Thread: Idea for self-repairing hole in wood?

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So as I posted in my other thread, I'm making a coffin, with banging from inside. And because I cant leave well enough alone and need to overcomplicate EVERYTHING, I was thinking of maybe making an arm burst out of the coffin... bang, bang... bang bang bang... BOOM and an arm bursts out through the lid.

Problem being... the arm needs to reset and the coffin needs to look whole again.

Anyone have any thoughts on how that could be accomplished?

what is the coffin material? if its a natural wooden coffin it would be fairly easy depending on your mechanical skills. if its finished, hiding the hole would be much harder. I'll help all i can

Originally Posted by robzilla69

what is the coffin material? if its a natural wooden coffin it would be fairly easy depending on your mechanical skills. if its finished, hiding the hole would be much harder. I'll help all i can

Lid is made from a birch plywood, 1/2" thick. Coffin isnt complete yet. Have some decent mechanical skills. So, whatcha got?

Ok so if the top was made from planks of wood rather than ply the opening could be hidden in the planks. You could back cut a plank then break it the rest of the way giving you a jagged edge. The mechanism would best be done with 2 pneumatic circuits controlled by solenoids. I could draw this up for you and the materials would be cheep (without a prop controller) The problem is the smooth plywood top. If you embellished the coffin say with some foam work (scrolls panels etc. we could hide it also) is this pneumatic already? do you use a prop controller or have one extra you can use? You could do it with a servo and a wiper motor it would just be slow and not give the punching through effect. Let me know what you have and how far your willing to go. This could be awesome if done right.

Well heres the deal with pneumatics: This is for my home (front yard display), not for a haunted house. I think my wife would pop her gourd if I had an air compressor going off every so often inside the house (The way my house is, theres no way it could go anywhere but the front yard (thus being heard out front) or in a living space in the basement, so, compressors are a no-go). So I'm TRYING to keep it all electrical. I have 2 wiper motors on the way... one is for the banging on the coffin... the other was a spare. So I have that available... I know that wont give me the bursting effect I'm looking for, so I'm consdering something else, like maybe an arm pushing up and out instead of slamming out... dunno... I'd have to see what kind of speed I can get with a wiper motor.

The lid IS solid wood, tho I'm sure I could find ways to hide the seams/etc. I'm just not sure how to have the lid 'repair' after the arm retracts.

ok here's a quick pic sorry i suck at drawing on paint. A European cabinet hinge is spring loaded to stay open when opened and closed when closed plus its made for no reveal. you could embellish the paneling idea to your tastes. this is just a basic idea etc. one wiper motor to make it work. 1 full revolution is open then closed again. does this help?



SORRY FOR SPELLING LOL

Its a starting point... I was more hoping to do something where the wood looked busted through, without so much a hinged "door" opening when the fist pops out. I'm kicking around some ideas on how to make it work. So far, nothing good

I think you could do it with spring loaded hinges, it's just mess with a mockup, smaller version first.

well that's the problem. on a smooth flat surface you can go hidden or splintered but visible but i don't think both

I can probably hide the edges in detail work on the lid. Dunno.