Recliner mech corpse

[dave the dead]

This popup is also built from the footrest of a recliner, but I have added the lift mechanism from a motion cocktail table to get some arm movement as well.
(if you can't tell, I work and scrounge from a furniture warehouse)
The basic premise is the little guy couches down low with his arms drawn into his body.....
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/halloweenprops2007014.jpg
and when activated, he lunges forward, extends his arms, and opens his mouth wide in a scream....
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/halloweenprops2007006.jpg
The top of the head is mounted where the recliner footrest would be, and the lower jaw is mounted separately below that.This changes the orientation of these parts with the mech.
Here's a shot with the first coat of pantyhose and latex applied.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/halloweenprops2007026.jpg

The recliner and table mechs are mounted to a board, and a single linkage was fabricated to hook them together. In this pic, the linkage is the triangular metal just below the back of the head. The entire thing is now hooked up to a single screen door closer that is mounted in the chest.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/halloweenprops2007012.jpg
here's a short video of the corpse in action, before i attached the pneumatic scream....(rock on, Alan Parsons!)
recliner mech corpse video by davethedead - Photobucket@@AMEPARAM@@http://vid105.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/halloweenprops2007.flv@@AMEPARAM@@vid105@@AMEPARAM @@105@@AMEPARAM@@m240/davethedead/halloweenprops2007

and here's with the scream...
pneumatic scream video by davethedead - Photobucket@@AMEPARAM@@http://vid105.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/scream.flv@@AMEPARAM@@vid105@@AMEPARAM@@105@@AMEPA RAM@@m240/davethedead/scream

I am thinking of building a niche into a crypt wall for this guy to jump out of....mwa ha ha ha ha! :xbones: :xbones: :xbones:

[spokanejoe]

WOW!!! Great ideas and fantastic designs. I am going scrounging for chair mechanisms now. I just went thru all 100 of your photos and I love your stuff. How do you make your skulls? Can you show a better picture of the motion mechanism for the large scary pumpkin?

[mrklaw]

oh man, I just looked at your other photobucket videos and that sound you make with the pneumatic exhaust and the animal call is CREEPY!

[dave the dead]

spokanejoe---check out my thread on "big momma pumpkin monster" in the gallery.....more pix of the mech available

Mrklaw---thanks! I am very pleased with the creepy factor of the noise, and completely ecstatic with how easy it is.

[Richie]

Hi Dave,

Great video! Can you explain how you made it scream. Is this something easy to do? I have a pneumatic situp prop I built for 2006. It works great but it has no audio. I'd love to incorporate your technique into my prop for 2007. Thanks

Richie

[Sickie Ickie]

I believe it was a wounded rabbit hunting call he placed at the end of the airline. :)

[dave the dead]

Hi Dave,

Great video! Can you explain how you made it scream. Is this something easy to do? I have a pneumatic situp prop I built for 2006. It works great but it has no audio. I'd love to incorporate your technique into my prop for 2007. Thanks

Richie

Sickie is right....I just attached a hunter's predator call to the bleeder line of the air system....super easy and pretty cheap. I think this call cost around 8 bucks.

[Richie]

Thanks guys. I'll try to find a company that sells them online and see what is involved in connecting it to my valve.

[dave the dead]

Thanks guys. I'll try to find a company that sells them online and see what is involved in connecting it to my valve.

You can also try the sporting goods department of just about any dept store....if they sell hunting supplies, then chances are they will have game calls. As for the attachment, I just did a loose attachment with a piece of bicycle tube to hold it to the exhaust....probably will eventually come up with a pvc fitting, but this works for now
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/reesejames037.jpg

[Richie]

Dave,

It's funny because I was trying to figure out the best way to attach it to the valve, and the first thing that came to mind was using a small diameter inner tube or the like. Since that is what you did, I'm feeling really good that it's very reliable and will work great. Thanks.

[dave the dead]

Richie,
the picture doesn't really show it, but I had to cut a few small holes in the tube to keep it from inflating and bursting. There's still plenty of escape air to make the thing scream, and the more exit air i allow thru the flow control, the higher pitched it gets. have fun with it and let me know how it turns out for you!

[Richie]

Dave,

Thanks for that advice. I wouldn't have thought about the tube being stressed like that. I'll be sure to let you know. I'm going to the sporting goods store on Saturday to find a similar call. Thank you.

[dave the dead]

Dave,

Thanks for that advice. I wouldn't have thought about the tube being stressed like that. I'll be sure to let you know. I'm going to the sporting goods store on Saturday to find a similar call. Thank you.

LOL...it actually was pretty cool the first time when the bike tube exploded.....but unfortunately, it would be impractical to replace the tube every time you wanted to scare someone:)

[DarkShadows]

I have used a bicycle horn on the exhaust port to make some noise. There the kind that you press the ball and air shoot's out causing to to horn.

This year, I have a real air horn I plan on hooking up to the exhaust and see how it works.

[Richie]

Dave,

I wasn't able to find the distress rabbit screamer, so the best they had was the distress screamer for Coyotes, Bobcats..etc. It's similar to the one on your prop. I'll try and install it on Monday and see how it is.

Mike...I'll try and post a photo tomorrow of the pneumatic figure I'm going to use this for. Since the facial expression is already of a man screaming, I figured I go that route and try and cash in on the scream effect. Although, that horn audio effect is always a good one to get people to jump..LOL.

[dave the dead]

Dave,

I wasn't able to find the distress rabbit screamer, so the best they had was the distress screamer for Coyotes, Bobcats..etc. It's similar to the one on your prop. I'll try and install it on Monday and see how it is.

Mike...I'll try and post a photo tomorrow of the pneumatic figure I'm going to use this for. Since the facial expression is already of a man screaming, I figured I go that route and try and cash in on the scream effect. Although, that horn audio effect is always a good one to get people to jump..LOL.


That will probably do fine....sounds like the same thing. A rabbit in distress is supposed to attract coyotes, bobcats. etc/ if you can, post up a video...I'd love to hear it and see what you have made!

[dave the dead]

Dave,

I wasn't able to find the distress rabbit screamer, so the best they had was the distress screamer for Coyotes, Bobcats..etc. It's similar to the one on your prop. I'll try and install it on Monday and see how it is.

Mike...I'll try and post a photo tomorrow of the pneumatic figure I'm going to use this for. Since the facial expression is already of a man screaming, I figured I go that route and try and cash in on the scream effect. Although, that horn audio effect is always a good one to get people to jump..LOL.

Hey Richie! I was just scanning thru some old posts and wondered if you had any luck hooking up that hunter call yet?

[TwistedDementia]

I tried a duck call and it actually produced a unique sound. When it first went off it was really high pitched but once the pressure dropped, it went all to quackers, so I have to go get a distress screamer, so much for the short cut!

[dacostasr]

Awesome props!
I wonder if my wife will notice the missing recliner parts...lol. Very creative for people like me who can't cut and weld scissors type of things.

Now I'm on the look out for people throwing furntiure out.

Great pics and video. THanks for sharing.

Dennis

[Richie]

Hi Dave,

I purchased a "Call Masters" XL-10 Stinger shrill distress screamer. Like you, I used a short piece of bicycle inner tube to make the connections. What I found was that if to much air was used to trigger the prop, the predator call would not make any noise. It seemed to only work perfectly when I myself blew into the thing. Perhaps I'm going to have to find a different type of predator call. Did you have this same trouble?

BTW....my wife is going to kill me when she goes to ride her bike, only to find a flat rear tire and the inner tube missing:(

[dave the dead]

Richie, I had a similar problem at first...too much air just pins the reed inside the call and no noise is made. What I did to combat this is just cut a few small holes in the tube, allowing some of the air to escape before the call. You are on the right track! Start small with the holes and work your way up until you get the desired noise.

I don't know what to tell you about your wife...you are on your own there.:rolleyes:

[Richie]

Thanks Dave...I'll work on it tomorrow and let you know how I make out. As for my wife, I think I'll just go purchase a new tube and fix the tire before she gets a look at it....LOL.

[dave the dead]

I have had a few questions about the mech of this guy over in the showroom, so i will attempt to answer them here. Hellspawn, if this is unclear, which it most likely will be, ask anything and I will do my best to explain.

I'll start here....this picture shows the combination of two different scrounged mechanisms. The yellow highlight is the footrest scissors mech from a recliner. (The cranium is mounted where the footrest would be). The green highlight is the lift mechanism from a motion cocktail table (the kind where the top lifts up to give a higher table) It is basically a straight 4-bar lift mechanism, with the lift bars cut at equal lengths and positioned at equal distances so that the "top" and "bottom" bars (the forearms) always remain parallell.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m240/davethedead/recliner%20mech%20popups/halloweenprops2007006.jpg

The recliner mech: I have removed the footrest scissor mech from the rest of the recliner by drilling out the rivets that attach it to the body of the chair. I then took both halves of the mechanism and removed the bars between them. After that, I bolted them together as close as possible side by side with some scrap flat metal. (the brackets that would have held the footrest are now directly side by side)

Caution!!!! there are a whole butt-load of different recliner mech set-ups. Each footrest mech may have a different configuration, so your mech may be different than mine!!!

On this particular mech, there are two points where the scissors cross itself. This gives two free ends when closed (like the blades on a pair of scissors opened as wide as they could be, in this picture where the yellow meets the green) I cut a piece of board the width of the newly assembled mech (approx 3 1/2 inches wide) and screwed the lower part of the 'scissorblades' to the board, pinning this part of the mech stationary. This makes the top 'scissorblade' part of the mech a lever that will eventually be used to connect to the arm mechanism.

ok, I'm out of time for now....digest this and post up any questions...I'll continue later:) ----dave

[Hellspawn]

Dave,

Thanks for the writeup, it helped tremendously.
Id really like to emulate your prop, but I dont think im going to find a lift top table mech anytime soon (unless you know of a place online that sells "just" the mech) I dont have access to a welder so I cant do any metal work at all and I really cant build a 4 bar linkage out of wood and pvc would be way too large.

Now that I can see its a simple 4 bar, ill see if I can find someone to weld me together a set, if its going to cost too much, I will have to improvise or just do a monster in the box prop this year.

Thanks again, your the greatest!

Mabey you can ask your friend at the furniture wearhouse if he would sell me a mech or two off a broken table?

[dave the dead]

After thinking about how I would copy this without the pre-fab mechs, I think using flat aluminnum bar stock or steel stock with bolts as the pivots would be the way to go. I really don't think you would need a welder to produce a version of this...just a hacksaw to cut the metal and a drill for the holes.

That friend at the WH is ME...ha ha ha!!!! I am always on the lookout for stuff to convert to props, but unfortunately the table mechs don't show up very often.

You had asked about attaching the head and jaw to the mech.....
In the previous photo you can see the approximate postion of the cranium and jaw pretty well. The cranium is actually bolted onto the footrest brackets, right thru the head and onto the metal. I then backfilled with some greatstuff to hold it in place. The lower jaw is positioned on the scissor bar below the footrest bracket, and is just wired into place. I believe I also added some hot melt glue to firm it up. At this point it isn't very secure, but when I wrapped the whole head in pantyhose and coated in latex, it becomes a solid part of the mechanism.

[Hellspawn]

Ive got alittle bit of aluminum stock that is used for chain link fencing (holds the chain link to the posts) ill use some small bolts and plenty of washers and see how it holds up, I was thinking it wouldent be rigid enough (side to side) but mabey it wont need to be.. worse thing that happens is that it doesnt work.. I dont think it should take me more than an hour to put a couple linkages together.

Ill post some pictures when I get started.

Thanks again Dave, your great.

[dave the dead]

Ive got alittle bit of aluminum stock that is used for chain link fencing (holds the chain link to the posts) ill use some small bolts and plenty of washers and see how it holds up, I was thinking it wouldent be rigid enough (side to side) but mabey it wont need to be.. worse thing that happens is that it doesnt work.. I dont think it should take me more than an hour to put a couple linkages together.

Ill post some pictures when I get started.

Thanks again Dave, your great.

Just remeber that the pre-fab mech came with mounting brackets built in in several places. I used these to secure the arms mech to the mounting board and also to join the head mech to the arms mech. You will have to do some fiddling around and improvising to make it all work together. For reference, Vilethings has a simple pop-up that has a similar reaching arm mech, but is more of an up-and-down movement. http://www.vilethings.com/simple_pop_up_part_2__the_mechanism.htm

[Hellspawn]

I could totally improvise with something like that, wont look the same, but if worse comes to worse, it would work. im sure with alittle work, I could change the orientation of the arms with some pulleys? that way they could move more out than up.. time to break out the duct tape, gorrilla glue and zipties!

[dave the dead]

If you just put the 4-bar mech on the side of the mount board rather than 'flat' like the vilethings, you will get the movement in the same direction as the head. I think the thing I liked the most about mine was that while the vilethings popup is oriented to a straight up-n-down movement, mine jumps forward and up while reaching out and up, while opening the mouth.

damn...I may have to make another for myself now!!!!

[turtle2778]

Okay Dave i have 4 recliner mechs from my old reclining loveseat. I have the pop up i wanna have a reacher tooooooo. How do i get that toooooo??????? Im whining while im saying that. Just so you know. :D

[Hellspawn]

Okay Dave i have 4 recliner mechs from my old reclining loveseat. I have the pop up i wanna have a reacher tooooooo. How do i get that toooooo??????? Im whining while im saying that. Just so you know. :D

Mabey we can work that out between the two/three of us, im going to be a pessimest on this one that I will not be able to find a motion table mech in time to build these popups, ill play around with some aluminum stock in the next couple of days or this weekend and see if I can get something that will work and ill post back with what I ended up doing

[dave the dead]

Ok Turtle, quit whining! I hate it when you do that.
Start by removing the recliner mechs, or if you can access just the footrest part, do that. When you get a pair of footrests off (like the recliner mech pop-up you made before) take a picture so I can see the configuration. I'll be able to tell if the style will work for a reacher.....
Try to leave two intersections in the scissors mech like in the above yellow highlighted picture.

[dave the dead]

a suggestion for locating the mech....go to your local furniture retailer and ask (beg!) them to save you a defective mech. Try to find someone that sells alot of recliner sofas or sectionals, as they would be most likely to have the motion cocktail tables. You can also try rent-to-own places...they take back trashed stuff from time to time and might be willing to save you the parts if you ask nice enough.

[HalloweenZombie]

That is one truly awesome prop. The scream might be funny afterwards, but when you first hear it it's disturbing. That's going to scare the crap out of people. Very nice work.

[Undeadvoodoomonkey]

Damm this is cool. I think the scream sounds like a creepy kid.