The Electrocution -11-

   In this section we will be fitting a ducting system to our chair to route the fog to the top of the back posts, to the ankles and to the wrists to simulate frying skin and smoking electrical current. To the casual eye it might seem like just making the chair legs hollow and shooting the fog inside the channels at the bottom of the chair would suffice nicely to get the fog to all of those locations by just drilling holes into the wood, allowing the fog to escape at each desired point. However if we did this, our chair would become destroyed by the fog in little time, as fluid based foggers emit a hot, moist fog from unspent glycol as discussed in the last section. This moisture would expand our wood at the joints and ruin the illusion of it being made out of square, welded steel. So to overcome this peril we will route the fog through smooth walled PVC pipe and then turn the fog out at each point using a T fitting or elbow that will be pressed tightly against the wood to basically seal off the chance of fog going back inside the chair's channels. So we will need to determine where our fog ducting will go through the top of the pedestal in order to be perfectly centered to the front chair leg channels. To do this I use a 1 1/4" diameter dowel that I dropped down through the hole in the seat box floor to make my mark. While I am at it, I drill the holes lining up with the back legs of the chair as well, since I will need to use those openings for my air lines and electrical cords as mentioned earlier. Once I slide the chair aside I can drill these holes using a 1 5 /8" diameter hole saw. Taking a close look now inside the front leg section below the seat box I have determined to have a turn out (T fitting) at the ankle level to spew the fog out toward our baking boy's feet. I used a 1 3/4" forstner bit (shown on your right) that drills a flat, blunt hole through wood as shown here to countersink the wood to accept the bump out of the T fitting.  I will be using the same technique at the top of the front legs under the front of the arm rest right under the back of smokey's hand (shown on the left). Now it is time to position our fogger assembly inside the pedestal so the fittings line up to the front chair legs. I use metal plumber's tape to clamp the expansion chamber in place and use a single L bracket screwed directly to the back of my fogger in a location that wouldn't harm the fogger. As you can see, the drain pipe winds up just recessed from the bottom of the floor where the side of the pedestal will be attached. Don't forget your access opening to the drain plug! 3" square opening should suffice.

   This is the other side of the chair where you can see the fittings already in place going to the wrist and then back to the back posts. All of these fittings can be screwed together using 1/2" x #8 sheet metal screws instead of glue in case you need to adjust them for any reason. At the top of the back you can see how I am securing the pipe to the inside of the channel using conduit clamps that have been bent to the right form. On the front of this 90 degree elbow is a plug that I drill out one small hole in the middle of (this will all be covered with our "heat sink", so don't worry about the plug being visible). Once I tested the fog system, I wound up drilling the right hole a bit larger than the one in the left back, so start small with your test holes. Now I need to make a pair of ducts that will be outside the leg of the chair at the ankle to direct the fog forward instead of to the underneath of the chair, as I didn't want to have the fog just coming out of the center of the chair leg, inches away from the ankle. I decided on using a 2" PVC elbow that I cut the top off of. In the photo here you will see how I managed to do this without cutting my fingers off. I fitted a stick inside the opposite end to hold on to and then used a chop saw to nip the lid off. I then used two counter-sunk screws to attach solid to the chair. Inside at the back of the duct is the 1/4" hole drilled through the thin outer layer of wood and the PVC plug just behind it to allow a small amount of fog to exit. It worked beautifully and they were invisible to the eye once the paint was applied to the chair. At the top of the seat back I needed something to look like a heat vent or heat sink and while perusing the isles of the local Home Depot I spotted this chimney hood. After some cutting to the bottom section to make it slip down over the top of the post, it fit like they were made to be there. Next I needed a way to attach some VERY heavy 4" diameter insulators solidly to the post in such a way that they wouldn't just tear right off under their own weight of 15 lbs apiece. I decided on a 4 1/2" section of 2" x 4" tube steel that I would attach with lag bolts and then I could bolt the insulator to the top. Since they looked like nothing more than pieces of rectangular pipe in this capacity, I used some extra chunks of 1 1/2" flex conduit to fill in the sides to give it an insulator effect. This turned out to be an extremely solid mount assembly. To the two bolts on top of the insulators I screwed some flex conduit connectors that I had ground down on angles so they would send off my decorative conduit in different directions, so that it looked authentic when attached. The overall height of this assembly went up to 95", just 1" below a normal ceiling. The conduit was then routed down the front of the back posts to the side of the arm rests and then down the front of the front legs of the chair. Finally finishing off to the ankle level with right-angle flex conduit fittings. The medallion you see them connected to for a solid fitting is actually a stack of four metal reducers used in power boxes and is attached using 1/4" lag bolts.   

 
 

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