# Starting my Flying Crank Ghost - any tips?



## SouthernBelle (Aug 30, 2004)

Yes. 

Have a foam bat nearby and something to beat on in case you mess it up. LOL!

J/K, you'll do fine. I couldn't do and bought one from Pugsly but hey, it was worth it.


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

don't get frustrated if it moves funny when you first try it. you'll have to tweak the lengths of the strings and the positions of the pullies till you get it right. you also might have to adjust the position of the string connect thingy on the crank itself. so make several holes about an inch apart for easy adjustments. also, you can use you own body dimension for the amrature of the ghost. like mid elbow to rist. mid elbow to shoulder. etc.

have fun, it's one of the most rewarding projects i've done to this date still!


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## michigal (Oct 30, 2005)

Ahhh! Have fun!. I just finished mine, and it's well worth it.

About string length. I put the crank arm at the front, and placed it so the head was close to the pulley. The arms were done the same way, but with the crank to the back, and the arms bent up to the height of the shoulders. Seemed to work out well.
Other advice, make sure you work on it when your hardware store is open. But I say that for every project.
Oh, and make sure the fender washer can spin freely, but not be wobbly. Otherwise the strings will fetch up.
An excellent, detailed site with lost of pictures and material lists is KickTheFog's FCG page. I used that as a reference to understand the mechanism's structure. A must page for anyone doing their first FCG.


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## Guest (Sep 24, 2006)

Have fun Chris! Michigal is right! Kickthefog.com has the best how to on this!
If you can, drape your ghost under black lighting as you work, you will see how it will look before you attatch it to your frame.

You will enjoy making it I'm sure. The material you chose is what i use a lot. It gives the ghost more body, and glows with out treatment. (I'm not knocking cheesecloth, trust me) Can't wait to see the results, post pics when you're done!


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## Deadna (Oct 19, 2002)

I found that you don't have to follow the directions exactly. I used wood for the frame instead of the aluminum and made adjustments accordingly for the nuts/washers. I also gave the frame a blast of spray paint after I finally got it working smoothly so that when I folded it up after halloween is over, I could tell exactly where to position the arms again the next year.


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## zero (Aug 27, 2004)

i used wood and a cheapy motor , a complete rig, and its worked perfect for 3 yrs, dont be intimidated by fancy blueprints and motor diagrams, just wing it and tweak it as you go


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Thanks for the tips and encouragement - I'll post pictures.

Chris


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## Spectremaster (Oct 16, 2004)

I did not have room on my front porch where Luna my FCG is so i ditched the frame all together. I made brackets for the motor and pullies and srewed them right to the ceiling. This gave me about a extra 5 inches of room. First year I took everything down, Last year I never got around to it. So this year I'll just hang Luna back up, Plug her in and let her go.


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## JDJD (Sep 27, 2005)

Just another option to consider...

Apologies. I can't find the website where I got this idea. The basic premise is that in lieu of a styrofoam wighead, use Wireform to make the head and upper torso. This produces an FCG that is fully translucent; i.e., more ghostly.

In effect, you carve up the wighead to produce the face you want. You then mold the Wireform over the wighead; it retains the shape. You then discard the wighead.

You build out shoulders and an upper torso below the face with more of the Wireform. Cheesecloth is then layered over the resulting structure and Stiffy (which is like carpenter's glue) is applied to give it rigidity. You then treat it with Rit Whitener & Brightener, much as you would the rest of the cheesecloth.

I made a couple of these and went with this one (FCG.jpg below). When the FCG runs under the glow of the black lights at night, it has a consistent, translucent look and the facial details are more pronounced.

(I fixed that little hooky giveaway on the left "hand", for the record.)

I've got my ghostly buddy set up in the garage (FCG2.jpg below). The mechanism is permanently affixed to the rails that hold the garage door. There is a three-panel black cloth setting that surrounds it, to block the back of my garage (wouldn't look too ghostly floating around shelves of tools and paint cans). There is also a runner across the top that hides the mechanism and black light ballast.

My friend made his first appearance during last year's Halloween display. It was a smash hit, causing all sorts of traffic on my little crescent.

I can't recommend a better thing to have for your home haunt than an FCG.

By the way, that guy sitting on the left side of the balcony...the "spine" is a white dowel attached to the sprocket mechanism on an old garage door opener. The contraption rests on an old lawn chair painted black. I've run a wire - that closes the circuit - into the house and attached it to a switch. When kids ring the bell, the first thing I do is press the switch for about 3-4 seconds. It spins the skullhead, like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist". When I let go, it spins back to the starting position. It was the first Halloween contraption I ever built.

When the head spins, I always hear the kids scream and can see them - through all the smoke in the vestibule and through the front door glass - run to the other side of the balcony.

I'm thinking I should have something on the other side to make them run back. Hee.

Good times.

JD


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Cool idea JD!
BTW, the big fella must be pretty imposing in the dark!


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## skullboy (Sep 5, 2006)

Being married I am not allowed to bore holes in the ceiling of our familyroom,however I built a pvc frame to completely block off the bay window at the front of the house and thats where my fcg hangs.I cover it with black cloth and it shows the ghost very well,also blocks off other light from living room.I marked it well so I could reassemble it more easily.


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## JDJD (Sep 27, 2005)

ChrisW said:


> Cool idea JD!
> BTW, the big fella must be pretty imposing in the dark!


Thanks Chris. Keeps the candy bill to a minimum.

JD


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Update: The crank and motor support are done, as is the ghost armature and wiring for the head. Like alot of folks I jumped between a few versions of the FCG instructions, incorporating what works or was explained more clearly - which was usually Kick the Fog's plans. I used a rotisserie motor so had to adjust accordingly. For the down arm on the motor I used a 4" 1/4 bolt and used a wood screw to tighten it into the slot - I had seen that described in another set of instructions, and it is working fine.
Tomorrow I dress the ghost... wish me luck!


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Hooray! She's done! Well, except for the obligatory tweaking. The motor is a bit noisy, so a counterweight was added to take some stress off of it. Had to adjust the string length as well - her arms were going up so high that it looked like she was tilting her head back to shout "Hosanna!" or something...
Cool effect, now to figure out how to incorporate her into the haunt!


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## BATFLY (Oct 2, 2004)

BY GOD MAN, we need pictures! a video would be even better! look out, fcg develope thier own personality of sorts! you'll see what i mean.


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Here's some daytime pics...


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## etron (Oct 27, 2005)

Looks great and inspiring! This makes me want to start building my own, but I will have to verify if I can use my wiper motor for this (it can be pretty fast).


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

etron said:


> Looks great and inspiring! This makes me want to start building my own, but I will have to verify if I can use my wiper motor for this (it can be pretty fast).



Go for it! I used a rotisserie motor - a little noisy, but at 2 bucks I'll crank up the volume on the moans...


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## etron (Oct 27, 2005)

ChrisW said:


> Go for it! I used a rotisserie motor - a little noisy, but at 2 bucks I'll crank up the volume on the moans...


How fast is your motor? The dayton motor is around 6rpm, I think my wiper motor is much faster than that.


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

It's very slow. When I get home I'll have to time it.

I've seen some video online that had a motor going so fast it looked like it was doing jumping jacks - magicalesthenics, or something...


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## dustee (Oct 25, 2005)

Good luck and use heavy fishline for the head....mine has broke three times already and it only is ran about 6 hours at a time this year.

Laurie


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## etron (Oct 27, 2005)

I bought 80lbs fishing line for my axworthy ghosts (used 30lbs last year without any problems), hopefully that will do the job.


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## Hockey Mask & Gleave (Oct 15, 2006)

Sorry I wouldln't know what ya could do dude, cause I aint very technical in that respect. Althought I can make awesome props like Zombie heads and stuff. But electricals aint my cup of tea really.
Nevertheless, Good luck with your prop.
It sounds cool.


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

Just checked the timing on my FCG. She's a vveeerrryyy slow 2 rpm. Makes for a nice spooky motion. I gave her a run through tonight with the lights that willbe on Halloween night. Looks really cool, now I need to do a soundtrack for her. We are doing our "Die-ner" steup again, and she will be in the background with the skeletal guests up front. I need to decide - make her script relate to the Die-ner (Greeting, I am your ghostess this evening...etc) or just a series of low echo-y spooky moans.
One other thing - her eye sockets were airbrushed black to make the red LED eyes stand out. Under the black light the dark eyesockets by themselves were very effective - I'll have to decide whether to use the red LEDs Halloween night...


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