digitalTRASH.org

Thu, 17 Sep 2009

In 2008 I wanted a fence to encircle the yard because I was growing the number of props and wanted to protect them from kids who where using our corner lot as a short cut and to protect the kids from falling over them if they did try to cut through. I built a series of fence posts with flickering candles inside connected by black chain.

The materials that I used included: 3/4 inch PVC pipe, 3/4 inch PVC couplers (one for each post), black plastic chain, plastic skulls with blinky lights inside from the 99 Cent Store (one for each post), flicker candles (one for each post), wooden/metal stakes that the PVC pipe can slip over and hot glue.

I cut a bunch of 3/4 inch PVC to length (whatever length you want the fence to be high). I cut vertical slots on one of the ends of the pipes so that the chain could pass through (I'll add pictures). I painted these black. I also painted the couplers black.

I didn't want to use the blinker light that comes with the skull. I thought the effect was cheesy (like this is going to be any better). I wanted a flickering effect that you get from the electric flicker candles. It would also be amber not white. To do this I needed to "operate" on the skull. The head of the skull is attached to the base with small screws but not very strongly. I basically pulled the top of the skull off of the base and then punched the small screws out. Now I could pop the heads off and drop in a flicker candle.

I hot glued one side of the coupler to the bottom of the skull. I tried as best as I could to glue it only on to the battery cover. This allowed me to open, and replace, the batteries in the skull if needed (although I didn't use the built in blinker for this project). For storage reasons I did not glue the other side of the coupler to the PVC pipe. The coupler provides a snug fit to the PVC.

I placed stakes in the ground where I wanted the fence posts to be and slipped the PVC fence posts over them. I ran the chain between the posts and capped the posts with the skulls. When it started to get dark I popped a flicker candle in each.

posted at: 03:10 | path: /Projects/Halloween/Fence | permanent link to this entry