Monster in a Box

As students in Cannon Schools' class Creative Design and Engineering  2. We decided to make a monster in a box for our Inspooktables themed project. We got inspiration from halloween projects we found online. We both really loved this idea because it was spooky yet exciting and went along with the project prompt perfectly. We first decided to make the box with an Adafruit Playground to control the eyes and monster noises. We ended up just changing to an iPad and using adobe premier to make the monster eyes and sound sync up. We used our laser cutter to get the stencils to put the words on box and painted our hands to put bloody hand prints. Most of the time spent on this project was building the box itself, there are flaws here and there but the box is very sturdy and very heavy duty. Everything was measured to fit together perfectly and it pretty much does. Some of the wood is not straight and a little twisted but we did the best we could with the materials we had. In the end the box turned out great and we are very proud of our product.

Supplies:

(20) 24in x 5in pieces of scrap wood as the sides

(8) 24in x 1in pieces of scrap wood as the trim

(8) 15 in x 1in pieces of scarp wood as the trim

(2) 10in x 1in pieces of scrap wood cut at a 45° angle as the window trim

(2) 6in x 1in pieces of scrap wood cut at a 45° angle as the window trim

(4) 3.5in x 1/4in pieces of metal rod as the window bars

(1) iPad programmed on Adobe Premier to have monster eyes blink

(2) Speakers plugged into the iPad to make monster noises

(1) Fog Machine put inside the box to give it a monster effect

(2) Laser cut chipboard to make stencils used as the words on the side of the box

(2) Bloody hands painted on the top of the box

Tools:

Band Saw

Jig Saw

Nail Gun

Table Saw

Chop Saw

Belt Sander

Dremel Tool

Adobe Premier

Laser Cutter

Paint

The total cost for this project was around $35, all that money was spent on the fog machine and the liquid inside the machine. All of the other materials were scrap materials that we already had in our possession.

For this project we were assigned by our teacher to "Make something spooky that is interesting or interactive and makes The Mill or someplace else a little more creepy". As we were brainstorming and surfing the internet for ideas we came across an idea like this and we thought it would be a great idea and a great project to steal like an artist. But we wanted to make our own version. We changed up stuff that we felt would make it our own.

Our first prototype for this project was very poorly made and made out of laser wood. Laser wood is very thin and not nearly strong enough for what we need. But it gave us a pretty good idea for what we needed to do.

Our second attempt and final attempt at making the box was much better than the prototype. We first searched our shop to find wood that would be great for what we needed. We found lots of pieces of scrap wood used to make a fence at our teachers house. This wood was perfect for what we need and we had plenty to make our box. We also really liked the rough look of the wood, because the box is not supposed to be perfect its supposed to be flawed like a crate holding a monster would be. We cut the wood down to the desired dimensions of 24in x 15in and put random smaller scrap pieces of wood on the back of the 3 pieces and used the nail gun to put them together. Doing this made the box much stronger and sturdier.

The window on the box was measured multiples times and drawn many different sizes. But my partner wanted the window to be smaller so we settled on the size shown in the picture we then jig sawed the window out and then we found a few pieces of metal bars that turned out to be the perfect size for the window. We used a Dremel tool to grind down the metal to the correct size, we then drilled holes through the top of the box and pushed the rods down through the holes untie they looked correct.

After building the box itself we did not like how the corners/edges were so we decided to add trim pieces to make it look better. To do this we used a table saw to cut 16 pieces of the wood used to make the box to a one inch width. We then cut the trim pieces to two different sizes, 23.5 inches and 16.5 inches. I then taped the pieces to the box to make sure they looked correct I then used the nail gun to put the pieces on. We also decided to outline the window with trip just to add the depth effect.

One of our requirements for this project was to use a laser cutter or CNC machine. My partner and I decided to use a laser cutter to laser cut stencils for the sides, and top of the box. We used silver spray paint to paint the stencils. We also felt the box needed a little something more so we decided to add some red point made to look like hands to the top of the box. We both felt that it looked great and just how we wanted it. We could have made it look perfect and been more diligent with the painting but it didn't need to be perfect so we decided to make it kind of sloppy.

When it came to the electronics for the box we originally had other ideas and plans for the box but those ideas ended up not working for what we needed. One of our teachers and an idea to use an iPad to make the eyes and the sounds that we wanted. The video on the iPad was made on adobe premier, we took a gif off the internet and placed it onto the software where we synced the monsters eyes to the roar. We then plugged two speakers into the iPad to amplify the sounds inside the box.

When it came to other special effects we spent $38 for the fog machine inside the box. It was one of our favorite ideas from the very beginning of the project so we decided to run with it and we think that it turned out really great. We used velcro to keep everything in their place.

Throughout this project we made many mistakes. Our biggest mistake was using wood that was twisted and warped which caused a side and the top of the box to look a little wonky. Another mistake was also not making our dimensions and measurement more accurate, there are gaps in the box here and there. But we overcame this mistakes and made the box look really well in the end.

If we had a larger budget and more time we would add more technology to the box. Such as make the box jump, shake, and move with some type of actuator. We would also make the box sense people as they stepped up to the box and react to them as they got closer to the box.

 I hope you all enjoy the project as much as we did and continue to make your own. Please leave comments and feed back in the comments. Thanks for looking at our project and have a happy halloween!