Making Webs From the Haunted Mansion

After further looking around this guy's site, he is a professional prop builder and makes props for movies such as Transformers 3 and TV shows such as Bones and Dexter. He also does props for a lot of well known pop artists such as Lady Gaga! I'm sure he has tons of good suggestions when it comes to prop building! Anyone know if he's on the forum?

Interesting. Might have to try that technique.

:jol:Wow Alex, I love that technique! I guess any thing you "cobweb" would have to stay cobwebbed though, wouldn't it? With it being adhesive and I am sure it dries and remains that way. But there are plenty of things I "web" each year and it would be good to store them pre-webbed. Thanks....Dapper's stuff is really cool.

It's a cool technique, but you couldn't use it in a professional haunt because both the bag cobwebs and the spray adhesive are extremely flammable. The fire marshal would shut you down.

That's a great point Bio.. thanks for bringing that up before anyone tries it!

I don't do a pro haunt, nor a walkthrough or anything of the sort...so this sort of thing would actually work really well. Going to have to remember this one.

BioHazardCustoms said:

It's a cool technique, but you couldn't use it in a professional haunt because both the bag cobwebs and the spray adhesive are extremely flammable. The fire marshal would shut you down.

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So, what is the non-flammable alternative for a professional haunt?

Most of the bagged cobwebs I've ever had my hands on are fire resistant and able to be used in our commercial haunt with no problem, we just send the manufacturers spec to the fire Marshall and all is good.

If you apply the adhesive, it will be very flammable while wet, and after drying, treat it with the spray on fire retardant, have it certified, and send that cert to the fire Marshall. You're all set.

Extra bonus, because the dried fire retardant glows a bright white under black light!

-- I

link dead

You may also find that using dust in a flour sifter over your prop will help add the aged look you need to complete the illusion. You can focus your aim on the desired ares and also avoid having big clumps of dust. Adding the occasional trapped insect to your webs might help too. Just using a small bit of the cobwebs rolled up between your fingers makes this easy to achieve.

What ever you use, at a home haunt or a pro version,I'd definitely do some heavy testing with all of the materials used (cobwebs, adhesive, fire retardant, dust, etc.) to make sure it/they won't burn. Just because it's at a home haunt doesn't mean some idiot wont' try to set it on fire.

try this

thanks Haunted Spider!

fontgeek said:

You may also find that using dust in a flour sifter over your prop will help add the aged look you need to complete the illusion. You can focus your aim on the desired ares and also avoid having big clumps of dust. Adding the occasional trapped insect to your webs might help too. Just using a small bit of the cobwebs rolled up between your fingers makes this easy to achieve.

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Instead of actual dust, sift dry powdered vinyl concrete patch on the prop. Then mist it with watered down green, black, or brown paint. You now have permanent grunge and dirt. If you don't have a flour sifter handy, then put the material in an old sock or wrap it up in layers of cheese cloth. Now just tap it with your hand to sprinkle the "dust" onto the prop.

Cool. I've just recently gone back to bagged webs...this is a nice touch. Apparently there are unlimited uses for spray adhesive.

Thanks for the tip!!

I used the bagged webs in my dining room for years. An alternative is the web spinner, which is basically a hot glue gun and a fan to blow the glue strands into place. As for dust, one defunct Haunted Mansion fansites said that the mansion used fuller's earth, which is basically a sand type of material used in pool filters. I've heard that the Haunted Mansion gets re-webbed and dusted every day. The problem with that is the dust gets in to the air conditioning vents.

Look later

RLukard said:

I used the bagged webs in my dining room for years. An alternative is the web spinner, which is basically a hot glue gun and a fan to blow the glue strands into place. As for dust, one defunct Haunted Mansion fansites said that the mansion used fuller's earth, which is basically a sand type of material used in pool filters. I've heard that the Haunted Mansion gets re-webbed and dusted every day. The problem with that is the dust gets in to the air conditioning vents.

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Do you use the web spinner inside your house?

SavageEye said:

Do you use the web spinner inside your house?

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I wouldn't use the web spinner, because it would ruin my props. I don't know if I'd be able to remove the webs when I clean up after Halloween:jol:.

Is there a way to create the webs on the ground, let the adhesive dry then apply them to whatever you want to? I want to make these for my light fixtures but obviously don't want to ruin them with the 3M spray glue.