Make Creepy Fake Spider Webs - Fast and Easy!

I was trying to find a way to make realistic creepy spider webs for a Halloween haunted house and I found this great website.  I haven't modified the design, just added a secondary lid without slits so that i can keep any unused spider web solution. But here's what i did and some of the things I would do differently next time.

NOTE: rubber cement webs are made of rubber cement. This means that you SHOULD NOT use this machine indoors or you will spend an inordinate amount of time trying to clean sticky rubber cement webs off your stuff. Do not spray on pets, siblings or your parents (or any other living creature). And use only in well-ventilated areas on objects that you are willing to cover in rubber cement.

First of all - supplies and tools:

1) a drill (I found that a high-powered fast corded drill worked better than my cordless drill)
2) a small old fan with plastic blades 
3) 2x plastic cups with snap on lids
4) 6" 1/4 threaded carriage bolt
5) 3x 1/4 nuts
6) 1/4 wingnut
7) rubber cement and Bestine rubber cement thinner
8) homemade rubber cement stirring rod (fits in drill)
9) hacksaw
(not pictured below): rubber washers or furniture sliders and a hot glue gun

Step 1: Drill Holes

I used a drill press to carefully drill 1/4" holes in the centre of two of the lids, the centre of the plastic cup and the centre of the plastic washers (these are actually furniture sliders). Note of caution: small objects are difficult to control and hold down when you are drilling into them. Set your drill press to the slowest rpm and SLOWLY bring the 1/4" drill bit into contact. Alternatively you can start with a smaller drill bit and work up through the sizes until you get to 1/4", but either way use caution.

Step 2: Cut Slits in Lid

I cut four slits into the blue plastic lid. To do this i drilled two small holes, spaced about 1/4" apart. Then I used a knife and cut slits between the holes.

The reason I pre-drilled the holes is that I am a tremendously clumsy individual and I didn't want to make a mess of the lid by accidentally slicing too far; the holes provided me with a start/stop point when cutting. If you are more careful than I you likely won't need to pre-drill the holes.

NOTE: sooooo..... after my first trial run i discovered that I needed bigger holes anyway. In the future I will just drill 5 or 6 1/8" holes around the perimeter of the lid.

Step 3: Thread Pieces Onto Carriage Bolt

You can use threaded rod instead of a carriage bolt; I just had one readily available and used it.

Because i used a carriage bolt I had to cut off the head with a hacksaw. This is because eventually I was going to stick the cut off end into my drill and the bolt head would get in the way - so off it goes!

Here are the steps I took to put everything in place:

1. thread 1/4" nut onto carriage bolt
2. thread on plastic fan blade
3. thread on second nut
4. thread on plastic washer
5. add hot glue
6. thread on plastic cup (so that the hot glue seals the hole)
7. add hot glue inside cup
8. thread on second plastic washer (again, so that the hot glue seals the washer to the cup)
9. thread on third nut (so that it compresses the plastic washer inside cup)
10. thread on plastic lid
11. thread on wing nut

Step 4: Make Your Web Fluid

To make the web fluid I used 1:1 ratio of rubber cement and Bestine Rubber Cement Thinner.

To stir the fluid I made my own handy dandy web fluid stir stick (you could use an eye hook. Don't know why that didn't occur to me earlier). To make my stir stick I stuck a 1/4" steel rod in my vice and hammered it into, well, an eye hook. Then I stuck it in the drill and stirred the thinner and rubber cement together until they became one solution.

Now you can pour the thinned rubber cement into the plastic cup, put on the lid with the slits and thread on the wing nut.

NOTE: If you were paying attention you will notice I mentioned drilling centre holes in TWO lids. I did this so that I would have one air-tight lid that I could put on to rig after I was finished spraying webs (this is to keep the web fluid from drying out).

Step 5: Take It for a Spin!!

Once you have everything assembled you simply stick it in a drill and start making webs.

Interestingly, the fan i used (perhaps all fans???) requires that I run the drill in reverse in order for the air to push forward. This is good to note as otherwise you may end up spraying fake spider webs all over yourself.

Have fun and if you have any helpful advise please post in the comment section. I'd love to see the results of your web spinner, please post photos! And again, thanks to http://www.rottenapple907.com/how_to_documents/SpiderWebSpinnerhomemade.pdf for instructions!!!