Boiler

[gregsalyers]

I am adding a Freddy Krueger scene next year. I need some ideas on building a fake boiler.

[Nightmaretony]

Main boiler would be light luan over wood frame to curve it, use sonotubing for bigger pipes, paint rust color, plenty of old plumbing fixtures from junkyard? Cheap rust trick: brown paint, add in crushed tea leaves, mix and paint on. Fire inside boiler would be red and yellow strings of christmas lights blinking at random with aluminum sheets in there to reflect the light around, fog machines through tubes leaking out of joints, flickering old style work lights, round type, flourescents too modern, etc....

[Jim Warfield]

Something round like a barrell, could be even a cardboard barrel like soap for a car wash comes in, old valves, gauges showing pressure, pipes of course coming out the bottom and the top , you need a couple of doors low and high, then you get all of this hooked together , maybe using a big piece of thick plywood internally,wrap the whole thing with gauze (like the mummy wears), let some of it hang down here and there this is your asbestos pipe covering..breathe deeply, in, out in out , in , out...
If you want to make it very much more real I can give you more precise info .....

[gregsalyers]

Thanks for the suggestions.....any pics would be helpful......I am pretty good at building things, I , unfortunately am not very creative....I need a visual to guide me most of the time.

[bhays]

Thanks for the suggestions.....any pics would be helpful......I am pretty good at building things, I , unfortunately am not very creative....I need a visual to guide me most of the time.

I made ours from Luan, some old hvac duct I picked up along the street on trash day and a projection tv set that had an unfocused, crappy picture. Playing a dvd of burning fire, it really adds the right effect. I also put a small heater on top of the tv set with a hole in the front so when you walk by the boiler you feel the heat. I need to do some additional rust detail and rivets, etc. during the off season.

[Spookyfinder]

Kelly (Raycliff Manor) made an AWESOME boiler for his haunt this year, hopefully he'll see this and post the link or the pictures again! -Tyler

[gregsalyers]

Looks good...thanks for posting your picture.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is luan.....not familiar with that term. I looked it up and I realize it is plywood....but what makes it different from normal sanded plywood?

[tot13]

Looks good...thanks for posting your picture.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is luan.....not familiar with that term. I looked it up and I realize it is plywood....but what makes it different from normal sanded plywood?

Luan is thinner than plywood and finished on one side for doors and cabinets. It's more like paneling than plywood, IMO.

[Jim Warfield]

Luan can be bent to make a rounded shape, go slowly bending it, have a heavy wooden form to screw it too as you go and experiement with it.
For it's thinness it is very strong, especially when used with the tension of the bend. Sort of like thin metal bend it with some 90 degree angles and it becomes stronger, to a point, like a car fender does.

[Gore Galore]

Brick wall panels seem to add to the effect, and a cat walk and metal stairs.
A flame flicker lighting effect on the walls and keeping the room hot would lend to the effect.

[Jim Warfield]

Galore, You forgot the soot and oil smells, cobwebs, a drop-corded trouble light that doesn't work.
If you can get a real door from an old boiler and mount it on your creation it will not only look good but will save you alot of time trying to make such a thing.
That was why I saved the old boiler doors from the boiler here for almost 20 years, I knew someday I would use them.
If you hit these doors with a hammer they will break, pieces flying because most of them were cast iron. trying to salvage the hinges is almost impossible although alot of WD-40 may help.
I tore out alot of boilers in the 20 yrs. I worked for my Dad.
No, I don't miss the work at all.

[Greg Chrise]

Boiler Effect.

This thing should not only have flame and heat like Barry suggested but have a heavy sound and the vibration from that sound with a big bass cannon or something. Plus it should have a sign on it that says "BOILER" for the Mad Magazine crowd. Duh.

[Jim Warfield]

I had a friend who was a serviceman for the gas company, I got a "Condemmed" tag from him to hang on my phoney furnace I built, just incase anybody really noticed.
Them thare little details help sometimes with some audiences, the ones that are older than 14 and aren't just running and screaming non-stop.
I also ran the exhaust leak from an air valve via tiny little plastic hose to the back of the actual gas line to my actual furnace. When someone would happen to ask what that "Hisssssing" sound was I would tell them it was just a small gas leak.

[RJ Productions]

Seems every Bolier room/industrial room has a huge fan slowly rotating behind a grate. Usually back lit with some smoke for good measure.

I built one for a scene using a ceiling fan. I mounted it vertically and replaced the blades with new ones I created out of luan. I made each blade about 3 ft so the fan had a diameter of over 6 ft!

If the fan is enclosed you may be able to use the fan motor but I felt the motor moved the fan too quickly.

Solution was to place a real fan behind the large fan blowing up at the big blades. The air current from the small fan actually moved the big blades at a real slow rotation that looked better and couldn't hurt anyone.

If it doesn't make the right sound, add a sound clip of a "woop woop" and you could even add some other clanking and industrial sounds in the background.

[Ken Spriggs]

Hmmm

We can make it smell like a boiler or cooked flesh......

We actually built a boiler for a Robert Englund appearance in July
I would sell you it but....He signed it and drew a pic of himself on it....sorry that gets added to the collection.