Final Spider Project Post.......I swear....

Well, its with mixed emotions that we bid adieu to the animatronic spider. Its been fun Wolfy(our nickname for it) but its time to go to your new home.

But First Some Pictures Of How The Spider Breaks Down For Travel

Standard Spider

All Cords and Widgets Wrapped Up

Spider Removed

It takes two bolts to remove spider and the airlines and electrical fittings are color coded so it can't be 'cross wired'.

Out Riggers Removed

The out riggers bolt to the plywood base with two 3/8" bolts per side.

Everything easily fits into my tiny truck bed.

 

But of course we couldn't resist one last series of animations.
These are the new final ambient modes and scare modes of Wolfy.

The client had a really great idea for the scare sequence. He wanted the chittering sound to start to get louder like the spider was getting angry. Then have it get more and more angry until it leaps up to get you. I think it makes the prop more interesting.

Final Scare Sequence

The client did not want the spider always making noise so we changed the ambient animation to be 15sec on and 15sec off.

New and Final Ambient Sequence.

Bye Bye Wolfy...sniff....

Spider Project Done!!!......almost....

Well...with this spider being a one off prototype it seems like the tweaking will never end...but.

Its done, its done and its FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!
If I don't say so myself.

Check out these pics and most importantly videos!!!

Side Shot

Spooky lavender!!! We haven't flat blacked it yet either.
This is the general setup LED up-light, two strobes and a motion sensor.

Front View

The business end.

Front Shot of Tower of Power

Yes we need to work on cleaning up the wiring.
The tower holds all the electronics, speaker and power supplies.

Rear Shot of Tower of Power

Yea and we have to cut the airlines to size also...

Creepy Night Shot

Wow, isn't that little LED spotlight pretty great? Did I mention how happy I am with the spot light purchase? Waterproof, color changing, brighter than I thought it would be all for $13.

Spazzy Night Shot

Just because. Well there is a lot of motion in the arms.

Videos!!! Woo-Hoo!!!

Daytime Ambient Mode

The controller I'm using has a pretty cool feature called ambient mode. You can program a separate audio track and trigger one of the outputs. For this project the ambient mode is a chittering sound and the jaws clap together randomly. The idea is that people will not see the spider right away but the chittering sound and the sound of the clacking fangs will draw them in and then via the motion sensor they soil their shorts with the main scare.

Daytime Startle Mode

 What acting! Sign that girl up to a contract!

Night Time Baby!

 I think this looks awesome. With the strobes going it makes it look like the spider is moving even more than it is, which is quite a lot. Yes the stupid air compressor kicks in at exactly the wrong time.

We've been durability testing the prop for the last couple of days. We had to rework a couple of the leg joints and I added a plywood stiffener to the base. Other than that it looks pretty solid.

Did I mention.....

Damn I'm Pleased With How This Thing Turned Out!!!!!

This is the most complicated widgety-doo that I've ever made and I'm just so glad that it turned out well.

Now Taking Orders!
Want to absolutely blow away every other house on your block? Want to be legendary with the neighborhood kids? Order one of these spiders and you'll be a Halloween God in your neighborhood.

I've figured out all the issues, know how to do it now and where to source all the widgets and can turn another one around much, much quicker.
Email me, lets talk.

Spider Project Update-Almost Finished!

Lots of progress on the Spider Project this past week.
We are in fact, dang near done with it! Hurray!!!!!

Here's pics of the 'final' leg moving mechanism.
I hope y'all will see a big difference between these and the plastic and wood prototypes.

The new followers on a real shaft with UHMW plastic bushings.

The followers and the new cam.

The UHMW plastic cam

We used 1/2" tubing as the shaft.
The shaft will ride on these two, two-bolt flange bearings.

And Now Finally Pics of the Finished Mechanism!!! YAY!!!! HURRAYY!!!!

 This is the windshield wiper motor that powers the thing.

 Cams and springs oh my!

 Pincher mechanism.

Don't worry the spider itself is sitting on an old heater. That is not part of the prop...

Now, see the spider mechanism in action!!

I have also been working on the lighting for the prop.
Here is the cool little LED waterproof spot light I am using.

Now you're not going to throw an intensely bright colored light across a giant room but for $13 they are going to work great as spooky up lighting for all of our props.

Here's a video of the light in action.

 You know I like the disco setting best.....

Along with the spot light there will be two little strobes that fire when the prop is activated.

Here's a little video showing them in action.

The 4-bar lifter mechanism.

I still have to flat black this entire assembly.
I'm really pleased with how this lifter turned out. It has a nice tight movement with zero slop.
We used bronze bushings everywhere and Teflon washers elsewhere.

The 4-bar lifter in action!

Ya I know I say in the video that it runs on 4psi...what I meant to say was 40psi which
is also what the pinchers like to run on.

Whew, okay now I gotta get back to finishing this thing...
 

Spider Project Update

Its been a while I know......

Check out this pic below.
Can anyone tell me what's wrong?

The legs go waaaaaay below the body of the spider....
This can not work as the spiders body will sit ~6" off the ground when in the rest position.
With this set-up every time the spider came back down to rest these legs would get slammed by the ground. Not a recipe for longevity....

So, back to the drawing board with the legs...again....

With the addition of a 45 deg elbow now the legs do not drop below the level of the spider.

I think that the legs look more 'spidery' also.

The Jaws of Doom

These things clack together VERY loudly and its very startling.

From Above

That is just a suggested outline of the body of the spider.

Unfortunately I have made the spider too big at this prototyping phase.
The entire thing, including legs needs to fit in a 3' square area...

The Client has approved the design and now its time to move onto fabbing the real deal.
I spent half a day McMasterbating and I think I've got all the required widgets ordered.

Hopefully this entire project will be wrapped up by the middle of August.....