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  • #16
    The prop should be made to weigh very little like 20 pounds, the 2 or 2.5 inch cylinder becomes just and extention of a submersible that does only about 3.5 gallons per minute and the true pressure is probably less than 4 psi. It isn't a hydralic seal so much as displacement of water. If you put a gallon of water in part of a volume that weighs 8 pounds pergallon and at low presures is not compressed it is no different than putting your hand in the tub and pushing it like a puppet.

    The 3.5 gallon submersible pumps usually have a 1.5 inch hose and even if it was slow it would be believable rather than being a pop up creature.

    If you wanted to pop up the cylinder should be pnuematic and perhaps be in a basin not really submerged in water. Sort of like a trash can terror only stuck in the water.

    A still quick but lumbering raising of a creature that does not have a human shape would be more discomforting as it is not easily recongnized for anything other than what it is, an unidentifiable monster moving on its own with no air noise.
    sigpic

    Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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    • #17
      Sure, if the prop only weighs twenty pounds you could do almost anything. You could just about blow into a straw attached to the cylinder to lift it. How, though, are you going to make something that large only weigh twenty pounds and, if you suceed, how are you going to make it more dense than water so it won't float? I'm afraid that by trying to make the problem easier you will make it much harder.

      You can very easily make a heavy prop out of some kind of resin maybe with an aluminum or stainless steel skeleton. Build a really big cylinder and get a nice pump like the one I had mentioned and you're good to go. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking the whole project costs you less than $1000 when it's all said and done and you would have a totally unique prop that will definitely get your patron's attention.
      Kip Polley
      www.palenight.com

      Pale Night Productions
      We Engineer Fear

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      • #18
        I have scared alot of people moving myself or something "slower" rather than "faster'.
        Pnuematics are often too fast in my opinion and people miss the scare.
        Also if they are too quick the mind doesn't have any real time to get scared, it's all over with too quickly.
        Dr. Frankenfurter sang about what I mean:"An-tic-i-pa-tion".
        More mental involvement rather than less, then the customer feels like they experienced something, thereby adding more perceived value to the tour, maybe making them more happy to have paid for a ticket and taken the time to do the haunt.
        hauntedravensgrin.com

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        • #19
          Also need to take into consideration the drag of the water itself. If the object is completely submerged before hand, pushing it through the surface will be quite the task, adding more weight than in plain air. And if it only weighed twenty pounds and was quite large, would it have enough support to be forced through the water time and time again?

          I've never been, and have no idea what it looks like or how it works, but what about the Jaws ride at orlando? I think it's at orlando, at least.

          Also, what if you had a prop that was more of a springloaded type object and simply was reset with a crank or something like that? Maybe simple is the way to go. Looks like it's either something really simple or really expensive.

          Depending upon the depth, you may need a very tall figure to lay flat to stay hidden, so maybe having some sort of a spring which stands the figure upright from underwater, a giant bungee, that sort of thing.
          - - Luke - -

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          • #20
            Another way to approach it is that the actual mechanisms are behind the scenery. A big under water teeter toter pushes the creature up or it is a cable operated contraption.

            If floating is a problem perhaps the creature thrusts out from under a mossy spot out along the water toward the patron.

            Rather than make the mechanisms high dollar and for a specific purpose, make several styles of actuator mechanisms and see what they are capable off.

            For smaller low pressure pnuematics and even water pressure there are even bicycle pumps made entirely from plastic that can be converted to move things. Short strokes as well weok wonders, it need not be a telescoping actuator from a dump truck to get a thrill.

            There are also counterweights. Even though the creature weighs 60 pounds and the actualtor is a submersible pump a cable and pulley with weight can be rigged to make it weigh nothing.

            Then there are other physical things like if the creature is hollow and somewhat air tight and submerged, simply filling it with a big volume of air would make it float way above the water, coming up only restrained by nylon tie ropes and weights on the bottom of the pond. For quick action think a big bellows or a 6 inch tube of PVC 4 foot long with a piston or a precharge of air and a valve to blow the thing up out of the water.

            My gears hurt.
            sigpic

            Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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            • #21
              Hmm... well with that then you could make it rise up and out of the water. With the right lighting, you have a magic trick

              And then, you can have an extender on the end of the teeter toter, it will rise up, out, and at you over the water, floating across the surface.

              ....I need some money lol
              - - Luke - -

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              • #22
                "Rising up , up from the reeds next to the river bank, it's , it;s ...Moses!"
                I was thinking along the river bank too.
                How about something more simple and less fantastic , thereby maybe more scary because they just may be real? How about a few floating human bodys out there on the Golden Pond?
                Of course those simple air sacks wearing Salvation Army clothing could rise and sink with the push of a button releasing and restoring their air.
                While people are straining to see the floating bodies 50 feet out in the pond is when the reed-guy pops up infront of them for full effect.
                hauntedravensgrin.com

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                • #23
                  Could you just light an already erect prop and allow it to spray water? And have the lights hit it?

                  or the idea of the mechanic being outside the water and using leverage to pull it up would be my other suggestion (I believe Greg covered that)

                  Verdun Manor had a big dragon in the lake that came to life and sprayed water at unsuspecting guest... So maybe a distraction then SPLAT? :wink:

                  I love spraying guest... Exploding toilets are the best... :lol: :twisted:
                  Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

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                  • #24
                    Get a real Pleziasaur from Lock Ness, Scotland to just bite a stander by off at the rib cage and squirt real blood on them. The suspense could be built up by an actor portraying the late Marlon Perkings from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kindom.

                    Put a guy in a scuba suit and a rubber godzulla costume to jump up out of the water. A prolog by Jaques Costeo.

                    It could be a pro fisherman pulls out a big one.

                    It could be a big marrionette with the lights only on the creature, the puppeteers on a scaffold painted flat black and wearing ninja suits. There could be a song from Kermit the swamp years and the monster doing a duet.

                    A civil war style turtle submarine could be under the water to do puppets from underneath. The monster could be a big black trash bag with styrofoam ball eyes if you are on a budget. To be scarry don't make the monster voices too squeeky.

                    Steal the Jaws animatronic from Universal Studios Tours.

                    Or, I like the light idea. It is actually mostly out of the water already but the light comes on and it moves only slightly for the effect.

                    Or there is this big bubbling in the water first and something really big pops up. No one seems to know where the back hoe went.

                    Or, it is actually a big clear tube and is sucked up like the vacuum transport at the bank drive through. Put a sign on it noting not to pay any attention to the plexiglas tube for full effect.

                    Or, just have bubbles in the water and tell them to run! This is either a swimming pool blower for a spa, an air hose off of a compressed air tank and PVC with holes in it to spread out the bubbles or a scuba diver with days of bean eating competitions. Earlier shows could actually have fire on the water.

                    If it is a wooded trail next to a lake, it could be a long piece of pipe a boom if you wiil, with counterweights actually on the woods side of the path, pulling up a cable with some prelude to look toward the water like bubbles and underwater lights.

                    If it is an open field and a wide open lake, maybe it goes up with big garage door springs on a metal frame and goes back down with pnuematics.

                    Maybe it comes up on the path like Jaws? The mechanisms are on the bank of the pond and pull toward the patrons.

                    I think a guy farting and then jumping up with a black trash bag is the scariest.
                    sigpic

                    Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.

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                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Greg Chrise
                      I think a guy farting and then jumping up with a black trash bag is the scariest.

                      Lol, aannddd the gears are worn out

                      ...though I agree
                      - - Luke - -

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