Thread: Flying Crank Ghost Question

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I am planning on making a FCG this year for my yard, but I cannot find any instructions on how to use this for an out-door display! All the instructions seem to be for attaching it to your ceiling...which won't work for obvious reasons. Anyone know how to do this outside, or know of a site that describes (in detail) how to do this outside?
Thanks!

Unless you have a tree to hang it from any kind of frame would kinda ruin the effect.

Your best bet would probably be to use 1/2" black pipe and errect a frame for it to hang on. Make a "V" using 24" (maybe 36" depending on how heavy it is) sections and a 90* elbow. Attach a "T" right after the elbow on one side and run a 7' section from the "T". This should look like the corner of a cube. At the top of the 7' piece attach another 90* elbow and a piece long enough to support the mechanism.

i have a huge pine tree in my back yard, and i climbed the tree about 60ft and the rest of my yard is clear. i put like a little zip line with a pully going to the ground and the aother pully mounted in the tree by the top where the rope is connected. i will wake a "T" frame so it is like upside down and have a styrafoam ball on the end and then a mask on the ball and the cross on the "t" will be the shoulders and i will have a cape on it and have it connected to one pully. the i let go of the return line and it goes flying down the rope. i think it will scare the sh*@ out of people. doe s that sound good? has any one tryed it befor? i hooked it up without the mask and the cape/black scream costume, and it worked ok.

rockstarbass1

Rockstar,
That sounds like it would scare the hell out of anyone caught off guard. This isn't an automated prop though, is it? You're going to have to pull the prop back to the starting point every time, right? The problem for me is that I like to be a part of my haunt, but I'm getting too old to climb trees...and taking that chance of becoming a permanent prop (corpse) in my front yard.

-fly

rweso, thanks for the frame suggestion. I think I'll have to do that. I have make-shift trees that I've created, but they won't hold any kind of weight and I don't have a porch. You gave me a great idea, though. I was thinking that one of those garden arches in black aluminum (MUCH cheaper than real wrought-iron) might do the trick! I can cover the sides with camo-netting or webbing and it'll look cool, I think. Might not be high enough, though. How much room does one need for the ghost to hang?

You could try an Axworthy ghost. I'm working on one or two for this year. I've sacrificed my mountain bike and was lucky to load my car up with bicycles some people were throwing out by the roadside.

If you are not familiar with Axworthy ghosts, check out these sites:
http://www.mlittle.com/halloween/axw...rthy_ghost.htm
http://home.adelphia.net/~minioncs/axworthy.htm

<center>“by the Pricking of My Thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes.”</center>

Actually wolf, I'm trying to figure out how to do one of those for next year, LOL! I have the bike tires already.
However, I'm going to run into the same problem...one house, no trees! The motor for the Axworthy ghost can go on the roof, but I don't know where I'm going to put the other pulleys yet. I'm working on that, though. I might use my gibbet to anchor one, then I only need one more

Sheepies,
I have the same problem...no trees (at least, none big enough to support an "Axworthy" frame). What I thought I might do next year though is have the ghost traverse the length of my fence. I live in a corner house, so my fence, on one side, parallels the street and sidewalk. I will use 2" PVC to support the two bicycle rims and u-bolts to secure the PVC to the inside of the fence. When any TOTs use the sidewalk along the fence, they will be greeted with a ghost flying past them...also, because the Axworthy ghost will be on the inside of my property, I won't have to worry about vandalism. Does anyone forsee any problems with this? Thanks.

-fly

I thought I had the tree situation covered, but on closer examination there are too many branches in the way. I plan to use 2 corners of our house and make a homemade post in the yard. Something like those portable basketball hoops. I see a lot of people around here sand bag them to make them sturdy. I can rake a leaf pile over the base. Maybe in next year I can make that monster mud spooky tree I've been wanting to try. I can build it around the post with a chicken wire frame.

<center>“by the Pricking of My Thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes.”</center>

I've been to the Doug Ferguson site and seen several others. I dont see the need for all that alluminum. I'm going to give this a shot and do it well on the cheap. Since my FCG will reside in my garage and be viewed from a garage window in the front of the house, I simply plan to mount a $12 ($18 with shipping) 6 RPM 12VDC motor (from Allelectronics.com) on the garage ceiling and screw in a three of eye bolt type screws (or four if you include the counterweight for the body)for the pulley attachments (if pulleys even prove to be necessary). I'll just detach the marionette puppet when Halloween is over. The DC motor will be powered by my trolling motor battery, but there's a post from someone on the Allelectronics site that used two 6 V lantern batteries to power the motor. The resulting effect looks magnificent with a white ghost and blacklight, but all we're really talking about here is here is a spinning rod and some string between three small pulleys.