Thread: The haunted night table!

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It's been sometime since I last posted. With the launch of my new business, free time has been very few and far between. With halloween approaching fast, Figured I better get in some prop building while I have the chance. A lot of my friends bug me all the time to make props for thier haunts. This year I decide to come up with a couple easy builds for others. The first of these props is the haunted night stand.


Build cost is approx $35.
$14 worth of knotty pine (Rona)
$5 wiper motor (scrap yard)
$4.99 wall wart (surplus)
$5 changing picture
$5 worth of stain, candle holder and hardcover books (garage sales)
The design is simple. One lever (pivot point on the middle shelf) moves the book, picture and drawer.



The movement for the feather pen is a boomerang shaped lever mounted to the bottom side of the table top.
The back of the draw pushes it forward, while a block mounted in the drawer pushes the lever backwards. With a couple of magnets, this gives the feather a sideways motion. So here it is in all its glory.

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The possiblities are endless. My next will have a chess board factored into the design.

enjoy!

WOW!! That's one of the coolest things I've seen to date! what a great concept and you executed it perfectly! Really liking this!!

Why thank you very much. The build was fairly simple and straight forward. Took me 3 hours start to finish (excluding dry time) I designed it on the fly, (while i built it) so i image Next time round I'd shave an hour off that time. The 10"x1"x12' knotty pine board was cut with a jig saw to give the illusion of age. I tapered the sides and shelves to give it that Tim Burton sorta feel. All sanding was done with a flap wheel on my angle grinder (hogs wood like crazy)

This was the hardest part of the build. (inside the draw) and as you can see, theres not much to it.


The spring just removes some unwanted noise.
Since the vid, I also cut one of the rear feet just a little shorter. Now the stand also rocks back and forth.

Here is the matching piece to the set.

Same wood, similar treatment. Went a little lighter on the stain so you can see the letters.
An hour and a half, start to finish (excluding dry time)
Knotty pine- $14 (rona) 10"x1"x12' (I used a little more than a board for the nightstand and a little less for the ouija board) 2 boards is just enough to make both props.
wall wart $4 (surplus)
motor/transmission $4 surplus
$4 for rare earth magnets
Only real problem I ran into, the gear box on this little motor is noisy as hell (I'll be replacing it)


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here's the internal workings. pretty simlpe.


I drew the letters on paper then just traced over them onto the pine (ball point pen, pushing hard through the paper)
It leaves an impression in the wood to follow. From there, i just used a black pen to cut the letters into the wood (like ya did with your desk back in school) and added a few smears of paint. (wiped each off with my finger)

I'm quite pleased with my pointer. Painted it, pinstriped it then sanded off most of it, to make it look old. The glass bubble is actually the bottom of those tiny little dollar store jars. (cut with a diamond dremel bit)
If you have any build questions, please feel free to ask.
enjoy!

Excellent! I love all the moving parts of the night stand!

The ouija board looks awesome, too.

great work

Love them both! Super job!

WOW! These are way too cool........ Guess I have some work for my hubby!!!!!

Great job!

Flat out COOL! The nightstand looks unbelievably complicated but it's not. The Ouija board is spooky! Awesome job.

Two really nice builds. Love to build both but Ouija boards creep my wife out. I'll have to think of how to use it for something else. Great job.