View new posts | View your posts Building my own trap

---

I am going to be building my own ghost trap to carry with me when in costume. I am looking for fairly lightweight, yet durable. I am also doing this on a budget. I have looked over the plans on the site. Does anyone have any recommendations on what type of material to use and which plans are easiest to follow?

Foamcore is easy to use. And I believe I followed Seans Plans. I wouldn't Say its the most durable item, but its cheap.

http://www.gbfans.com/fans/props/ghost-traps/2140/

http://www.gbfans.com/equipment/plans/s ... trap-plans

Foamcore will be the lightest and cheapest way. Many have built nice traps that way. Styrene is another reasonably priced material, you can usually get cheap "for sale " signs at the dollar stores to use.

I built mine out of MDF and styrene, and it is pretty lightweight. Mine is a stunt trap, so you can cheat here and there to make it less heavy.

cool guys, thanks!

I will check those suggestions out and take a closer look at Sean's plans. As soon as I start work I will post pics of WIP.

My tools are cringing....

Well we started today on the trap build. Gareee took some pics which I am sure he will post later. We are gluttons for punishment and are using a combination of wood (aspen plywood), Styrene, and insulation foam. Most of the outer parts are going to be built out of wood for the durability. Most interior parts (i.e. cartridge) and the battery will be built out of the styrene and foam to help lessen the weight.
So far I haven't broken any of Gareee's tools yet either!

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Well, traps are pretty basic after the proton packs. jt001 has some great plkans, as well as sean's plans.

We already did the rollerblade bearing wheels/axels on the bases, and found the wood we are planning out using is grainy as all hell. Thats ok for the bottom, but we might have to paint them with mod podge or housepaint and then sand them to get a non woodgrain finish on them.

Ok, I'll starts documenting the builds...



I used a dowel rod for the axels, and instead of brass, just used a matching length of pc hose inside the roller blade bearing. The bearings are then held on with a simple wood screw. Note a thin styrene spacer to et the wheel levels just right, so they could freely spin. Why? Not like we are going to be tossing the traps into a room, but just because.. and they roll reallly well!



Parts starting to take shape.. crappy lightweight splintry wood.. great choice for something like this.. NOT!





Mounting the bearing axels on the bases..



Prepping parts



(Note the battery base is now part of the cartridge base as well. since they had almost exactly the same width, it made sense to just combine those into the same piece.)



The rough bases.. the holes are so the bearings can still roll freely

My wood filler of choice

Here's how I made the axel hubs.. slip the tube on a dowel rod to make then easier to cut.

(And use black hose and keep the dowel rod to make fake hex bolts!)



And I did the same thing to make "caps" for the screw on top of the trap handle. I slipped the hose on the screw head, and then stuck a slice of dowel rod in to fill it. Sand it down, and its perfect!

Just some test dry fits, and then starting to glue...









After cutting the trap doors out of plexiglass, a simple base test fit.







The handle attached, and the back formed out of one piece of insulation foam, with sanded side angles. (After working with it, I forgot what a joy it was working with foam instead of wood!!)

(Note the top spacer for the trap doors, made from square dowel rods. This small space will hold the leds to add light under the doors.. and some green halloween cotton will give it that smoky "fluff" kind of look.

The entire top is hinged inside in the back, and opens up.







Not a ton of space in there, but enough room for a 2 part epoxy stick, electric tape, leatherman, and various bits n bobs.

In retrospect, it would have been FAR easier to just use a stout smooth piece of cloth, and nail and glue it to the edge of the trap top, and body, to act as a hinge.. screwing those tiny hinges and screws in there was a major PITA!

(Oh, and the single center hinge just didn't look sturdy enough to me, so I replaced that with a hinge on the left and right side as well.)

Hey, these are looking fantastic! Great to see the build pics up. Those tiny hinges are a pain in the butt to get set right.

great work !!!

Thanks. I put put blocks for the hose connector in yesterday, and put a few coats of housepaint on the back foam parts.

Looking good! Can't wait to see the end product.

Looking good guys.

We are taking that one guy's internal smoke effect another step ahead, standing on the shoulders of giants.

Here's a quick light/smoke effect test. The dea is to use some LEDS under the door joint in the middle, and have some "smoke" coming out, lit from inside. Also, to have "smoke" and light coming from the sides of the cartridge, between the cartridge and the outer side holder plates.

The tests look VERY promising!








The "smoke" is just polyfill, covering leds pointed toward the ends f the polyfill. I might need batting, or something with a more "woven" texture so it holds together better, but a huge bag of the stuff is only $3, so I could just keep it with us in the car for quick replacement. I need to check the textures, and how that other stuff is made.. cotton might end up being the best "smoke" as well.

Ok.. polyfill will work, but you want to "shape" it once you spray it with clear fixative. Thay makes is stick together better, but also allows you to shape pointed tendrils, and get a shape you want, rather then what it wants to do. Since it holds together pbetter, and once dry is waterprooof, that should make it last a bit longer.

cool...

Those traps are looking amazing!!! You both have done an excellent job there... and the smoke looks great!

Congrats!

Thanks! It's been a pretty quick build, but these seem to be taking as long as the proton packs did!

Its the home stretch, so now its just little fiddly stuff, and how it all goes together, like doing the trap doors, and making sure they open n such.

More progress today.. they are starting to actually look like traps now!

Those look great guys! I am starting mine this weekend. I wish I could pick your brain for some advice! I am making mine out of MDF tomorrow. I am more used to foamcore, so I have to work on my woodworking skills

Best advice: Double check the template printouts vs the actual measurements.. we found out half way through our templates sizes did not print out properly.

Also, there are some odd shapes that need a little more attention then something simple like a plain box.

Our lights are from target.. sylvaina battery powered twinkling clear lights... 4 of the lights flash, so you have just what you need for the front display and the back red hat light. the rest of the string will be trap cartridge lights.

A lot of the build is messing around with fit details for the doors, and the flip opening top we added.

Well now I've an inflated sense of self importance. Thanks a lot.

Hey, we all learn from seeing what others do. Leegon, have you seen these:









Here's the main link with more pics..

http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/for ... pic=6011.0


After seeing what you did, and then what seeing what HE did, thats how I got the idea for external smoke effects.

I seriously thought those were screen caps from a new game and was really confused for a few minutes. Wow. Those are really cool.

I worked on it this weekend. I just built the 2 main trap boxes, and I am about to work on the battery compartment, and the smaller boxes on the front of the trap. I plan on using 1/8 material hoping it will be easier to work with. I am worried that those small, funny shaped boxes on the sides are going to be a real pain.

The side are just single parts, not boxes.. easy to make.

I'm pretty sure you can make the front box from only two parts, and then dremel out the opening for the lights. That's still on my to do list.

Yesterday I cut all the plexiglass and prepped it for the side aluminum plates, made the front circular knobs, made the tear drop knobs, and picked up more materials. I found some plastic 1/2" tube in plumbing that will give me a smooth surface on those side orange/yellow/silver cylinders, and will slide a bit of 5/16th inch dowel inside to keep them straight. Trying top get a smooth even surface on dowel rods is almost impossible.

I ordered sets of resistors yesterday, so I'll have the real side resistor as well in probably 3 days.

And today it's fookin 24 degrees outside.. my biggest slowdown with these is I usually work out on the deck.. and its too cold for many jobs, like painting and filling right now.

I'm bringing items and sub work inside since I don't want to waste time.