Thread: Need ideas for a gibbet

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Ok, so I have been wanting to make a gibbet this year that will hang from a rafter of my house near the front entrance. The problem is coming up with the right materials to begin this project. In my quest to get ideas, I see that some people use pvc and lathes. I would like some help coming up with other materials that are light-weight, but flexible enough to make it resemble a bird cage, just longer. Any suggestions?

Well if I knew what a gibbet was, I might be able to give a suggestion lol

MsM
*pulling out the cyber dictionary*

yea i have no idea what a gibbet is either!

I'm thinking a crow cage is similiar. Here is a turorial that Dariusobells did: Corpsefied Blucky in a Crow Cage

A gibbet is the pole type setup for a hanging man gallow . Its the upright pole and arm that reaches out to hang the person from .
If you watched the movie the BLACK PEARL , they used a form of a gibbet to leave the pirates in to rot and let the birds eat . A gibbet does not necessarily mean there is a cage attached , it could be as simple as hanging a person by means of chains or encapsulated in a form of a cage , also hung up by some means ..
To let them hang there , not necessarily dead yet either .
Its basically , a form of displayng a person who did some no-no's and they are place up for display , to warn others that that kind of behavior will not be tolerated .

Also , a lath board setup will probably be your litest weight choice

I have one of the Eccentric gryphons units:

HauntedIllinois.com - 2005 Transworld Products - Eccentric Gryphons - Gibbet

but it looks like they are out of business now?

it is made out of strips of plastic that look like metal, and bolted together with plastic bolts.

should be pretty easy to duplicate.

Thanks BoogieMan for the explanation. I am hoping someone has an idea of how to build one without using heavy materials.

Brad had a good suggestion, but I don't know where I could find thin plastic sheets. Has anyone got any suggestions? The plastic would have to be very flexible.

If you either own, or have a friend who owns, the tools, EMT conduit is light, strong, and can be bent to suit the purpose. But the bending tool is $40+ on it's own...

What's going IN the prop, and how large are you making it?

If it's a bucky skeleton, they weigh 23-24 pounds, so you'll want some solid materials.
If it's a blucky or other lightweight body, you can get by using lighter.

Something you may want to try, and admittedly, it's a bit unusual, is fiberglass resin and cotton cloth over some decent gauge wire.
Old flannel sheets may work even better. The material will pil up and make a lot of bumps.
(remember to use rubber gloves of some kind when doing this)
Here's how: cut strips about 3"-4" wide, as long as you need - take a length of wire, bend it to the shape you need (circles, or whatever) set the wire on the strip of cloth, and fold the cloth over the wire, leaving it in the center. Take your fiberglass resin, and liberally coat the cloth - work it in with your gloved fingers, and let dry.

These will actually harden up to a pretty good strength on their own - and will have a rough texture that's ready to paint up to an old, rusted, weathered finish.
I've made the ribs of my "flying ghost" using this method, and they're actually quite strong (and only a half inch or so in width).

I made this jail cell out of strips of black plastic, very similar to the gibbet construction from eccentric gryphons:

Halloween 2008 :: IMG_0160.jpg picture by bradbaum - Photobucket

The strips of plastic where commercial baseboard molding I found in a dumpster behind a Linen & Things that was closing.

they where about 4 inches wide to start with, I cut them down in width with my table saw to make them look like old fashioned jail bars. I just used carriage bolts (a lot of carriage bolts) to put them together.

I think with a heat gun you could form them into a cage.