Peekaboo tombstone

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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Last year I wanted to make one of these:
View: https://youtu.be/O6scAyuJCEU

But the mechanism is quite tricky (even original builder said so!) and house renos got in the way, so it was abandoned to this year.

My 2nd attempt at the mechanism worked OK at first but then decided to have an epic fail.

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BXnMhnChP6F/?taken-by=evans_central_christmas_lights


So I replaced the old garage door motor with a 12v 10RPM geared motor such as these.

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYtyl2RB8wa/?taken-by=evans_central_christmas_lights


Next was to create a tombstone base to hide the mechanics and help weatherproof the motor:

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYsyMSbBibE/?taken-by=evans_central_christmas_lights


Next came some more lettering and starting the aging process (cracks and chips off edges), and the grey base coat of paint:

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BY5jc_FhwvU/?taken-by=evans_central_christmas_lights
 
Last edited:

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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Generous elf
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Painting the letters darker and wiping down excess paint to start the weathered look:

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BY-q6NgBMt4/?taken-by=evans_central_christmas_lights


Then the drippy paint (watered down dark followed by some water to wash away parts) and then assemby, and we have a finished prop!

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BZF2BqghCmv/?taken-by=evans_central_christmas_lights


All that's left is to pop a skeleton behind it, and attach the hands to the sides of the tombstone, and add in a couple of LEDs to light it all up at night.
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
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What was the cause of the epic fail Graham?
It looks great btw.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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Thanks.
If you looks closely, my original T-piece of conduit was actually 2 pieces dodgily (it's a word!) glued together. One of the bolts got a little too tight and ceased up, which just ripped the whole piece out and snapped the small bit of tin wood I was using as part of the linkage. SO I replaced the T-piece with an actual 1 piece t-piece, replaced the wood with another piece of metal bracket and also by using a smaller physical motor, the overall base size was reduced.
 

marmalade

cats & pixels
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newcastle
looks awesome DJ!

Couldn't you fashion a rotating cam (from wood?) to raise and lower that pipe? Far simpler than that linkage.
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
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Thanks.
If you looks closely, my original T-piece of conduit was actually 2 pieces dodgily (it's a word!) glued together. One of the bolts got a little too tight and ceased up, which just ripped the whole piece out and snapped the small bit of tin wood I was using as part of the linkage. SO I replaced the T-piece with an actual 1 piece t-piece, replaced the wood with another piece of metal bracket and also by using a smaller physical motor, the overall base size was reduced.

Ahhh. Lack of locknut on the top pivot and the self tightening effect and bucketloads of torque from the windscreen wiper motor could cause a massive fail.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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looks awesome DJ!

Couldn't you fashion a rotating cam (from wood?) to raise and lower that pipe? Far simpler than that linkage.
That is another option yes, but hadn't really thought of it in this application. I tried to copy what had already been done in the original video which worked.
 
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