The Meteorite (Part 2)

Description: Now for the pulsating part. I want the meteorite to be enclosed in a metal box with a window. So I got some 4x8 "hard board" from Home Depot and had them cut it to size. I used brackets to bolt the sides together and constructed a support over the top of the box (which will remain open).

I then cut a circle out of a good-sized cardboard sheet and cut four wedges out of the circle as shown. I hung the cardboard circle over the top of the box with a small, battery-operated motor used for rotating small mirror balls (available for about $7 at cheaplights.com). The idea is to hang a black light over the large outer wedges and a small white light over the small inner wedges. Thus, the lighting will transition from white light to black light.


For the white light, I went to Radio Shack and bought for a few bucks a flashlight bulb, a bulb mount, a switch and and 9-volt battery connector. Then I broke down and bought a cheap solder iron. This represents my very first solder project. It works a lot better than twisting wires together.


I then put a section of an empty cardboard role over the light and covered the end of it with toilet paper. This is to diffuse the light. I mounted the white light over the small wedges and the black light over the larger wedges.


 

To make the window, I got a piece of plexiglass from a scrap pile at work. I, by the way, have no idea how to actually buy a piece of plexiglass so you are on your own. I then made a wooden frame and drilled holes through the frame and plexiglass. I used bolts to help keep the glass aligned with the holes in the frame as I was drilling. I then removed the bolts and the plexiglass and rubbed a little bathroom calk in the cracks of the frame. Once that dried, I spray painted the frame and the box with a metallic silver paint. The idea of the calk was to make the pieces of the frame look like they were welded together. That worked fine. However, the wood grain was clearly visible through the paint. Here is the delimma. Do I throw it out and start over, or do something drastic to hide the wood grain, or do I just let it go. A piece of advice. Unless you are charging a lot of money for your haunted house, the kids don't care if there is wood grain showing through your metal frame. They don't care if the frame is made of cardboard. Don't kill yourself with the details. Kids have imaginations and are perfectly willing to use them.


 

The finished box


 

Here are a few of pictures I will attach to the front of the box. One shows the meteor strike in my back yard. The second shows slime growing out of my hand from touching the meteorite and the third is a microscopic view of the alien spores that caused my unfortunate skin condition. I did all these graphics on my computer.


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