I made a little bit of head way today. (No pun intended) As you can see in the picture above that I started on getting my one-armed grabber going. The CHB group that I went to built most of it. All I needed to do was buy a foam head and add some wiring. I had noticed while trying to get the one-armed grabber going good, was that the metal stoppers were not staying still. I decided to attach some wire to them and keep them in the right place. It seems to be doing the trick. I might want to work on it a bit more, but it doesn't look too bad right now. Next, I just need to make the hand in front and then give him some clothes. I must say, things are going ok. Below is a short video on my One-armed grabber.
Ok, if you remember from a previous blog, I noticed that the bolts were welded on wrong. As you can see from the picture above the eye bolts are facing the front. Because of this, I can't put the the arm bolt thru it without it pulling up the arm bolt and snapping it off. If this bolt (its hole) was facing more towards the sides, then I wouldn't have any problems. I talked to some of the members of the Chicago Haunt Builders club and most agree that this is wrong and that the eye bolt would have to be removed and then re welded. Well, finding someone with a welder would be too much a pain. So, I talked to some mechanics at work and they suggested just cutting off the end of the eye bolt and adding a piece of metal to it instead. I thought that was a better idea so today I went a head and just cut off the round part of the eye bolts. I also started work on the two metal pieces that will just slip over the bolt. Then I will add a set screw to the two metal pieces and I am hoping that should do it. I know I also have to drill the hole to connect the arm bolts. I think it should be ok. Will post pictures when I am done fixing it.
Well it is official, I found out that my bolts are not welded right so I am going to have to fix it myself. That is ok. This weekend I went out and bought some tools to fix it. My plan is to cut the eye bolts off and replace them with a piece of metal, which will be connected to the aluminum arms. But that is ok. When life gives you lemons, you BUY TOOLS to make it into beer. LOL
Anyway, I found Mike's RC Crawling Zombie on-line. So I wanted to share with you Mike's RC Crawling zombie at his haunt.
Sometimes life is not fair and this would be an example of one of those times. I am not 100% sure if there is anything I can do to fix it, but it doesn't look good. I noticed that when I brought my motors back after being welded, that the bolts were not welded right. I will have to look into it, but I might have to cut the bolts off and start over. I guess we will see, but it don't look good. Been talking to Mike but our last converstion he was still thinking that the eye bolts would still work. I guess I will have to talk to him more.
I have noticed a lot of blogs are talking about Season of Shadows Last Blog. It was really sad to hear all what is going on in his life and I certainly couldn't comment because I wouldn't do it justice. That is why you need to check out the last blog and see for yourself. I had a friend from Halloweenforum that had a tumor who didn't pull thru. (Mr. Unpleasant) When my friend told me about his tumor I always thought he was going to pull thru. I even told him everything would be fine. It wasn't until his friend told me later on that he passed did I realize. I still from time to time visit Mr. Unpleasants's page and tell him I miss him. It is hearing John's problems from Season of Shadows that reminds me of Mr. Unpleasnt and makes me sad knowing he will have to suffer and of course having to give up his love for Halloween. I don't think it is fair.
Brian Foreman from Scary Visions is putting out free Haunt trainning from his website and you can sign up for free today. I just signed up a few minutes ago and the first thing you get to download is a free Halloween history pdf. Tells you about the history of Halloween, etc. So if you are interested in signing up click HERE to find out how.
I heard today that HGTV is looking to put on another Halloween show and they are looking for all you Halloween Freaks to enter. So what are you waiting for?
Had an awesome time at the Chicago Haunt Builders prop building today. I think the prop we built today was called the Grave Grabber (Shown above) and I forgot how many were built. The above prop above was used as a Pedro that we used to build the others. (Video is below) When I say We, I mean them. Because once the assembly line kicked in to start mass producing these babies, I didn't get a chance to pick up a screw driver. I was so overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to help that I just didn't have it in me to stick my big nose in helping. I felt kind of weird not helping. All I did was give them money for supplies and the motor and I didn't have to lift a hand to get it done. Which is kind of good but kind of bad as well. I should have pushed myself and got into assembly line. Oh, and if you remember I needed help welding my bolts on my RC Zombie Crawlers motors. Well, Toby (haunt31.com) and Mike help me put them on. I just tested it out and it works great. Was worried the heat damaged one of the motors. But I checked them both out and all is well. (Video of it is below)
The day started at 9am this morning. I drove from Montgomery, Il to the north side of Chicago and right after a major snow storm. I heard one town got 9.1 inches of snow. Myself, I had to shovel 4 times. But this morning the roads were pretty good. Didn't take me long to get to Chicago. When I got there I really wasn't planning on making their Grave Grabber, but I couldn't help myself. Bought one of their reindeer motors and some parts and before I knew it they had it assembled it faster than I could blink. I really didn't get a chance to help and I really wish I had gotten a little aggressive and pushed myself to help. Oh, well maybe next time. Anyway, in the middle of the build the home owner Mark (other Mark) reminded me about welding my RC Zombie Dude. So I asked Toby of Haunt31 to help me weld it. Within 20 mins both Toby and Mike had it welded. And if you are planning on building an RC Crawling Dude and plan on welding the bolts on the motors, please wet down some towels and cool it town after each weld. VEry Important!
Update: I wanted to mention that the original One-arm grabber or grave grabber, what ever you call it was made by Kevin from http://www.fulcrumsites.com/. You can see the How-to from his site HERE.
Where are the damn photos? I am glad you asked. Here are a few and some videos right below. To see all of them click HERE.
No the last photo was not a mouse trap. Just in case you were wondering. OK, now for some videos. The first video is of my RC Crawling dude tested with the new bolts welded.
I was able to get the base done for the RC Crawling dude before I go tomorrow and have it welded at our Haunt Prop build. I was getting scared there for a while, but it is done. I should have pictures of what everyone is making tomorrow.
It has been a long week. I did receive my aluminum square tubing on Monday. I have been working in the garage and damn is it cold. Have a small space heater, but it really doesn't help to keep me warm. I have most of the base done as of today. In the image above you can see the piece of aluminum that I got(I got two of these) in the mail on Monday.(The longer piece of metal) Just to the right you will see the two pieces of aluminum that I made to hold the motors down. In the picture only one motor is shown in its aluminum base. But I did get both motors seated in the aluminum bases that I built. All I need to do now is bolt these two bases with motors into the main wood base.(Shown below) I found out early this week that my earlier base was the wrong size so I had to redo it. I think my first wood base was 1x8 instead of 1x6. But that is fixed now.
