I did a simple ouiji board a while back. It's all about earth magnets. Put one on a wiper motor and one one each leg of the "pointer" if you reverse the polarity of them it will spin all over the place while moving around. It's probably the simple way of doing it but looks great.

 

Thanks HauntCrazy and Industen.

Assuming I can go to Pep Boys / Auto Zone / etc and get a wiper motor. Is there any particular kind that works best for this? Not sure what to ask for since I'm not actually buying it to use in a specific make/model of car. How much does a wiper motor cost and how would I power it? Don't have time to crawl through junkyards and pull parts.

 

I used this tutorial to build mine. I uses a motor from one of those animated reindeer.
http://www.halloweenforum.com/tutorials-step-step/69102-ouija-board-how.html
Christmas props are already out so you could probably find a reindeer at Walmart or Home Depot.

 

you can order a rein deer motor $9 from these guys, but you probably won't get it before Halloween.

http://www.cwebdirect.com/fedemo.html

 

I like this thread!

 

Would clock kit with pendulum work fo this effect?

In Michaels today, I saw a "clock kit with pendulum". It's also sold my Amazon.com. Would this work in a horizontal configuration for a haunted ouija board and/or a haunted chess board effect?

http://www.amazon.com/Walnut-Hollow-Pedulum-Clock-Movement/dp/B001O992WS/ref=pd_bxgy_t_text_b

Still looking for the simplest possible solution.

 

How to get automated straight-line movement?

Thought I'd ask again:

How can I get a repetitive straight-line motion for creating a haunted chess board? Haven't measured exactly what I need yet (don't even own a chess board). But I'm guessing I'd want about a 7 inch vertical movement up and down the chessboard (one chess piece only is sufficient) at a speed of... well, not too fast and not too slow for the effect.

For the Ouija board effect, it seems like a simple arc movement would be fine (e.g. reindeer motor). But for the haunted chess board, I'd want straight-line movement.

Isn't there any toy or holiday item out there whose motor / mechanism I could simply attach a magnet to the top of to create this effect? Again, I've very un-handy and mechanically disinclined. Not proud of it, just because pragmatic. So for me to create effects, they have to be, pun intended, dead simple--e.g. repurposing things with very little modification, e.g. my DJ laser unit mod into Green Laser Vortex effect and my "silhouette ghost in a window" effect where I simply pointed a super-bright LED flashlight at an unmodified food tray rotator and then placed wax paper on the window. Couldn't be more simple.

 

Don't have anything for the 'straight-line' effect, but here's an interior shot from my Ouija board set-up using a microwave turntable motor. It's a 3.5 rpm , 110v (no need for a transformer) that was picked off Ebay for around $3.

 

Thanks for the reply brad.

 

Wouldn't something like this animation work for a straight line movement?

http://www.robives.com/blog/crankmech