# Steel I-beams



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Steel I-beams are critical set pieces for an industrial/factory room in your haunt. Luckily, they are fairly simple to make using foam. Plus, they are just fun to have around the house. heheh.














Here's a video of them scattered around the basement: Click link to watch



[video=youtube;yPPBNMQLsis]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPPBNMQLsis[/video]





*Items Needed:* _(to make 6)_
One sheet of 2" pink or blue styrofoam
Partial sheet of 1/2" pink or blue styrofoam
Scrap section of 3/4" pink or blue styrofoam
3/4" diameter wood dolly
3 or more tubes of foamboard adhesive
Gray latex Drylok
Monster mud colors _(see griming tutorial)_

*Tools Needed:*
Band saw _(or table saw)_
Jig for band saw _(used a furring strip)_
2 clamps_ (to hold jig on workbench)_
Caulk gun
Ruler with metric readings
Sharpie
2" paint brush
Small paint roller








*







*​

*Cut Beams* (not pictured): Divide your sheet of 2" styrofoam into six planks lengthwise. You should end up with six 8' long 8" wide planks. A table saw would be the easiest tool to cut them apart but I used a band saw _(all I had)._

*Cut Flanges:* You will be cutting the 1/2" thick foam into 1/2" strips 8' long to make the small edges of the I-beams. A table saw would, again, be the best tool. If you don't have a table saw then you'll have to make a jig for your band saw to cut the small edges of the steel I-beams. If you have neither tool then perhaps you can cut the strips using some other foam cutter. Just bear in mind that the strips look and glue on better when they are cut in nice straight lines. A jig or table saw makes it easy to stay on target and make the strips fairly fast. 

Set-up your jig so the band saw _(or table saw)_ will cut 1/2" wide pieces. You will cut the whole length of the foamboard_ (8')._ For six I-beams you will need 24. If you only had a 4' long piece of foamboard left like I did, then you'd need 48. 

_Note: In the picture you will see that the pieces cut are smaller than 1/2" wide. This was for another project but was the only picture of the jig I had. Your pieces will be wider._

























*Glue Flanges:* Using a thin bead of foamboard adhesive, glue the cut side of the flanges to each edge and on both sides of the I-beam. If the glue squishes out the sides, wipe it up with a paper towel. 

I like the opposite cut side showing because it has a rougher surface than the smooth side. Seems more like metal to me but it's your preference. 
_Note: I only had 4' long flanges available so I had to join them up._











​








*Make Hex Nuts and Bolts:* Above is an animation to show you how to mark your scrap piece of 3/4" foam to give you the shape of hex nuts. This, by the way, took hours to figure out. Math is hard! 

_Note: To make the needed 144 hex nuts you will need a slightly bigger scrap of foam then shown here. This scrap only made 110 hex nuts._


*Step one:* Draw horizontal lines 1 1/2" apart from each other on the scrap 3/4" thick foam. 

*Step two:* Use the metric markings on the ruler to mark dots every 2.2cm. So it would be marked at the 2.2, 4.4, 6.6, 8.8, 11, 13.2, 15.4, 17.6, 19.8, 22, 24.2, 26.4, 28.6 and so forth. 

*Step three:* Draw a diagonal line to it's corresponding mark. Skip a dot and draw the next diagonal line. You will start to see the hex design on the nut.

*Step four:* Draw opposite diagonal lines to complete the markings.

_Final picture:_ I blacked-out the parts that you will cut off so you can see the hex pattern more clearly. You don't need to do this step. I just did it as a better visual for this tutorial.


*Cut-out Hex Nuts:* Finally, the band saw is the best tool for this. Cut-out all hex nuts. 

To finish, cut the hex nuts in half to double the amount of hex nuts you have. You will need 144 of them total. They will be about 3/8" thick. I used a clamp-like jig to keep my fingers safe while doing this. 

*Cut Bolts:* Band saw the 3/4" wood dolly to make 144 _'coins' (about the thickness of a nickle)_. These will be the bolts in the center of the hex nut. 


_*Another way:* Dave Lowe has a neat way to make these hex nuts and bolts. You may want to consider this as an alternative: __http://davelowe.blogspot.com/2009/08/halloween-09-molding-and-casting-cheap.html_











*







*​

*Glue nuts and bolts:* Use foamboard adhesive to glue on hex nuts then the bolts. Glue a grouping of four at the top, bottom and center. Repeat for the other side.




*Continued....*


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

*







*​*Drylok:* Paint all I-beams with two coats of gray Drylok.

*Grime:* Grime up the I-Beams using the _'Grime up Props'_ tutorial found here: http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/...-tutorial.html but use the rust color as the base color. 















That's it! Now, get your kids and show them how strong you are by lifting one up with your pinkie  
















Another shot of them in the haunt.​





_Thanks for checking out another one of my tutorials _​


----------



## FracturedDS (Sep 24, 2009)

That is amazing Terra!


----------



## chop shop (Oct 31, 2010)

Those look KILLER!! Just publish a do-it-yourself book already!


----------



## Frankenfrog (Oct 19, 2010)

Wow...those look great. Thanks for the tutorial.


----------



## DaveintheGrave (Feb 12, 2004)

Those look fantastic, Terra!

When do you sleep??? Great job!


----------



## spookyJ (Feb 20, 2010)

Hi Terra... great vid ! I seen the fog screen or mist screen at the end, wondering how you did that. I know there's a few links within the forum but your's works fantastic !

Thx spookyj


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Thanks mucho everyone. I'm the undead, therefore I don't sleep 


The fog curtain is half made by me and half made by Vortex Chillers. I made the piping cage around it using 2" black PVC:











From Vortex Chillers you get the horizontal pipe with the ports and the elbow fitting: http://www.vortexchillers.com/fogcurtains/door1.html. I went ahead and also got the vertical pipe, chiller_ (Cold Fusion)_ and fog machine _(Magnum 850)_. It was a very good Christmas  

I learned, however, two things: One - can't be used outside if it's windy at all. Two - you must use fast dissipating fog juice if used indoors. In testing, used the Rock Star Ultra fog juice in the basement and it's hang time was too lingering. It would have made the garage haunt way too foggy. Wil at Vortex Chillers is getting hold of a fast-dissipating formula to be used indoors. Next year, I'm moving the fog curtain into the haunt to act as an entrance to a vampire crypt or something like that...


----------



## One eyed Mick (Feb 19, 2008)

Wow, great job on the beams and the fog curtain.....!!!


----------



## spookyJ (Feb 20, 2010)

Awesome... huh, I don't think I've ever seen vortex chillers site before! are u using the volumizer crystals? what forces the fog out so quickly is there a built in fan in the chiller box? or is it part of the port pipe on top? This was on my project list but nobody seemed to have an 100% working system...the continuous fogger of course is key. I would use indoors so have to keep a watch for the fast disicipating fog, could the port pipe on tape be easily made? did you make the chiller box or part of purchase? sorry for all questions, just exicted to see it can be done fairly inexpensive!


----------



## spookyJ (Feb 20, 2010)

Terra... those I beams are second to none, fantastic! do you have your own website or assuming you guys have your own haunt? Your work it very inspiring and always read your post when get the chance... don't ever stop ! lol .. do you have alot of instructional videos?


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

I did use the volumizer crystals on Halloween night but not in that video. Because it was so windy I can't attest to the effectiveness of them but for the indoor tests, it didn't seem needed. My best guess is they are rock salt. That's what they look like....and yes, taste like. Gutsy, aren't I?  If it is rock salt that confirms my thoughts on what they are supposed to do. Just like adding rock salt to the ice mixture when making ice cream, salt actually allows ice-water to be colder than it's normal 32 degrees. So, in theory, I'm guessing that it helps make the fog even colder, therefore, more ground hugging. Now, these are just guesses I'm making...not even sure it's 100% salt...could have some additional magic ingredients.

I bought the chiller from him. I've made my own in the past but I was darn curious to see what he had. Also, I was one of his first customers for the home version of the Fog Curtain and he and I talked at length about his ideas and asked me questions before he began testing the home version. The pro-haunts use the 5' version. This is a 3' version. So, I thought it would be better if I bought the whole tested system instead of piecemeal. Plus, he's a neat guy. I think of him as a fog nerd/doctor. He's really into it and in turn I became very excited to be one of the first ones to use it.

As for the rest of the questions, I hope you don't mind if I'm vague. Wil put a lot of work researching this and I don't want to spill his secrets. I would feel terrible about that. So, how 'bout I post some more pictures of the set-up and perhaps you could get a better idea of how it works, okay?


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

spookyJ said:


> Terra... those I beams are second to none, fantastic! do you have your own website or assuming you guys have your own haunt? Your work it very inspiring and always read your post when get the chance... don't ever stop ! lol .. do you have alot of instructional videos?


Thank you. Yes, we have a garage haunt and I have blog here where I try to keep all of my stuff organized: http://www.halloweenforum.com/blogs/terra/ I also have a YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Scaryladyvideos?feature=mhum but the blog usually always has the same videos. HalloweenForum is my home. I don't want to mess with my own website. Sounds like it could be a bit of a pain.  

I'm getting more and more instructional videos up. I used to only do picture tutorials but videos allow much better visuals _(of course)_ but you still need the pictures and some description so I'll probably always do a blend.


----------



## spookyJ (Feb 20, 2010)

nm Terra, I seen you have all you vid and things within your forum profile, awesome! do you work with any haunts or do just for fun? After reading how you got started, I felt similiar in getting to utilize and challenge your skills everyday, nothing compares. Of course, my likeness started as a kid with building small HH in the basement... I can actually say my indulging back into halloween related things and find these forums is changing my life. We hope within 2years to open a commericial haunt so I've been religiously following everything on forums for the past year and half....


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

spookyJ said:


> nm Terra, I seen you have all you vid and things within your forum profile, awesome! do you work with any haunts or do just for fun? After reading how you got started, I felt similar in getting to utilize and challenge your skills everyday, nothing compares. Of course, my likeness started as a kid with building small HH in the basement... I can actually say my indulging back into halloween related things and find these forums is changing my life. We hope within 2years to open a commericial haunt so I've been religiously following everything on forums for the past year and half....


Sounds like we have a lot in common. When I found HalloweenForum I was blown away with the awesome ideas and terrific and helpful people here. Started doing tutorials as my way of giving back to the members. Now, I just have as much fun making the tuts as building props. This is all for fun and don't work for any haunts...just my own garage haunt.


----------



## Joe2x4 (Aug 25, 2010)

Wow... all i can say. everytime i think you have done it all, there is more. i agree with Chop Shop 100%... BOOK TIME!


----------



## dubbax3 (Jun 25, 2008)

You are just amazing.


----------



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Thanks so much


----------



## cyberhaunt (Oct 23, 2006)

very impressive!


----------



## darkmaster (Apr 29, 2009)

I agree. Very impressive.


----------

