Giant Etch a Sketch Costume

This instructable details the steps I went through to create the giant Etch a Sketch costume for Halloween 2008. See the finished costume below.

Each year, our family does a theme costume, and this year, we decided to be classic toys. One of my favorite toys from my childhood is the Etch a Sketch. I knew it would be easy to make a billboard / sandwich board style costume to look like the Etch a Sketch, but I wanted to go one step further... I decided to make it FUNCTIONAL!

A real Etch a Sketch works with aluminum powder on the inside, and this is too messy to expand to the large size. I decided to use the same style of wiring as inside a real Etch a Sketch, but use a piece of Plexiglas and a dry-erase marker in place of the stylus removing aluminum powder from the glass.

Complete build photo collection:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazinbenny/sets/72157608801645603/

Videos describing wiring, showing functionality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT0avP8UgQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpw-EsOK6iw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Md5QLsNM7o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yctT5RHRm-o

Step 1 Materials List

 Here's a list of the materials I used to create my costume:

Materials:
- 2 pieces of 1/4" plywood, 1 the size of the finished piece, the second slightly smaller. (Had them already)
- 1 sheet of plexiglas (I used a 24"x36" from hobby/craft store)
- 2 lawnmower wheels for the knobs (I got 8" wheels from hardware store)
- 1 crib mattress bed sheet (mine was a jersey knit material) - red
- 40-50' of 1/16" wire rope
- many 1/16" wire rope ferules
- 8 small springs
- 1 long steel rod, cut into pieces just less han 24" and 36"
- 9 screen door ball-bearing wheels, I used these as the pulleys. (hardware store)
- 2 long (3"?) standard 3/8" machine bolts.
- several 3/8" nuts, washers, a couple nylon lock nuts, rounded nut caps.
- 8 small machine screws and nuts to attache the denim shoulder straps
- 2 cheap drawer pull handles (one on each side to help hold it steady when someone is drawing)
- old pair of jeans, cannibalized to make the shoulder straps.
- silver and white spray paint
- small block of wood to act as the "shuttle" for the pen / cross-piece for the two rods

Comments

[ComplacentBard]

when you say wire rope, don't you mean cable

[matt09]

beasttttt!!!!!! : )))

[ThawedHead]

Very cool costume, but didn't you submit this last year?  I didn't realize that we could resubmit.

[mazinbenny]

 Actually, last year I won in the "video" category, because I ran out of time to gather up my photos and write up a complete instructable.  This is the full (new) instructable that I finally finished, so I figured it should be eligible in the instructable category.