together in my garage using bits and pieces I had on hand.
It always was my plan to redo many of the components in
order to improve their appearance. However, they worked
fine, and other projects demanded my time so the
prototypes are what I went with. Although you have the
opportunity to see “under the hood,” he will be clothed
and my guests will never know (Figure 12).
So, with the torso already built, half my work was
already completed.
I still needed to design and build the slide mechanism.
Since it would be supporting a full torso and
head that would be violently thrashing
around, I chose to build it out of steel. I cut
the base so that it would fit inside the tripod
that supports my hanging skeletons. This
would partially hide it when it wasn’t
activated, as well as provide some additional
support to keep it in place (active pneumatic
props can be a challenge to secure in place).
I modeled my slide mechanism after the
one built by Canyon Trail Cemetery at
http://tinyurl.com/pxzfrj9. I liked the
simplicity of the design, as well as the ease
of construction. It utilizes materials easily
obtained from a big box hardware store. I
chose to weld mine together, but the design
could be adapted to allow you to assemble
it by using bolts and lock nuts instead
(Figure 13 and Figure 14).
It’s controlled by a PICAXE Octopus
52 SERVO 11.2015
Figure 10. Left shoulder detail.
Figure 11. Base pivot and tilt mechanisms.
Figure 12. Fully assembled zombie.
DIY Animatronics