|
With most of my
projects I find it helps enormously
when I start with drafting up the
project to scale fist. Here is a
general idea of how I wanted my
entrance to look, a bit
gothic in design that would include gargoyles atop each pillar,
smoke (fog) coming out of each one's mouth, and a sign connecting the two sides.
The important thing about
the construction of this, to me,
was that this not only be pleasing
to the eye, but practical, in as
much as moving and storing. And
since the columns would largely be
hollow, I decided to use them for
storing the elements that would be
part of the event, like the
gargoyles and fog
 directing
system. That meant the interior dimensions would be based on the
Distortions'
foam filled latex gargoyle #DU1136
which stand 27" tall and when
turned a 1/4 turn will just fit
inside a 15" square interior space. Then, considering the height of the arch included, I felt that 80" high for the pillars
 would be adequate,
which would give me almost that
much head clearance under the arch
and at the same time be low enough
to store in a typical garage with
an 8' ceiling.
In this blueprint you can see the
doors that are built into the back
of each column that will give me
access to the storage area as well
as for the fog routing system.
As mentioned earlier, this
how-to was completely re-written in
August of 2004, as I had recently
retrofit my 1997 entrance with a
new fog delivery
system I later patented in the
spring of 2005. The original system
I used to get the fog up to the
gargoyles was
a method that I
called the Ice Vac, but since it
moved fog using a fan, the fog was
very thin and more of a mist than
fog. Here we
will be using the
Vortex Fog Delivery System™,
as it is by far the most effective
method I have found yet to move fog
over any distance without losing
it's viscosity. We will be installing a
specially made
Vortex Mini
(must be special
special ordered from us
to have the exhaust on the end as
shown here, as well as the inlet
set to the needed position and the
lid sealed permanently shut). The
Vortex Column Fog Delivery Mini is 24" long and
just under the 15" square that the
inside of the columns will have, so
this is a perfect fit.
The idea is to install the
Mini in the base
of the left column. There will be more on the
detail of the ducting system later,
but it is important to your
construction if you deal with this
element of the build now.
Once you (later) fit your column
with 1" ABS or PVC pipe for the
ducting, you will want to make sure
to mount the
Mini vertically so the
fog-in (inlet) port is the lowest
point of the unit, (the inside of
the unit is slanted toward the lid)
so that during use all the unspent
fog fluid will automatically drain
out and not build up inside where
we will not be able to get to it.
Now on to the construction of the
columns. The photo here shows the
basic box configuration of the
project. I used 3/4" waferboard due to the cheap price and light weight. I do not
recommend the use of particle board for props since it falls apart ruthlessly
when exposed to moisture. The
overall dimensions I used were 16
1/2" deep / wide x 80" high. Here
is the cut out list;
(4) 15" x 15"
interior floors
(2) 16 1/2" x 16 1/2" tops
(4) 16 1/2" x 80" sides
(2) 15" x 80" fronts
(1) 15" x 56 3/4" door
(1) 15" x 25" door
(2) 9 5/8" x 15" top back
(1) 12 7/8" x 15" lower back
(1) 15" x 44 5/8" lower back
(expansion chamber cover)
|
