2012- Day 6- Storm threatens the show for second straight year!!

Major storm approaches from lower right heading north

I'm hoping this is just a bad dream Ghouls. The forecast grows worse every day. I suppose the only potential good news is the worst is expected for Mon-Tues which means there is an outside chance it will be improved by Wed. If the town does not call off Halloween obviously we will still run it. If there isn't much wind by Wed we might still be able to run the vortex. I really can't believe this is happening for the second straight year. Might have to rethink this whole operation if it gets scrapped again due to weather. Very depressing situation right now.

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 10- Scenes from the upgraded Mansion

Entrance hall. Notice the 'real' webs! Skeleton and stacked books prop with chandelier a little further back.

Chandelier view from the foyer

Ghouls, this was a huge upgrade from last year! We got rid of the cheesy scene-setter sheeting and replaced it with foam 'wooden' panels you can see on the right. Probably the biggest breakthrough this year was use of a web gun to create the webs. I'm telling you this stuff is amazing! Here is an instructional video from Haunted Props that explains how it works. These webs look and feel like the real thing. We installed the chandelier at the back of the hallway.

2012- Day 11- Air cannon reloaded

Almost the final countdown yet again! We finished putting the fabric up in the vortex. It's holding up fairly well but a couple of the sheets have shrunken a tad, maybe 3/4", so we taped the ends with masking tape and this enabled us to safely stretch it over to staple onto the end hoops. The chandelier was finally hung! Hopefully a video soon. And today's item, the air cannon, was re-installed as shown. I had a similar video last year. I am a complete pneumatics newbie, not counting last year since we never actually got a chance to use the darn thing! A garage haunt is not an optimal venue for serious pneumatic props, but this is different! It is actually fairly easy to operate and very compact. This is the one we're using. Apparently the price has gone up since I bought mine, but again, if you are not an expert in the area of pneumatics I would not try to build one from scratch! Major safety issues here Ghouls. The other component of this set up is of course the air compressor which you will need as well. I'm using an 8 pound Husky brand. If you have never used an air compressor before there are some key issues to be aware of. The big one is the power drain. As I mentioned last year I tried plugging into almost every outdoor outlet we have and was blowing fuses right and left. You are going to have to use an indoor outlet and find one that works by trial and error! We will have to keep the tank inside the garage, but this year I have designed a large work area so there will be plenty of room. Make sure you keep that in mind! Also these things make a ton of noise while the tank fills. Thankfully the cannon does not require a ton of pressure and it looks like one fill should last at least an hour or more. We could refill the tank during the short intermission if we have to. Finally make sure you close the drain valve on the bottom of the tank if you have previously opened it! Last year I opened it before storing the tank, forgot to close it, and tonight I was trying to fill the tank for about an hour and nothing was happening! There was nothing in the troubleshooting directions about it. Somehow I figured it out!

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.