# Spinning Vortex Tunnel



## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

Materials for the three hoops.

3- 4x8 sheets of 1/2 in sanded plywood
192- 1/4 X 1 1/2 hex head bolts, washers, and nuts. ( I'm using T nuts on mine)
Some kind of ridged glue and exterior latex paint.

Once you get your plywood sheets cut all three sheets in half making 6- 4ft x 4ft pieces. Take one piece of your plywood and place it on the cutting end of your jig with the grain going across the jig. Pull your sheet up to the end edge and let it hang over about an 1/8 of an inch. Make sure your plywood is flush on the factory edge with the side of your jig edge. Clamp your plywood down on the rear of the sheet on one side. Measure from the rear of your jig to the back edge of your plywood and clamp the other side at the same measurement. Now, to cut the outside radius make sure your pivot arm is in the 5ft hole and snug the nut down. Move your router to the outside and adjust your bit so it so it will cut just below your plywood. Moving counter clockwise cut the end of your plywood off making your outside radius. Now move your pivot arm to the other hole you drilled for the inside radius. Swing your router back and then cut your inside radius. Notice that the piece your cutting doesn’t drop down because you only grooved your jig for this cut. This keeps the wood from binding in the router and you can keep both hands on the router. Now remove your part, loosen up your clamps, slide your sheet to the edge again with a slight hangover making sure you are still flush on the side. Clamp the corner, measure and clamp the other side at same measurement. Move your pivot arm to the other hole which is the 5ft radius and snug it down. You are now ready to cut your second part. When making any of your cuts take a second look and make sure your pivot arm in in the correct hole. It take 16 pieces cut to make one hoop. So you need a total of 48 pieces for one hoop. Once your plywood gets to short to clamp just run two wood screws thru it into the jig to hold your sheet.


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## deoblo (Apr 9, 2010)

awesome i seen this done before but i like to have another persons take on it which is great for me !! halloween is the best hope to see more posts !!!


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## Phantom Blue (Sep 28, 2008)

WOW...bcHawk, for your first year, a Vortex Tunnel? I wonder what you will do for year #2....looking awesome thanks for sharing!

Love to see it done and working.

PB


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

Phantom, I was just as surprised as you are. I just figured since I use to make parts for planes and none of them crashed surely I could build this. lol I always did like a challenge.


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

Once you have all your pieces cut out its time to cut the ends and cut them to length. If you remember the first cut you made on your jig and I said that would be used later, now is that time. You should have a center line already on it from marking out your jig but if not find the center of the piece and cut it in two pieces. This will be your guide to cutting your ends square to the radius. Look in the photo and you will see how I clamped it to my saw. I also made a template from some scrap on the jig. First you want to take your template and cut ONE end square. Now remember all that useless math from school ? You have to figure out how long this portion of your radius is to cut your parts to the proper length. You take your hoop diameter ( mine is going to be 120 inches) and multiply it by Pi or 3.14. That gives me 376.8 inch circumference. I'm using 8 pieces doubled to make my hoops so you divide your circumference of 376.8 by 8 which equals 47.1 inches for each piece. I took a piece of metal banding and cut it to 47.1. I then started on the square end of my template and wrapped on the outside edge with the banding and marked it. I then took it to the saw and laid it in the radius that I clamped there and cut the template to length. Now use the template to mark lines on your parts and cut all parts to length and square each end.


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

Its time to get all of the holes drilled and start assembling our hoops. I took my template and drilled two holes in the end at 1 1/2 inches each way from the end and the top and bottom. I then drilled both holes in the template. I placed the template on top of the part and centered punched both holes. Flip the template over and punch the other end the same. After they are all punched then drill 1/4 inch holes in all your punch marks. Take one part and mark a center line in the center, then line your template up in the center and mark and drill two holes there. Now take and over lap your next piece starting in the center where you drilled holes put two bolts in and drill the two in the end using your drilled holes as a pattern of where to drill. I used clamps to hold mine in place until I drilled and put bolts in. Make sure your outside edges are flush before drilling. Work in one direction until all 16 pieces are assembled to form the hoop. Once your hoop is together measure in two or three places and make sure it is round. On mine I took a red marker and marked 4 places to not glue so I can disassemble the hoops in smaller sections for storage. Take your bolts out of one section at a time and glue except for the places you marked and replace the bolts and tighten. After it is glued lay on level floor to dry at least 24 hours.


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## Sadler Vampire (Nov 2, 2007)

I Like a lot !!!


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

the man knows what he's doing!

i'll be following this

thx bchawk

amk


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## RobChris (Sep 13, 2012)

awesome!!
so excited how it'll look like in the end! 
definitely following this


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

This should be the last of this segment unless someone has questions. Once your glued hoop is dry you start with one of the sections you didn’t glue and drill a 1/4 inch hole 1 1/2 inches in from inside edge in the center of that section. This will be for our cross braces and you will need to drill 8 of them per hoop. Drill every other section. After they are drilled take the 4 sections apart and label them so they go back together in the same place. Once they were labeled I took all the outside bolts out and used a router with a 1/4 round bit to round the outside edges. If your using nuts on your bolts replace them in each section after rounding edge . If your using T nuts like me then put them in now. After all sections are back together I lightly sanded and primed mine so they wont warp. I will paint black when I assemble the whole thing. As soon as I round up materials I will start posting the next phase.


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## tbeard (May 13, 2011)

Wow. I'm curious to see how this one turns out. So far so good.


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

I had a little bit of time between holidays and thought I would post an update to the vortex. Now that we have our hoops done we need to be able to tie them together. Like I said earlier most of this is not my ideas but a mixture of ideas from other builders. I went out and bought 16 2X3X8 pieces of straight lumber. I say straight like you really have a choice. I also picked up 8- 1/4 X 5 1/2 inch bolts and 16- 1/4X 3 1/2 inch bolts. I already had my nuts, washers, and lock washers. On each end of every board I drilled a 7/8 hole centered and 2 3/4 inches from the end. I then measured 2 inches from the end of the board and drew a line across the board. I also drew a line from the outside edges of the hole we drilled to the 2 inch line and cut it all out with a jig saw. So now I'm sure your tired of cutting holes since you should have cut a total of 32 holes. In each end of all 16 boards drill a 1/4 inch hole thru the end until you drill into the hole you cut out. Be sure you are centered in the end and drill as straight as you can. I used a template to do this. Once they are all drilled take eight of them and put to the side, they are finished. The other eight need a groove cut in to allow the 5 1/2 inch bolt to slide in. I did this with a router, 1/2 inch straight cutting bit, and a jig made from scrap to guide the router. DO NOT groove both ends, just one end in each of 8 boards. The pics below will show how they bolt in the middle and all the ends. Sounds confusing I know, but is really simple after you get started. Final paint will be flat black exterior but wont be painted for awhile. Any questions just ask.


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

This is an update on the drive system. Originally I was going to use smaller rims then I actually used. After calculating my final RPMs it was to fast so I opted to change to the larger rims. I couldn’t find matching sizes that were used so I went to ebay and found what I wanted pretty cheap. As far as the stands for the rims I cant give exact measurements because everyone will use what they have available to them. The motor is out of a dryer and is 1645 RPMs and 1/3 HP. I still have to build a cover for the motor and put all the wiring in conduct. I am planning on putting 2 E stops at each end on the outside for safety. In keeping with the storage issue you will notice that each section is bolted and will be labeled for easy assembly. I do have a question for everyone here. I plan on using a fire retardant material for the inside along with at least 6 black lights but I am unsure of which paints would be the best and brightest. So please let me know if you have any suggestions. Also if anyone wants to know who I got my rims from or how I calculated the RPMs just PM me.


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

i get my black light paints from micheals, walmart ... just about anywhere that sells craft paints

i like fluorescent tshirt paints, neon paints ... there are many manufacturers and i've tried a bunch ... some are better than others but their really inexpensive and a little goes a long way

for example here's a small sample of my haunt in '11







and '10







some cheap dollar store stones that i painted






















































getting carried away, sorry!

check my albums for more pics

amk


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## Matt S Drake (Aug 4, 2013)

Two quick questions, just coming across this thread and wondering if it was ever finished. The in progress shots are looking very professional and I would like to see more 

And two is about the blacklight haunt, I love the idea of a full blacklight haunt! Think blacklight mini golf but in a haunted house, so many things to try!


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## uknow (Sep 6, 2010)

Matt S Drake said:


> Two quick questions, just coming across this thread and wondering if it was ever finished. The in progress shots are looking very professional and I would like to see more
> 
> And two is about the blacklight haunt, I love the idea of a full blacklight haunt! Think blacklight mini golf but in a haunted house, so many things to try!


I have also been looking forward to see this project finished


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## bchawk (Sep 3, 2012)

In answer to the questions about this project being finished, it was but not by me. I had the frame and motor assembly together in the yard testing the motor and someone from northern Kansas seen it and offered to buy it at the stage it was in. I really didn't want to sell it but they offered way more then what I had in it and I had some medical issues at the time so I sold it. I did get an email from them that it was up and running and they would send pics but still waiting. I do plan on building another one but wont be until this fall.


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## AngieP (Jun 4, 2015)

Thank you so much for the instructions for your vortex tunnel. I have a huge Halloween party every year and cant wait to try this. (always got to out do last year, right?) anyway, I am a Kansan like you and have the famous Kansas question; is the wind a factor? just wondering if you might have any suggestions.  Thanks again.


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## Boone6666 (Aug 22, 2014)

think of doing something like this although it may take me some time I was think of gathering up some free trampolines from somewhere like craigslist 
seen a couple of treadmill recently I got to get one of those too


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## Pennywise (Oct 21, 2004)

My brother and I started this project about the time it came out. Ours was never finished and we didn't get the rings quite right. I'm glad this thread was dug up. I'm going to try it again. Thanks for sharing!


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## Trex (Nov 6, 2010)

We made one last year, finally got it working the day of Halloween, and it actually worked well BUT we didn't have a chance to paint it....so yeah epic fail ....instead we added a couple of strobe lights which made a really freaky, long black tunnel, we got some very good scares in there! So it turned out okay, we are keeping the black tunnel for this season!


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