Dueling Electric Chairs

Every year my wife and I throw a pumpkin carving party the weekend before Halloween. We use our unfinished basement for the event where we have friends over to carve pumpkins, eat food, watch movies, and participate in general Halloween mayhem. We have a tradition of doing a prop room in one area of the basement for the enjoyment of the guests and to help set the mood.

The past several years have had stationary props, almost like a life size dioramas. So to help take things to the next level I decided to make a pair of electric chairs. One chair would have an animated dummy that would jump around when a button was pressed. The other chair would be an interactive prop, where guests could sit in it and get a simulated shock.

Step 1: Chair Design

The first step is to build two wooden chairs. I spent some time doing internet searches for images of electric chairs. I created a chair design that was based upon several different chairs, taking aspects that I liked from each and combining them. I took a little extra time on the design so that I could make up for my lack of carpentry skills. I intended to do all my joinery with glue and wood screws.

I also created a drawing to help keep track of the lumber I would have to cut. The attached PDF lists the lumber required for a single chair. The first page has a bill of materials that I used for my master cut list. The last five pages show dimensions and angles for the parts that needed cuts that were more complicated that just square cross cuts.

Comments

[Brass Paperclip]

This is so creepy and realistic...awesome job.

[tinker234]

could i use the zapper pens to make it really electrolyte some one just enough to make them jump

[blackbeard68]

Air blasts work just as well and no one can say you were trying to electrocute them.

[tinker234]

i think it be fun to hook a lilltle zappers like the pens and a metal plate for these

[midnsun183]

WICKED!

[gbcarlson]

Great job, one can see that a lot of work went into building the cool looking chairs. The special effects were amazing not only with the dummy chair but also on the interactive chair for the party guests. The attention to details of the electric chairs design and construction is really neat. To get the full effect of how great this project was, one would need to be present for the thrilling experience of sitting in the chair.

[furrysalamander]

When I first saw this, I thought you were putting pumpkins on the dummies and pumping high voltage through them to see which one would blow up first

[AKENFAN]

I love the level of detail achieved on this project. Great write up, loved reading it. It wasn't a snoozer. Very realistic--not cheesy. Outstanding overall on everything!!

[cdawisconsin]

Very cool. I think you should leave it up for the holidays, add some twinkle lights and have a Jack Skellington Christmas tree.

[ksykes]

I thought about bringing it into work and using it for my desk chair. It is quite comfortable for me since all the measurements for it are based off my body.

[l8nite]

sweet looking chairs ! Thank you for sharing

[iburton]

Having had the opportunity to take the ride on this chair, I can say that it was truly a great effect. ksykes did an amazing job!

[adverteasing]

Good job, and I like the detail work!

[wazzup105]

Could maybe use a little bit of smoke coming out of the victim, but apart from that AWESOME :) Also those blood stains will make a nice feature when you ever sell your house ... WTF happened here ..... :-)

[ksykes]

I thought about a fog machine, but the one I have would have smoked up the whole basement after a couple runs. There isn't a lot of air circulation down there. It was pretty funny taking the cable installation tech down into the basement. All the decorations were put away, so it was just a normal basement with blood all over the walls and floors :D

[Kiteman]

A truly sick mind...

_{...I love it!}