Fence How-To

For several years, I've used a small wooden fence made out of lathe strips but it was small and didn't scale well as the cemetery grew larger (plus it was a safety hazard since the top of the pickets were pointed). So this year, I decided that it was time for my cemetery to have a proper fence.

I knew that I needed 60 ft of fence so I searched the various Halloween forums and websites for something easy and cheap to build. Eventually, I settled on this how-to. It used many of the most common Halloween materials - pvc and wood - so I know I would be comfortable working with it. The idea to use electrical conduit instead of plumbing pipe was a great tip since it is closer in color to what the final piece should look like and it was slightly cheaper than plumbing pipe. A little more investigation led me to a staggered pattern that I really liked, so I decided to incorporate it also.

One problem I had while building the fence was that none of the forums mentioned measurements so I had to come up with my own. From looking at pictures of existing fences, I figured that the height of the long posts was about 3ft. Since the short posts were a little over half the size of the tall posts, I decided that the short posts would be 2ft. This gave me a starting point for actually figuring out what I would need to purchase. To help anyone else out who may be interested in building a fence like this, here is a detailed parts list of what is needed to build one 8ft section of fence.

Coffin MIB Test

After the unfortunate dismemberment of the hand on my lid-raiser coffin, I decided to change things up a bit and turn it into a MIB. Below you can see a test run showing the gear shape and slamming action. You may notice that the motor occasionally shuts off. This is due to the motion sensor hooked up to the power supply. (If you look closely, you can see me waving frantically, trying to get the sensor to activate.)

Since taking the video, I've upgraded the wall wart power supply with a PC power supply to give the wiper motor a little more muscle.

The Gravedigger

Well, here he is, my only other prop for the year. He turned out ok - considering how little I spent on him.

His frame is a basic PVC frame with screws in the joints to hold the pose. I made the elbows adjustable using the Bride of Articulation frame technique - it works really well by the way.

I had to prop (punny!) him up this year because I couldn't think of a way to make him stand on his own. Next year, I think that I'll try screwing some U braces to the back of his legs and anchoring him to the ground with rebar. (As usual, I didn't think of this until it was too late.)

It's A Major Award!

I just found out that I won the Custom Witch Potion Label Giveaway at All Together Dead. (It's a beautiful site with a lot of inspirational and useful Halloween posts. Be sure to take a look.)

The labels will arrive a little late for this year's party, but I'll put them to good use next year. Keep an eye out for them...

Pumpkin Template

I came across the template that I used to carve my pumpkin head. Instead of deleting it, I thought that I would share...

The image should print nicely on a single sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper.