Jacko's Lantern

"Pumpkin" spice up your property with a large Jack o Lantern for Halloween. I've always wanted to make use of our lamp post to illuminate a large- sized seasonal decoration of some sort. When my daughter requested to make Halloween decorations, this idea popped into existence. Most of the supplies I use were scavenged in ky basement and the only think I bought was the used graduation gown at Goodwill for $5 and the can of spray paint.

Plywood: 60 cm x 80 cm (1 foot x 1.5 feet)

1" x 1" Cedar (5', 3' and two 2' lengths)

Graduation gown

5 foot T- Fence post

2 branches (3 feet long)

bolt and washer sets (2- 2.5" sets; 4- 2" sets; 5- 1.5" sets)

4- 1.25" exterior screws

exterior orange spray paint

wipe- on exterior polyurethane

jigsaw

hacksaw

hand drill

I wanted to take advantage of the light from the lap post to illuminate the jack o' lantern figure. I estimated it needed to be around 134 cm (53 inches) tall to hide the lamp fixture. This was ultimately too short because I didn't take into account how far the post needed to be driven into ground to stable enough for its weight. It needed about 30 cm (12 inches). More on this later...

1.) First I drew the face outline, eyes, nose and mouth cut- outs on a large piece of plywood.

2.) After clamping the board down I drilled out holes in the eyes, nose and mouth so I could use the jigsaw to make the internal cuts.

3.) The jigsaw was again used to cut out the head outline.

4.) After sanding the edges I covered up the pumpkin stem with masking tape.

5.) I spray painted both sides with orange exterior spray paint.

6.) After drying I added some black lines with black exterior paint and finished it off with 3 coats of wipe- on exterior polyurethane.

7.) Cedar vertical post was cut to a length (80 cm/ 32") with an angled point to enter the ground.

8.) A lap joint was created to brace the shoulders.

9.) Because the model started gaining weight quickly,I decided to use bolts for most of the attachments. The shoulder bar used 2- 1.5" sized bolt sets.

10.) The arms were also cut out of the cedar board to a length of 3'. To attach the arms to the shoulders I used 2- 2.5" bolt sets, one per attachment.

11.) I found 2 hardwood forked branches to represent the forearms and fingers.

12.) I cut each branch to 3' in length. I also made a lap joint there the elbow would be located. I simply screwed the branches on with exterior 1.25" screws.

13.) I didn't leave enough room to attach the head securely onto the post. To add more surface area to bolt the head I made a wider "neck brace".

14.) The neck brace was bolted onto the cedar board with 2- 2" bolt sets and then the head was bolted onto the neck brace using 2- 2" bolt sets. I had to recess some of the holes to allow the bolts to fit all the way through.

The shoulders and arms were measured previously to fit the large high school graduation gown. After adding the gown I drove the stake into the hard earth and accidentally broke a large part of it off. I also realized the structure was too short, roughly 30 cm/ 12 inches below the light.

15.) To strengthen the tip of the post I used a T- fence post and diagonally cut 1' off the bottom.

16.) I bolted the T- fence onto the cedar post using 3- 1.5" bolts and nuts.

18.) To help drive "Jack" into the ground I drilled a hole and slid a smooth steel bar through to help push it down with my foot. Because the bar went through the T- fence post it was strong enough to stomp down hard on when inserting it into the ground.

Jack now greets visitors to our home and gives an eery glow on our cold October evenings.