Thanks so much to everyone who voted for me in the contest, I was a second place winner!
Ah, Halloween is upon us again! I am not as consistently awesome at costumery as my brother, but I have been known to build a thing or two or three, and generally overdo it this time of year.
My friend Felicia volunteers at a small theater in Bend, Oregon. She acted in their production of Richard III, and mentioned to the director of their upcoming production of Evil Dead: The Musical that she might just know someone who could build them a new chainsaw arm to replace the one Bruce Campbell signed the last time they ran the play.
For the uninitiated, Evil Dead: The Musical is based on the movie Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, which was written and directed by Sam Raimi (of Spider-Man fame), and starring Bruce Campbell (of Army of Darkness, Bubba Hotep, and Brisco County Junior fame). The movie is a masterpiece of the comedic horror subgenre, both hilarious and disturbing at times. Crucially to this instructable, there is a scene where the main character, Ash, has to cut off his own hand with a chainsaw. He later replaces his removed hand with that same chainsaw, wielding that and a sawed off shotgun to do battle with the demons he has unwittingly summoned up.
When Felicia asked if I'd be interested in building them a chainsaw arm prop, I leaped at the chance! I'd put that Dalek I've been struggling with on indefinite hold and focus my energies on making the best darn chainsaw arm I could . . . and when they asked if I could, you know, maybe make it spray blood everywhere . . . well, let's just say I stopped chanting "Exterminate! Exterminate!" and started chanting, "Swallow your soul! Swallow your soul!" After that, they even asked me to make them a Necronomicon . . . and how could I not!?
Here's a video of me acting poorly and cutting off my hand:
Read on to learn all about how I built this thing from scratch, or jump ahead to read more about the play itself!
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Signing UpStep 1: Gather Materials
Here's a hopefully complete list of the stuff I had to buy:
- Large juice container
- 2 small plastic bottles
- Roll of sheet metal
- Tape measure
- Nylon cord
- A bunch of 5/16" nuts and bolts
- 1/8"x1" thick aluminum bar
- Wood trim about as wide as the aluminum
- 4" rubber plumbing coupling
- 1/4" clear plastic tubing
- Small hose clamps
- Reel of #41 roller chain (if you're not plumbing yours for blood, bicycle chain will work just as well)
- A couple of small plastic bowls
- CO2 charging system (from a homebrew mini-kegging system)
- 1" wooden dowel
- 1/4" plywood
- E6000 epoxy
- Hot glue
- Spray paint in a variety of colors
- Silicone caulk
- Cardstock
- Laminate film
- 7" cedar 2x2
- 3/8", 7" long carriage bolt
- 1/4" thick piece of rubber or flexible plastic
- Jigsaw
- Hot glue gun
- Screwdrivers
- Box knife
- Dremel
- Bench vise
- Rasp
- Drill
- Pliers
- Awl
- Printer
- Shears
- Steel wool
- Heat gun
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That 1/4" rubber that you used, what was it from? I've needed something just like that many times and never found anything quite what I was looking for.
That rubber was scrap I picked up from work. It's called "skirtboard rubber", and it's used extensively in the aggregate processing industry, like gravel pits and that sort of place. I suppose the real trick (if you don't work somewhere that cuts it) would be getting just a little bit of it--it's traditionally sold in 50' reels. It's very possible if you called around to bearing/power transmission businesses, or even managed to get a hold of the maintenance shop at a gravel pit, they could provide you with some cut ends.
Anyway, keep the nightmare alive, brother!