I have seen recipes online for making paper pulp requiring you to boild newspaper for an hour or so and thought that would be a pain in the butt. Today I tried an idea I had (coincidently a technique already used by HalloweenBoy). I tore newspaper into small squares and tossed them into a blender. Then I added enough hot water to cover the newspaper and used the "chop" button to pulp it. This took about 30 seconds to pulp the paper. Later I will try to save more time by just wadding up a sheet or two, dropping them in, adding the water, and chopping away.

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Since I started building walls out of pallets, I started to think, "what else can be made with pallet wood?" I was surprised at the things that popped into my head. So I started a contest in the forum to see who could make the best prop from pallet wood. There are no limits to what you can create it could anything from a tombstone to an eleborate scene. There is a really cool prize, donated by JekyllandHyde, too. Check it out in the forum. Good Luck!

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I went down to one of the places I get pallets from and noticed that they threw plywood into the pile. Some of it was 1/4 inch and some 1/2 inch. All are roughly 4' square(ish). I imagine they were used on the pallets since they were in the junk pile. The pallets I get must carry some pretty heavy loads since the planks are really thick. I am going to use these on the walls that will be subject to visitors banging into them. The wall system I am working on is designed so that I can use weaker walls (even draped plastic) were no one will bump them and sturdier ones in higher traffic areas.

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Ok so here's what happened yesterday: The way I set up the frame was all wrong. The short plank I used to attach the center plank also attached the 2 4' planks that make up the 8' wall. However, the short piece covered the seam the short way. The grain of the short piece was parallel to the seam...no good. After replacing the short piece with a 2' piece and aligning it vertically, the frame is much stronger. Here is a close-up of the joint.



After all of that, my Dad showed me a different layout that may be stronger and better than the first layout I came up with. It looks like this:



This was laid out on my workshop floor last night. Today I am going to nail or screw 2' support planks over the joints. This looks like it will far sturdier than what I was doing yesterday.

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OK. This is still a WIP, but this was the basic idea for the frames I had:



This pic was taken before I nailed it together. I hit a snag with this concept. The center brace cracked and then snapped in half when I stood the panel up. So the solution (which I will get to tomorrow) will be to take the small pieces that I used to brace the center plank and turn them 90 degrees and also make them longer. In this pic, I used 12" pieces to hole the center plank as well as the two 4-foot-long planks that make up the 8' wall. What I had forgotten was that that little 1-foot isn't strong enough to hold the weigh. By turning it 90 degrees and using a 2-foot piece, it should brace the 4-footers just fine. As for the center plank, it will be turned into 2 center planks, one on top of the 2-foot brace, and one on the bottom. I will get this done tomorrow and post pics. My idea is to get a bunch of frames made up before I attach the cardboard.

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Finally! I have been searching, experimenting, screaming and swearing in frustration for months, until now. I have been trying to find a wall system that could be build as cheaply as possible. This morning it dawned on me. Some people have been using pallets. I loved the idea and I screwed 2 pallets together the other day, but the panel was very heavy. I needed a lighter wall panel that was still on the cheap side.

Well here is the idea: I got some pallets for free, I have been taking them apart with a hammer. Some pallets, though, will break when hit with a hammer. The solution to this is to break out the circular saw and saw the planks just inside the outer 2 supports. Then you can just pull the planks off the center support.

Now, taking just the planks, I am going to cut them to the desired lengths, lay them out on the ground (no workshop floor for me ) in what will resemble a doorway. Taking smaller pieces of the planks, I will nail them over the seams to secure the framework. There will be 2 or 3 suppororts in the center of the framework. To this framework, I will glue 2-3 layers of cardboard, then seal it with polyuerathane and/or latex paint. To hold the panels together, I will use the same small plank pieces to hold them together.

Now most of this probably sounds difficlut or confusing, but I will type up a tutorial with pics soon and post them here and on the forums I belong to. I should have the first panel framework finished today. I will try to get 2 panels done and attach them together so you at least see how I plan on getting it done. I have to pick up the cardboard (from an appliance store) today so I won't be able to attach it to the framewrok today.   

Tags: Haunted House Wall System

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I have great news!! I have a local appliance store that is donateing all their big boxes to our haunt!! I mention this to let everyone know that they may want to try appliance stores near you if you need big boxes for walls, coffins, etc.

Also, my new haunt design is coming together much easier than the first. During all this designing and redesigning I found that I have a small flaw in my design process. I try to theme the haunt the best that I can but I realize that most of the cool rooms I had planned out don't fit the theme. I have seen pro haunts mix things up and be successful so I decided that my haunt rooms come first then I wite a story to fit it all together. I will write the story for my new haunt design when it is finished and post it here.

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Sorry about the first part of this being off topic, but my baby boy was born Friday morning at 6:32am!

Now, back on topic. I have a chance to build the haunt, but I have to change the theme. I wanted zombie crypts, but that will take too long to build and paint the walls. I'm going with a psycho killer theme because I could get away with using just the pallets as walls without paint. I'll just cover them with blood and severed body parts :) Plus I have been struggling with all the rooms fitting the zombie crypts theme. With the new psycho killer theme, just about any room design can fit into the haunt. I have about 6-8 weeks to get the haunt done and I think with the new theme, I can pull it off. I have ideas for some of the props...severed limbs can be made with tape double technique, things like that. Those of you who were helping by donating props...those props will still be used. If anyone else has old props they'd like to donate, we would happily accept them.

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I sincerely doubt that I can pull off a full-blown haunt starting now and building everything from scratch, but I am going to try...provided I get the help I need. Cardboard walls with wood (pallet) support, maybe coverd with papier mache ornaments and skulls like some of the props in the facade section of HauntProject. I spent some time drooling over the props on Stolloween's site and I think that if he can do all of that with papier mache, then so can I....only not as good

The haunt won't be nearly as good as I'd like it to be, but it will be a start. And I also figured that if I cannot secure a location for my haunt, then I have some alternatives. I can do a mock Seance, using the techniques found on the Halloween sites to produce ghostly happenings. I could recruit one assistant to remain hidden and produce the effects. I have a lot of ideas for this and plan to write them up some day. So, now I must build at warp speed (hard to do when the kids demand attention all day long) but regardless of the outcome I am going to try to get it done.

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