2012- Day 9

Vortex with fabric installed

Exit hall framed out

Steps going into the vortex- finally!

Another welcomed addition this year was a set of steps going into and coming out of the vortex. This also added stability to the bridge. The exit hallway was framed. Overall I think we're doing well at the finish here. The exit hall should be finished in the next day or 2 and we should be able to start on the entrance door. I anticipate many hours to test everything.

2012-Day 14- Vortex reloaded!

The vortex frame was powered up today.No problems. The rotation rate is about the same. 6-7 rpm. This seems to be a good rate. Not too fast and not too slow. The last items will be the fabric, lighting and this year hopefully a real set of stairs entering and leaving. We'll see what happens. Only 2 weeks to go! I know it's the same every year now for 3 years but it's always a great feeling when we get to this point and know it's going to work again. Let's face it ghouls, the vortex is what everyone is waiting for!

2012-Day 16- Rolling update

Vortex bridge reassembled!

Chandelier nearly complete. One arm needs to be reattached.

The vortex bridge assembly was completed yesterday. I had a friend come over to help and we finished it in just over an hour! No significant degradation yet of the wood components now in the 3rd year of use. Next we will test the motor and put the fabric up. So actually the vortex is right now a little ahead of schedule. The rest of the haunt is getting there but I think we're a couple days behind. The chandelier is about 90% done but we had a glitch with one of the arms coming off after the glue failed (see image above). The problem is the inner pvc is also glued and when you screw the arm into it, it might actually increase the stresses on the glue. So far 5 out of 6 arms look fine. We do have a 'plan B' which is to use wooden dowels instead of pvc which can be screwed into the base rather than glued.

2012- Day 19 Hoops done!

Attaching arms to the base. You can drill an extra hole in the base to run the wires through.

All 3 hoops reassembled!

It took 3 days to get the vortex hoops back up. Not too bad. We have the system down pretty well by now. Last thing will be the bridge and of course testing with the motor. Be careful though with the windy weather. We left one side of the canopy open to make the hoop assembly easier but this allows wind to get in there and potentially lift the other side of the canopy like a sail. That did happen with one significant gust! Meanwhile progress continues on the chandelier. A couple of arms are seen here attached to the base. I glued the arms to the base with some loctite cement and also used 1 or 2 screws per arm which allow for extra fixation into the pvc inner tubes.

2012- Day 23- The Vortex returns!

Vortex under construction. This will be its third year in operation!

Roof of the canopy assembled. Notice the black duct tape reinforcing the connections. This is a must if you are going to use a structure like this!

For the 3rd year now we start the vortex build right around Columbus Day! So here we go. We always start with the canopy. Actually I should say "I" always start with the canopy. I have by now perfected the one man assembly process, although I did get some help getting some of the materials out, particularly the wheel carriages! One thing that really helped was duct taping the connections on the canopy segments. They are pretty light weight but have proven very durable for this weather.After all it did survive the ' nightmare before Christmas' last halloween! Remember the 'feet' of the canopy were extended with additional pvc pipe to increase the height a couple of feet. Please refer to the 'spinning tunnel' page on the right for all of the vortex details.  The first year I had to spend a lot of time reconnecting a couple of the roof segments that kept sliding apart. The tape has solved that problem. Today I put together almost 2 of the hoops. It's supposed to be dry most of this week here so it should be done by week's end.

Day 14- Vortex sucessfully rebooted!

Just like that. We hooked up the motor and turned it on. We had to manually push it for a few minutes just like last year to 'get it cranked up' but it didn't take long. I had to increase the tension slightly on the belt by moving it about 1/2" further away from last year's spot. We did get the bridge assembled and positioned minus the handrails.

Day 19- Elevator facade gets some brains!

I think it was last year that some good friends of ours got me this halloween gift for my birthday. It was a prop human brain packaged similar to hamburger meat you buy in the grocery store! At that time I really had no use for it in the haunt since it was a totally different deal than this year. Way too dark to see any props of any kind. Well this year I found a place for it! I removed it from the packaging and as you can see here, bolted it to the elevator facade top where it has found a home as the 'pointer' for the individual floors: 'F' for foyer, 'M' for morgue and of course, the crypt (alias map room). Now there is some kind of gooey red stuff they put on the prop to make it more realistic I suppose. What happened was that in the process of placing a bolt through the brain center, I squeezed out some of the red liquid which then dripped onto the skull elevator door knobs creating a serendipitous bloody skull! Amazing! You just never know what can happen during the haunting process!

Meanwhile I did manage to get all the vortex hoops assembled and ready to go just in time before the next low pressure system moved in with rain. We plan to connect the motor and set up the bridge on the weekend. So it took probably about 8 hours in 2 days to assemble and connect the hoops and put up the canopy. Not too bad!

Day 20- Vortex reassembly begins!

I forgot how big this thing was! We got the canopy up pretty fast. This time we duct taped all the roof connections. That helped tremendously raising it up. This year I am going to try using segments of 2x4's routed out in the centers for the canopy legs.If you look carefully you can see one of them on the right. Last year we struggled with the legs constantly slipping out of the oversized rubber 'feet'. The legs were extended with 1 1/4" PVC piping to get the canopy up high enough for the hoops. It's a 10 x 20 foot which isn't quite tall enough without the extension. Please refer to the 'spinning tunnel that you walk through' page for additional details if you need to. We got 2 of the hoops connected as you can see! We're going to see how reproducible this system is after a year of storage! The reassembly is not too bad. We were able to store larger portions of hoops so we didn't need to start with single pieces. That saved some time. The biggest hassle are those T-nuts that sit inside the 2x8 connectors. Several of them fell out and had to be put back in. It took some work to get the bolts to thread properly.