Thread: Another Electric Chair

Tweet

So here's the 43rd "Check out my electric chair!" thread. I'm not quite done with it. I need to move the hat up higher. I'm also going to put a strobe light in the hat, as well as route some fog into it. It's going to be occupied by my brother-in-law half the night, and the rest of the night I'll just invite TOT's to sit in it and activate it via handheld trigger.

My main reason for posting it is so that anyone interested in using a flourescent starter to make their incandescent lights blink can see what the effect actually looks like. Shot on my iPhone so not the best quality, but you get the idea. Enjoy!

YouTube - Halloween Electric Chair 2009

Yes, you have definitely piqued my interest... If you could give me the behind the scenes on those incandescents, I would appreciate it!

Originally Posted by madmangt

Yes, you have definitely piqued my interest... If you could give me the behind the scenes on those incandescents, I would appreciate it!

To build the flicker circuit, I just followed this tutorial. It was extremely easy. I put it inline as part of the power cord that is going from the bottom of the chair where the power inputs up to the lights.

The actual incandescent bulbs are 40 watt bulbs that are for a banker's lamp. I liked them better because they are a tall narrow bulb instead of a pear shaped bulb. When I get the chair finished I will post a higher quality video of everything.

I like it. Good job. And you can't ever see too many electric chairs!

I like the strobe effect. Are you gonna put arm straps on the chair?

Thanks. Yes, straps are going to be added as well. The arm straps will be a loose half circle that you can easily slip your hand in and out of. This chair is going to pull double duty on Halloween night. Half the night it will be used by an actor who will have a push button trigger on the arm of the chair so he can trigger it and stop it at will. He will act like a pneumatic dummy until the TOT's get close enough and then will jump up. Should be a great startle prop.

The second half of the night (my bro-in-law can't stay all night) it will be triggered via hand-held remote. I will invite the TOT's to get their pic taken in the chair and then trigger it. The electric sander that is strapped to the bottom is quite loud and gives it a fair amount of vibration. Should scare the crap out of them. I tried it on my 7 and 5 year old daughters. Made my 7 year old jump and scream. Made my 5 year old cry. I can't wait!