Thread: FCG use of rig question

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hi everyone

i just bought myself a flying crank ghost in ebay for what i think is a very decent price 95$ , maybe it is from a member here ? i hope it is at least as nice as shown in pic and works well....i figured for the price i got it it would have cost me the same finding and gathering up all the material and time to figure out how to make this .....

i was wondering if i can use a fcg rig to make a bucky skeleton grim organist arms move ?

and my other question is , is their a way to install the rig elswhere then on the ceiling to avoid drilling my living room ceiling with uge holes ? or maybe just small hooks in the ceiling to hold the wires(feed the wires trough) and place the rig on something on the floor or hidden chair ?

thanks

Hey there!

My guess would be that if you disconnected the string that would control the FCG's head and just left the arms attached then yes, you could use the rig to control a bucky organist.

As for hanging it somewhere else, logically it would seem that if you placed the rig, say on the floor on a piece of plywood, and re-routed the string through a series of eyehooks and pulleys, then yes, you could move it. I haven't seen anyone do this and this board is known for pioneers!

Good luck!

Actually Ive just built an FCG rig myself.

the limiting factor in what it can control is the weight of the limbs, for ideal operation the weight on the arms of the FCG rig should be ballanced otherwise the motor could find intelf straining.

another factor you will want to consifer is the radis of the crank arm, mine as a variable radius from 1" to 12", the radius of the arms dictate the amount of motion get on each limb of yor ghost... with a 12" crank setting I get 24" of motion, or it can be reduced to 1" and get only 2" of motion.

assuming your FCG rig has 3 arms then you may be able to control a pianis if you can reduce the carank motion down to the 1" range to give you 2" of hand motion.... and you could possibly rig the 3rd arm to make the head turn left and right or nod

I used my own version of the fcg for a grim organist with a wiper motor in back of organ with a crank arm set up to move the 2 lines up & down for the arms & lines running up & thru upper pipes & then out on metal (small dia) rods suspended out over keyboard.I also used a strobe set on med to help give the illusion of movement while playing & it helped from people seeing how i did it & hide the armature & lines.Had alot of people guessing how it was playing/moving.I needed it to be stand alone as i was not able to mount anything overhead.
Here's a link from (here on HF) Michigal's site at Roadside Haunt that had a creative method for a stand alone FCG, a frame that would allow you to place fcg anywhere without ceiling mount (last pic) FCG*Frames
The bottom mount idea is from Vlad's site.

My wife would kill me if I put screws in the ceiling so I developed a frame out of PVC pipe. I wish I had better pictures, but here's one to give you a general idea.

http://www.hawthornemanor.net/fcg.jpg

If you have any questions, let me know

lol thanks Chilipete , well it's the other way around in this house i'm the wife and the one making the holes everywhere in walls and ceiling lol and husband dont apreciate it one bit lol....

thanks for the pic by the way

Dark lord , Phoenix_UK , LPFreak1283 thanks for the tips and info much apreciated....

when the fcg gets here i will see how the rig is done so that will give me a better idea then when i actually have it on hand......

right now i was thinking if i need to have it suspended from the ceiling or above with a frame i was thinking to use fabric as draps to hide at least the hole mechanism....

I use the PVC frame too. I used too small a diameter of PVC so it's wobbly. Don't make that mistake.

Here's another picture of a PVC frame: Kickthefog.com :: View topic - Another FCG with a PVC frame

I've also made a frame and it's OK. I HAVE seen a mech mounted nderneath the ghost and yea it works just as well. Actually you can mount it anywhere as long the lines don't cross and get tangled the effect would be exatcly the same.

I use a PVC frame,heavier then needed but I drape it with black cloth to block out all light from inside the house.I think it works well.

AND make it so you can take it apart for storage,youll be glad you did.