breaker bar. Now for the magic: decorate the entire room with invisible UV reactive markers. These markers do not show up at all under normal light, but glow blue-white under black light. You can pick them up relatively cheap on the internet ($2.95 to $6.95 each from Terror by Design, for example, www.terrorbydesign.com). Light your room with the black lights, grab your markers and go crazy. Spruce up all of your pictures - draw a graveyard scene over a cute little pasture painting, give a portrait demon eyes and fangs. Do not leave anything unmodified. Trace your hands all along the edges of the table, and then completely fill in the prints with the UV marker. If you wish, you can even add a ghostly warning written on one of your walls, to appear when the black light is activated. The show will play out like this: The actor, seated behind the table, tells the group of patrons to gather around the crystal ball and place their hands, palms down, on the table in front of them. The actor then goes into his act of concentrating on the crystal ball and summoning ghosts. After a moment, he steps on Breaker Bar A’s button to turn off the regular lights. In the dark he triggers a burst of smoke from the smoke machine, which goes into the crystal ball. The actor then steps on Breaker Bar B’s switch to turn on the black lights and strand of green lights, which makes the smoke in the ball glow green. If you are using the Séance Scene as a room in your house, now would be the time to have actors appear to scare your patrons. If it is line entertainment, the actor can just let the group of patrons out to finish waiting to get in your Haunted House. They will be in a perfectly freaked-out state of mind to enjoy the rest of your show. Have the actor take the gazing ball off the stand and gently blow across the opening to release the pent up smoke before letting in the next patrons. They will need to point the opening away from their face as they do this, so the smoke will not blow right back into their face. Play with the setting, props, etc, to make the Séance Scene perfect for your haunt. The possibilities are limitless and the price low. Have fun!
Charity Kee is a freelance writer who worked with Salem’s Haunted Acre in Salem, Alabama for more than 13 years, until it shut its doors in 2002. She is a member of IAHA and can be reached at charity_l_c@yahoo.com.
The Kicking GuyBy Cliff MartinFor October 2002, I needed a thrashing body suspended overhead for a room design in my Haunted Attraction Hacker House . Not a "hanged" figure, but a person hanging from a rope tied around its chest and under its arms. (Sorry, the rope is not on the photos!) I built the prop frame out of PVC pipe and used a small air cylinder to make it thrash as if trying to get out of its bonds. The finished body only weighs five pounds, mostly from the clothes, and it quite sturdy. I like using PVC. It is easy to obtain, easy to cut to size, easy to assemble, comes with all manor of shapes and sizes and is cheap. However, PVC can be brittle and proper care should be taken so that the movement is not so violent as to shatter the plastic pipe. The description that follows is a suggested way to create this prop. There is no one right way to build anything for Halloween. So feel free to experiment. If it works, but does not come out exactly like you wanted it to, remember my motto, "Course it ain't perfect, it’s a haunted house!"
The FrameUses different sizes of “Schedule 40” or thicker PVC pipe. Just pick the “thick pipe” at the store, construct the frame of the animation as per the diagram. PVC comes in 10’ lengths.
PVC Pipe for This Project (you will have some left over)
PVC Fittings Needed:
Also you’ll need:
Suggested Tools:
Follow the diagram for the construction of the body, cutting the pipe to proper length and assembling it with the fittings. Cut all the pieces and test fit them together to be sure everything goes together before gluing. Once glued, it does not come apart! Hint: When building a new prop, I test fit everything. Then when it all looks right, I drill small holes into the fittings and through the pipe and insert a drywall screw to hold it together. This gives lots of flexibility just in case something needs to be taken apart again. I have several props that only have screws holding them together and have worked well for several years.
The HipsThe hip pivot is built by sliding a single piece of 3/4" pipe inside the 1" tee fitting. This 10" piece attaches to the frame legs with 2 – 90 degree elbows. A 1"x 3" spacer is cut to length and slid over the 3/4" pipe into the tee on both sides. This keeps the legs from moving side to side. You may need to adjust the length of the spacers to get the best fit. With the 3/4" pipe and fittings connected firmly together, the tee should pivot smoothly. The arms of the prop are made from a child’s foam play tube used when swimming. Cut four 11" pieces and drill or poke a small hole about 1"- 2" from each end. Drill a corresponding hole in the 1" PVC shoulder piece and run a zip tie through the PVC, then through the pool tube. Leave lots of slack to allow the arms to move. Make the elbow connection the same way by drilling or poking a small hole 1"- 2" from the ends, then inserting a zip tie to hold them together, leaving lots of slack.
The LegsThe lower legs of this prop will be free to swing, so the knee joints need to operate similar to real knees, or it looks too corny. (Trust me!) So there has to be a special joint assembly that works like a real knee. The solution I came up with was to cut two 14" long pieces of 3/4" PVC for the upper legs, and cut a notch in the pipe about 2" long (see photos). Cut two 17" pieces of 1/2" PVC for the lower legs and drill holes as shown in the photos. With a zip tie, attach the upper and lower leg as shown per the diagram. This attachment lets the lower leg move freely backward, but keeps it from swinging forward like a real knee does. Attach the upper leg to the 90 degree elbow at the hip. Cut two 6" pieces of 1/2" PVC and attach to the lower leg using a 90 degree elbow on the end of one leg and a 45 degree elbow on the other leg to act as supports for the shoes.
The AnimationThe pneumatic cylinder needs to be attached solidly to the PVC frame. There are several ways to do this, and please feel free to try another way if you think it will be easier. If you don't know how to weld, or know someone who does, you can find welding shops most anywhere that would make the brackets for you for a nominal fee. To make brackets for the air cylinder connections, weld the steel angle iron to the steel plate as shown in the diagrams. A local welding shop can fabricate these brackets quickly and inexpensively - and their welding will look much better than mine did! If you purchase your cylinder for this project, don't forget to order the clevis bracket pieces that go with it. It saves lots of time! The clevis brackets for the base of this cylinder were purchased from a local hydraulic supply store; I took the air cylinder with me and ask for parts that fit it. The angle steel pieces are attached to the PVC with U-bolts to the "spine" of the prop and the lower hip brace between the legs. No drilling is necessary. (See Photo) With this mounting solution the upper bracket can slide up and down several inches to accommodate the size of the cylinder you are using. Adjust the brackets and move the legs up and down to test the movement of the cylinder. Once you're satisfied with the movement, tighten down the brackets. The idea is to make the hips jump up a few inches, then jump back quickly. This will make the entire body flail about realistically (and disturbingly!) The lower legs will move independently from each other, and the suspended body will rock about in a most unnerving manner. At this point you can go ahead and connect up the air cylinder to the solenoid and test the action manually to be sure the frame works the way it is intended. The frame itself is very light at this point, so even a small actuation is very, very fast! Set the regulator for a very low pressure and work your way up to a higher pressure. Connect the air cylinder, solenoid and timer as shown in the diagram. There are dozens of styles of solenoids, timers, and triggers - each combination affecting the details of connections. So without supplying specific parts which may be expensive or hard to obtain, it is nearly impossible to describe these details. Again, feel free to adapt the design to the parts you're using. To make the animation kick, you can use a pushbutton to manually activate the cylinder, or to make it kick repeatedly, use a repeating (or cycle) timer. I used a repeating timer set to a 1/2 second cycle (1/4 sec on, 1/4 sec off), this seems to give the best motion for my use. Any repeating timer will work. Experiment with the cycle to get the best motion. You can use infrared sensors, pushbuttons, or step pads to trigger the kicker; whichever best suites your use. I buy pneumatic parts from Ebay , McMaster Carr , C & H , Surplus Center , junkyards, and my local hydraulic supply. When I start a project, I see what I have, and to some extent, build around the parts I've got! If you're not sure about air fittings, look in your yellow pages and find a local hydraulic supply. I have a great relationship with a small local supply shop. They are happy to answer my dumb questions and help me find the right combination of parts to hook up most anything I've brought in. I'm sure there is one like this near you. What little I've learned about pneumatics has been by trial and error, and just trying to make it work. You can do it! Remember "Safety First!" when working with air; always start testing with very, very low pressure, and then work up to normal operating pressure. For a first attempt, start with 10 PSI, and then work up in 10 PSI increments. Starting with low pressure lets you find and fix the air leaks and loose parts before slamming 60-100 PSI to the mechanics, potentially causing the mechanism to fly apart and harm yourself or others.
The BodyTo form the body, I attached a 34" long piece of steel rod to the front of the upper bracket. This created a waist line and helped define the upper body shape. Note: When working with wire mesh, be sure to wear gloves! Cut a 2" hole in the center of the piece of wire mesh, and fold it over the body (see photo). Use zip ties to attach the wire mesh together at the sides and bottom. Bend and adjust the wire until it resembles a body shape. Pad the legs to give them some thickness and add realism. Using carpet padding or bubble wrap sheets, shape the upper and lower legs. Use duct tape to secure the padding to the PVC leg pieces. Be sure to leave lots of room around the knees so the padding doesn't interfere or get caught in the knee joint. Don’t forget to pad the buttocks area, too.
ClothesDress the animation using old clothes from a yard sale. Secure the pants using zip ties looped through the belt loops and through the wire mesh like suspenders. NOTE: do not attach the pants directly in the front. You'll need access to the inside to work on the moving parts. It makes it much easier if you can open the front of the pants to get in. (no jokes, please!) The solenoid and fittings are held into place in the body with zip ties. (This photo was taken during my test run. The finished body will use 3/8" black nylon tubing to supply air to the solenoid.) Attach the Styrofoam wig head to the 1/2" pipe. You will need to push the head onto the pipe to make a very secure fit. Fit the reducing coupling into the neck, and fit the 8" piece of 1/2 PVC to make the neck joint. You may want to add a little padding around the head to make it a bit larger and more realistic. Cover the head with whatever cloth you might have lying around and secure it around the neck with a leather belt (I used an old towel). Attach hands to the PVC arms with zip ties, (of course!). Using 2" screws, I secured the shoes through the heels and into the back of the 1/2" elbow fittings on each foot. Then using zip ties, I tied the bottom of the pants leg to the tops of the shoes to keep the PVC hidden. For the final touch, distress the clothes by staining them with watered down paint. This adds some realism and "funkiness" to the prop, after all, this kicker guy has been hanging around for a long, long time! Once the clothes are distressed, you can tie the rope around the chest for hanging. There are several ways to do this, just be sure that the rope does not synch up and crush the chest from the weight of the prop. The finished body is quite realistic in its movement. The body shown here has been flailing for three seasons at the Hacker House in almost continuous use over the run of the show. The only problem it has is the zip tie holding the knee joint together. Eventually wears out, but is easy repair. I have four of these props still in service. The kicker action is very flexible and can be used for a kicking guy hanging or suspended overhead, standing tied to tree, sitting tied to a chair, and lying down tied up on the ground. I've used all of these positions with great success.
Cliff Martin is the mastermind behind Hacker House in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, and is one of the two brains behind the 2 Scary Guys web site. Check it out at www.scaryguys.com
Fog on the RocksBy Wil SchockA few years back I was looking for the kind of fog that comes rolling from the darkness, creeping out around the headstones in my graveyard scene. I wanted to add some creep to it, straight out of an episode of Dark Shadows , but how to achieve this low lying fog. Fog produced by a commercial fog machine comes out hot, and tends to rise. Dry ice fog is inherently cold and has the ground hugging look that I wanted, but the volume of fog produced is small compared to a fluid-fog machine. I also did not savor the idea of baby-sitting dry ice every night trying to keep it melting. Not to mention the added inconvenience of buying and especially storing dry ice so it doesn't trick my freezer into thinking it should stop running, destroying all the food inside. The only other option available at the time was to combine the two; a fluid-fog machine and a fog chiller. Unfortunately, most fog chillers use dry ice to cool the commercial fog, and my thoughts were "Why go to all the effort to run a fog machine and still have to buy dry ice to make it work?" I started searching for a fog chiller design that used water based cube ice and was still effective in the cool temperatures we usually have in California in October. I needed the chiller to not only chill the fog so it was genuinely cold, but to move the fog over some distance to get the noisy fog machine and the bulky chiller far away from the scene. When I began this journey to the cold-fog promise land in early 1997, there were very few sources to go to for information about fog chillers. I searched and prototyped several different chilling systems over a number of years. On the internet I found a couple of chillers that used ice cubes in the bottom of an ice chest or cooler. This really did little in the way of cooling the large amount of fog that emits from a fluid fogger of any size, and nothing for the professional foggers that I was using. These many experiments took me though all sorts of containers and fans. One promising prototype was what I called an Ice Vac, was set up to draw fog up from the bottom of the vacuum canister, through the ice inside and then out the exhaust port. Of the different methods I tried, this did work the best. However, each of these fan driven experiments produced a thin, hazy fog that was sort of cooled, but neither cold nor thick enough. The fan was chopping up the fog turning it back in to fluid. I also found that pushing fog through corrugated hose such as vacuum hose or dryer hose tended to thin out the fog. After many tests and prototypes I finally stumbled across the one thing that had been missing, keeping me from getting the fog cold enough to ground hug for any length of time. In the summer of 2001, still working on prototypes, I had decided that the fog needed a rather large open space inside the chiller to work as a collecting chamber that would trap the fog just long enough to force it to finish the expantion process. I theorized that this expansion chamber could be used to harness the natural energy created by the juice turning into fog, and that the same energy could then be used to propel the fog as well. An exhaust port of the proper size created the needed backpressure to cool the fog in a forced chilling process, pushing it though every crack and air pocket in the ice. The prototype results were amazing! The entire bottom third of a medium sized cooler was completely open and free of obstacles, so the fog expanding to its final size could move through the chiller without becoming a mist. Pushing the fog through the ice canopy above, made it so cold that it would lie on the ground far longer than any previous chillers I had experimented with. The fog pushed out the exhaust duct by itself with no fans of any kind and out into the scene with more viscosity than the fog machine produced on its own! The background image seen here, is from a test conducted recently in December of 2004 during an unusual cold snap and shows just how well the new chiller performed. Even with a slight wind, the "Fog On The Rocks" chiller proved effective using everyday cube ice at zero degrees Celsius. No other cube ice chiller so far had been able to duplicate this effect in freezing temperatures, which is the most arduous condition to function in. With smooth walled ducting pipe this chiller can move fog in perfect, undiminished condition and ice cold for up to 50 feet or more. Check out these tests and more at www.DeathLord.Net.
PARTS LISTLocal prices for all parts needed without fogger runs approximately $73 plus local tax.
I recommend reading this how-to before making your shopping run. You can budget approximately 2 hours for the completion of this project.
Now We Begin To Build!As indicated in the shopping list, we will be using a Coleman 48 quart cooler as shown here. This is the most affordable of this sized cooler I found in my area. Any brand that is close to this size will work, however you will need to determine your own material cuts and dimensions of the ice tray.
The PortsI determined how high to cut the inlet and exhaust for the chiller by how high the water can rise inside the cooler/ice chest before exiting out the drain plug. If the new ports are lower than the drain, then the melted ice will blow out the port making a watery mess on the floor. (Don't ask me how I know this to be fact!) With this particular cooler, the bottoms of the ports need to be at least 3 3 ⁄ 4 " off of the floor. The first hole cut in the cooler will be the exhaust. Using a 2 3 ⁄ 8 " hole saw make your cut 3 1 ⁄ 4 " from the left side edge of the cooler. You want to use the end of the cooler with the drain plug for the exhaust. Be sure to keep the drill perpendicular with the surface of the cooler, which is on a slight angle. This will yield a perfect fit to the 2" ABS pipe and direct the duct slightly downward toward the floor, which is ideal for both the connection to the fog machine and the exhaust. In the opposite end of the cooler from the drain plug, drill a hole for the intake port in the center of the cooler also about 3 ⁄ 4 " off the floor. For both the exhaust and intake ports, slide a 2 1 ⁄ 2 " section of 2" ABS pipe through the cooler wall and glue it into a Female Slip/Female Slip coupler on the inside of the cooler. Lay a bead of clear silicone on the pipe between the cooler wall and the slip fitting before pushing the fitting tight against the surface to seal the fitting off. On the outside of the cooler slide a 2" Female Slip/Female Threaded ABS fitting onto the other end of the ABS pipe. Glue the fitting with PVC pipe glue and press the fitting and pipe together. Run a bead of silicone between this fitting and the outside of the cooler, and waterproof the joint between the ABS pipe and the cooler wall with the same clear silicone. Clean off any excess silicone with a rag and make sure there is a continuous bead around both fittings. The silicone we are using goes on white but it will dry completely clear, and makes a very solid and water tight port. The inlet port and exhaust port are deliberately placed at right angles to each other so that the fog cannot rush straight through the chiller without being forced into the ice cubes that will be suspended above. In prototype tests I found that if the exit was directly across the cooler on the other end, the fog would blow right out before expanding fully and before chilling. Since this system relies on the power from the expanding fog as the vehicle that both super-chills and pushes the fog through the exhaust duct and out to the scene, the lid on the cooler must be clamped down and sealed off. Otherwise, the fog will blow the lid open while expanding and escape. Using the tip of a very small drill bit, pre drill a hole through the cooler's lid on the edge next to the finger-pull opening and screw directly into the plastic the top section of the 1" latch. The lower section should be installed only after the weather stripping has been applied so you can be certain that you have a firm fit when latched. Prepare the plastic around the opening of the cooler to accept the self adhesive on the weather stripping used to seal off the lid. I find that PVC primer works the best to etch the plastic so the strip sticks well. Use 17 ⁄ 64 " extreme temperature weather strip that will hold up under the ice and the heat blasts our new chiller will be subjected to. Keep to the inside edge of the top of the cooler's opening with the seal and carefully work your way through the corners so there are no overlapping areas that will want to pull away from the plastic. Press firmly to set the stripping and as soon as you have it all in place close the lid and weight it down. Now set the bottom section of the latch while pressing down firmly on the lid. You don't have a second chance to get the placement of this half of the latch in the precise spot, so be certain where you drill your pilot holes. Let the chiller sit for a while so the adhesive can fully set. Meanwhile you can move on to the next section of the project.
The Ice TrayFor this particular brand and model of cooler, you will need to cut these lengths of 1 ⁄ 2 " PVC pipe to construct an ice tray that will fit perfectly in the cooler. 1 ⁄ 2 " PVC PIPE CUT LIST
We will be constructing the ice tray out of 1 ⁄ 2 " PVC pipe and heavy duty hardware cloth. Here you can see what the basic layout will be for the tray's frame. I have each piece denoted to make this simple to follow. The best way to cut the pipe is with those handy cutters available at the home improvement stores. They are made specially to do the job with a quick snip. Assemble the PVC pieces making sure the leg T fittings (B) are at a right angle to the tray. The legs of this tray are all 3 3 ⁄ 4 " away from each corner to allow the tray to fit inside the cooler and clear the exhaust port. Use #8 pan-head screws or pipe cement to assemble the PVC pieces. Make sure it fits in the cooler before gluing. Cut a 7 1 ⁄ 2 " x 18 1 ⁄ 2 " piece of heavy hardware cloth ( 1 ⁄ 2 " holes) as seen here. I don't recommend chicken wire for this as the holes are typically too large and would allow our ice cubes to fall through into the expansion chamber. Clean up the edges of the cloth and use heavy zip ties to attach it to the frame. Pull them up nice and tight with the connections on the bottom side of the ice tray. This is a very sturdy tray that will easily support the weight of as much ice as can fit inside the cooler.
Inlet AssemblyCut two sections of 2" ABS pipe to 2" long and cement them to each end of a 2" ABS "Y" fitting. A male thread/slip fitting is cemented to the pipe that is opposite the end of the Y of the fitting. This will thread onto the female threaded inlet fitting on the end of the chiller. The other end will slip fit to the front of the fog machine. This assembly allows a venturi supercharger to assist the fog to fully expand before reaching the expansion chamber. The inertia of the initial blast of fog traveling the opposite direction of the part of this fitting left open, causes the fog to exit the exhaust port and out to your scene, not out of the Y fitting. Attach one Male Threaded Slip fitting to one end of a 12" section of 2" ABS pipe to form the exhaust. This system will easily push the fog down very long distances in full, thick viscosity when employing smooth walled duct, such as ABS pipe. Note: Any sort of uneven surface that the fog has to pass over through ducting pipe will create turbulence. And one thing I have learned from countless experiments in controlled environments is that turbulence is the number one enemy of fog. The best way to duct fog to a location of any distance away and hope to have the same fullness you did at the front of the fogger is to use smooth wall duct with gentle curves if any. Avoid 90 degree bends by using two 45 degree fittings spaced a foot or so apart.
Preparing the Fog MachineFor the best results, the connection from the fog machine to the cooler needs to be solid, keeping the fogger perfectly aligned to the inlet assembly even if bumped. Your fog does much better traveling through the chiller than blowing against the side of it! Using 3 ⁄ 8 " x #8 pan head screws and three 1" x 1" L brackets, attach a 2" Female ABS Slip fitting to the face of the fog machine. Note: The point where the fog comes out of a fog machine gets very hot. Every caution must be taken to make sure that nothing touches the nozzle or gets directly in the way of the fog stream. The fog machine shown here has tiny screw heads right where the fitting hits the plate, so I notched the fitting to allow it to clear. I also angled the fitting slightly upward to match the angle of the side of our cooler when mounted. Be sure to check your angle against the angle of the inlet port itself before you secure this to your fogger. Before driving the screws into the face plate of the fog machine, make sure that the tips of these screws will not do any damage to the inner workings of the machine.
Low FogAssemble the chiller by attaching the exhaust to either port and the intake duct to the other. Attach a 1 ⁄ 2 " drain hose to the drain plug of the cooler to handle the melting ice as well as the fog fluid that doesn't make the transformation into gas. Run the hose to an appropriate location. Note: To eliminate this unspent fluid, avoid using a cheap fog machine and invest a bit more money into a professional machine that employs a computer chip to precisely regulate the heat to burn the fluid completely and use a commercial grade low lying fog fluid! Set the ice frame in the cooler and fill the cooler the rest of the way up with ice. Check to make sure there is fog fluid in the reservoir and plug in the fog machine to let it heat up. Once the machine is warmed up, check to make sure the nozzle is not overheating the fitting at the fog machine faceplate and you are ready for the first test. With a few dollars and some ingenuity, you too can have that creepy, low lying fog for your graveyard or cemetery. And did I mention that the entire system including the fog machine fits neatly inside the cooler for storage? And by inserting threaded end caps into the inlet and exhaust ports, you will keep your chiller free from unwelcome visitors during the off season, like mice and spiders.
Wil Schock is an avid haunt enthusiast and the organizer for California's largest Haunter gathering, Haunt X, at www.deathfest.net. He can be reached at wil@deathlord.net or buy phone at 805-9377271. Check out his project web site at www.deathlord.net. |