Thread: Motor driven coffin open/close

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Based on Indeva's(thanks for all the help an guidance!!) Cheap Animated Doll Prop, I built this prop.

It's made from a Grandin Road foldable coffin, a small 12v motor, a wooden base, velcro (industrial strength), a few pieces of pipe or wooden dowel, some "L" brackets, and a closet rod holder.

YouTube - Oct 29 2008 - VID00065

Now to add a scrim and find or make a skeleton hand to suspend from the edge of the coffin to give the appearance of someone or some thing opening the coffin.

Looks great! Can't wait to see the end result.

MsM

I have 3 of those motors. Love them! Great job on the coffin mechanics!

Great job!!! how heavy is that lid? Looks like the motor is slipping slightly just as it passes the 12/11 O'clock position from the weight of the lid. I saw that some others had added a spring to "lighten" the hinged weight. Nice work though !!!!

Thanks for all the kind words!

Originally Posted by Shrimp_Toast

Great job!!! how heavy is that lid? Looks like the motor is slipping slightly just as it passes the 12/11 O'clock position from the weight of the lid. I saw that some others had added a spring to "lighten" the hinged weight. Nice work though !!!!

It's not terribly heavy, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't seem to find the right spring though, all that I've seen are way too sturdy.

The motor sounds like its struggling just a little on the way up and not at all on the way down, but I guess we'll see if it stands the test of time tomorrow night!

I love what you did with the coffin.Where did you buy your motor?and diffently want to see the finished product.

Good job! Looks great.

What about using one of those Pnuematic door closers? The ones from the front storm door. You can adjust it to just take some of the weight off and still have a smooth open and close.

I am looking to make something like this, but want to be able to hide the lift mechanism. I was thinking I would mount the wiper motor on the side and hide the arm inside a corpse arm with hand somehow.

Originally Posted by Texan78

I am looking to make something like this, but want to be able to hide the lift mechanism. I was thinking I would mount the wiper motor on the side and hide the arm inside a corpse arm with hand somehow.

I'm just using some scrim to hide the motor and arm. I might give the wood a quick shot of matte black paint, but basically it will be hidden.