| Home | Contact | Projects | Pics | Links | Why? |
 |
 |
What is a Flying Crank Ghost? Only the world's cheapest animatronic! This realistic mechanical ghost marionette, invented by Doug Ferguson of www.phantasmechanics.com, will simply astound your visitors. The ghost's arms rise and fall independently from one another as the body floats up and down within an eerie glow. Many times I've fooled people into believing this effect is achieved with a hologram. In reality, it's just a puppet hung from a series of small pulleys and operated by a small 6rpm gear motor. When lit with a black light in a darkened room, the spectre materializes and comes to life! I won't explain in great detail how this project can be undertaken - you should see it on Doug's Website. He fully explains the entire concept of this great illusion with text & pictures: for free. I encourage you to check out the Phantasmechanics Website and build one for yourself. My ghost has taken on some different appearances from Haunt to Haunt, and the pictures and text below explain some of the ordeals I went through in my own project. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a photographer, so I'm lacking in night shots that would display the ghost in it's full glory. There is, however, a downloadable MPEG movie of the ghost in action. The file is huge, so download when there isn't a lot of Internet traffic. To download the file to your hard drive before viewing, right click the file, select "save target as." In the next few weeks Ill replace the file with a shorter version.
Ghost.mpg
 |
Once I downloaded Doug's information on how to build the ghost, I spent some time determining where to place it. The living room window seemed to be a good place. It offered a perfect view of the spirit from the outside graveyard. Building the mechanical crank for the ghost was pretty easy. I found all the materials at local hardware stores, and I found a company in the phone book that sells nothing but motors. They were able to order my 6rpm Dayton gear motor for operating the ghost. As you can see, depending on where you decide to put your ghost, you may have to customize different methods of supporting or hanging the crankframe. For the living room I had to build a framework out of 2 x 4 lumber and 4 x 4 fence posts. The top framework rested on the upper window sill, and adequately supported the crank board. Once the ghost was hung from the pullys I covered the entire framework with black sheets to help darken the area. The first ghost had a styrofoam head with glowing LED red lights for eyes. Her face was painted in a rather unmenacing manner. The pictures show most of the wire work and coat hanger-structure of her body. When she was lit up with a black light you couldn't see any of the wires or framework.
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |