Home Made Pressure Plate...

A while back I mentioned that I’m not much of an electrician, and this tutorial pretty much puts the exclamation point on that thought. I’m pretty sure there should be more than just cardboard and aluminum foil needed to generate power of any kind, but that’s literally all that’s needed to power the Pressure Plate that Rick Osgood made in this tutorial. It’s a great way to save a few bucks and still get a trigger for your props!...

Simple Laser Vortex Construction...

I’ve always wanted to post a link to a tutorial on how to build a laser vortex but I’ve not been able to find one that wasn’t either too detailed to the point of confusion, or lacking in detail, which is equally confusing.  Luckily, UrDaddyO31 posted a short video detailing the design of the laser vortex he used for his prop.  It’s not so much a tutorial, but it does lay out the design he used which was originally created by kimcfadd who has them for sale on HalloweenForum. This ultra-simplistic design incorporates a mirror mounted on a cpu fan.  The cpu fan and the laser are mounted to blocks of wood and as the cpu fan spins the mirror projects the circular laser effect which will become your laser vortex when you add a little fog.     ** Warning: Lasers can cause serious and/or permanent eye damage.  Never look directly at a laser or point it directly in someone’s eyes.  Consult Safety Recommendations for Laser Pointers for more...

Heat Exchanger Fog Chiller...

This may just be the ultimate homemade fog chiller, but it’s going to take some skill and effort to find out just how ultimate it is!  It uses the same basic concept as Froggy’s Vortex Fog Chiller, but does so much more efficiently.  Put simply, this chiller will continuously pump ice cold water through the copper piping ensuring that they remain ice cold at all times.     As the fog is sent through the stove pipe which houses the copper piping the fog is chilled and hugs the ground.  It’s the same process that occurs in a car radiator, whereby the airflow over the surface of the radiator cools the hot radiator fluid.  The real benefit of this design is that you can shoot hot fog through this all day long and it won’t run out of “coolant”.     The tutorial originates from Chuck Rice, however, I find the images on the Kickthefog version to be most helpful.  Whichever tutorial you choose, good luck, this one is definitely going to test your...

Pico Volt Prop Controller...

As soon as I had finished my first motorized prop using a wiper motor I immediately started wondering how I could slow down the speed of my motor.  Sure, the motor had a low speed and a high speed setting, and I could control the direction of rotation depending on how it was wired up, but I wanted to go beyond those settings.  What if I wanted to bring my motor to an almost standstill speed?  And what if I wanted to reverse the rotation mid sequence without having to change the wiring? OUT OF LUCK… Without a Pico Volt prop controller from FrightProps that is….  This thing is great, it allows you to change speed and rotation all from a simple speed dial, and record up to 60 seconds of a sequence, which will loop indefinitely.  If you switch the rotation of the speed dial it will start to go in reverse, if you slow it down and hold steady, so will the routine.  Perfection in a small form factor. Oh, and if you’re like me, you’ve already started wondering if you can control lights with this tiny piece of magic, and the answer, of course, is yes.  You can use it to dim your LED lights, or program and repeat any lighting effect you want. If you need full control of your wiper motors, then by all means, pick this tiny device up, you will not be...