Thread: Electric chair help

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Hi. I'm new to this site, but have lurked around before. I have been haunting my house for over a decade, but it wasn't until a couple years ago that I stated venturing into moving props. I am not exactly an expert, so if you can help in GREAT detail, I would totally appreciate it.

I want to make an electric chair (just needs to take the weight of a blucky) that kids can operate themselves by pulling a giant switch. Once pulled, 3 things should happen. The chair should start to fog from a hidden fog machine underneath it, a strobe light should turn on, and something noisy should vibrate against a metal sheet. Now it sounds complicated, but to simplify, I am looking for a way to make a switch that turns a powerbar on and off. The 3 devices (fog, lights, vibration) will be plugged in to this powerbar and then the powerbar will be hidden in a wooden podium I will build. Any ideas or links? I am so new to anything like this! Oh and just to claify, I only need help with the switch part, the actual chair I can handle myself, in case I was not clear.

I know what you are talking about i think. Those big switches on the electric box.
But I thought those where really tuff to switch

Here is the link to my electric chair.
New electric chair for 2009
I was going to do something similar to what you are talking about with the giant switch. I opted for a motion detector since my prop will have a live actor and I want it to activate when people come into the room.

I am activating the plazma lights and orbital sander from the motion detector. The lights and sander are pluged into a powerstrip which is powered by the motion detector. You could do the same thing with a simple wall wort that is activated by a remote switch. Home Depot carries this. I was going to rig up the remote switch that I have with a giant fork style switch.

My sander is mounted to the base of my electric chair. You really don't have to mount it to a metal plate. Trust me, the power from the sander you see in my video vibrates the entire chair and makes a really good electrical sound.

As far as the fogger, there are some instructions on this site that show how to hack a fogger timer to be activated on demand.

The only thing I have to say about foggers is that you don't want to do too much with them inside. You end up with a room full of fog and nobody can see.

Here is a link to hacking a fog machine
Using "On Demand" Fog with props?