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 Here are pics of most of the things needed for the animation of your
executioner. Here you can see the pump I used
to create an air cylinder was all steel construction, so the
threads on the top of the pump are metal-to-metal (bike pump available most
places called BIKE XTRAS #861). The stronger the cap-joint the better for
safety, so choose a high quality pump. The two closers shown will be used to
make
Screen Door Air
cylinder s to animate the arms. At the pressure this will work at (65 lbs), you can use
plastic T fittings as shown, you will need one 3/8" each nipple for
splitting air to each arm and
another "T" that is 1/4" each way
to attach in-line to your bike pump
to attach one of your needle valves
to for bleed-off. Also shown here
is a diaphragm air regulator that
allows you to adjust the maximum
pressure allowed to your cylinder s.
Since you have two different air
pressure settings on this project
you will actually need two of
these. If
you use air regulators integrated
to your prop you won't ever have to worry
about sending too high of pressure to it, thus avoiding the possible damage. It
is a good idea. The final items shown are two brass regulators (1/4" pipe
fittings). These will allow you to adjust the air going to both the head and the
arms of the event.
The funny looking blue thing
in this photo is a
washing machine water solenoid that we will
 be using for our
Air
Trigger. The needle valves
(shown in the pic at top)(2)
should be a standard 1/4" valve from the local OSH
or other hardware store, (Anderson
Barrows Tubing to Tubing Straight
Needle Valve Part No#BP9106-CP
1/4"). You will also need 20' of
3/8" rubber airline and 1' of 1/4"
plastic tube for attaching to the
needle valves, shown attached to
the valve at the top right.
Other items needed not shown here are various fittings for the air lines. You
will need (14) pipe clamps to fit around your
5/8" outside diameter (called
3/8") air lines, (4) 3/8" thread-to-slip connection
fittings, (2) 3/4" long 3/8" all thread male - male connectors, (2)
3/8" all female Ts, (1) female air line connector with slip fitting for
your air "in", plumber's Teflon tape & (1) 1/2" conduit wall
clamp.
My vision for the executioner was
from the start to have a huge,
imposing figure who's head comes
out and up - to tower over your
head, not just high, but to travel
forward at the same time. That is
why you see in the photo the bottom
of the head air cylinder is backed
away from sitting directly under
the shoulders. This would give the
head the forward travel that I
desired. Yet since the bicycle pump
does not have the correct orifice
for the rod to remain suspended at
a truly parallel angle if not
vertical, this was not really
possible. I was able to achieve a
bit of a forward travel by adding a
"bearing" orifice to the existing
pump's top cap, but I was not able
to get the head to return if the
pump were on much more than only a
slight angle. Therefore you may
want to build your chest section
with the pump perhaps kicked out a
bit less (like 2" less) than shown.
One cool upside to the construction
of this skeleton is that I did not
have to use any padding of any kind
to dress him out. His large
diameter "bones" and the built-out
chest not only fills out his
clothes, but the cavity the chest
area creates gives us more than
ample space for his air line
manifold and fittings.
As you can see, I have built the
chest section out of schedule 40, 1
1/2" PVC pipe and fittings. Using a
4-way junction for the neck, I was
able to slip the cylinder up through and
hold it with nothing more than a
snug fitting sleeve made out of
schedule 40, 1 1/4" PVC pipe. This
made for a very clean mount. Down
at the bottom, the pump is mounted
to a T fitting with 2 pipe clamps
and 4 pan head screws. The screws
are tight against the clamps and
the head is left up high enough so
the clamps cannot slide off the T
fitting.
To put your frame
together you will need a 14" x 20"
piece of plywood, a box of 100 (#8)
3/4" pan head Phillips screws, a
dozen (#8) 3/8" pan head Phillips
screws, one 3/4" PVC slip-on end
cap and these various pipe sections
and these 1 1/2" fittings; |
