# Wire frame for hands



## Bone Dancer

I needed to replace the hands on my bluckys and the hands needed to be bendable and hold a small amount of weight so I used this method to make them.

First I made a jig to bend the wire on. I traced my hand on a board and put a finish nail (nail with no head) at each bone joint and the wrist. I found that the nails at the finger joints were not needed, just the tip and the knuckle and those in the palm and wrist.









Supplies: 18 gauge single strand wire will work for most cases. You may want to go to 16 gauge if the hands have to hold more weight (over a pound), but it is harder to work with. 18 gauge wire is sometimes called stove pipe wire.

Hard vinyl tubing (approx 3/8 OD) is used to make the bones in the fingers and the palm area. Pruning shears cuts the tubing easily. Note that the bones in your hand are not all the same size. Just measure you hand or use the program at http://zombietronix.com/calculator.php

Duct tape holds the palm area together. Masking tape would also work.










There is no set way to putting the wire on the jig. I started at the bottom, working up to the palm and then each finger. Make sure the wire in the fingers overlap the wire in the palm area so it holds together. While holding the palm area remove each finger then add the tape to the palm of the hand.










Slide the plastic "bones" over the wires and bend the end over to hold them in place. The bones should be a bit loose so they can bend at the joints.










How you want to finish the hands is up to you. I first spray paint them white in case the bones show through. I then use the toilet paper mache method to cover them and then add a layer of latex and stain (Oak). 
Remember if you are making hands for a blucky (approx 5ft tall) the hands will be a bit smaller then yours if you are 6ft tall. But if you are making hands for a grabber or ground breaker, your hands will work just fine as models.
The loop of wires at the wrist area will slide into the pvc tubing and is held in place with some more tape.










If you have any questions, just ask.

(Add-on) The wire frame by itself can be used inside a latex glove and filled with Greatstuff for Windows (flexible foam) to make normal hands. Turn the glove inside out first so you don't see the grip surface on it. 
Thanks everyone, I am glad you found this how-to useful. BD


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## RoxyBlue

Nice how-to, BD. I like your use of plastic tubing for the finger bones.


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## Bone Dancer

RoxyBlue said:


> Nice how-to, BD. I like your use of plastic tubing for the finger bones.


Some methods use the barrels from White Bic ink pens, but I didnt have that many ink pens around. So the tubing was plan B.


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## Mr_Chicken

That must come in handy (no pun intended)!


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## HalloweenZombie

Great How To. Very useful for mass production of corpse hands.


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## Nightwing

What a cool idea! Thanks for the how-to.


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## Vlad

Very nice Bill


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## beelce

NICE JOB BD....I need to make a bunch of these...How long does it take to get one together?


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## silent night

thanks bone dancer! now my zombies will have hands


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## hpropman

Thanks for the hot to can you show us a picture of your finished hand.


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## Bethene

great hands, they look good, the plastic tubing is a good idea, humm, I do believe I have some around(yeah for dumpster diving)


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## Toktorill

That "jig" is a really great idea for wrapping the wires for the form- I'm sure tons of uses could be found for the method!


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## Creeper

Great idea, thanks!


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## HallowEve

Great how-to! Thanks for posting it!

HallowEve :jol:


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## SweeneyFamilyHorror

This is just what I needed. Thanks so much for posting this how-to.


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## Terrormaster

Make sure you have the right sized tubing and wire combination. When BD says 16g is a PITA to mess with he ain't kiddin. 

I had spool of 16g left from last year and decided to try this. WHEW that stuff is tough to bend around the jig points. After a couple tries I got it wrapped the way I wanted. But as it turned out, the tubing I bought from last year is 1/4" which turned out to be too small to go over the 16g wire once it was doubled over.

The jig is an awesome idea, just be sure to have the right tube and wire on hand.


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## Haunted girl

great idea. this just saved me alot of time and headaches. Im new to this forum . i came across it while trying to get help with ideas. Im in love with this site now. :googly:


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## Bone Dancer

Thank you, glad it helped.


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## [email protected]

This technique is a keeper. Thanks BD.


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## Bone Dancer

Thanks everyone. I am making hands for the witches this year with it.. Then wrapping the wire with plastic grocery bags an putting them into cheap dish washing gloves. And turn the gloves inside out, the paint sticks better.


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## gpawood

Nice tut, really like the jig, that will save me a lot of time making some new hands...


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## MommaMoose

Gave your jig a first time try tonight. Took a little while to figure it out (I am a visual learner) but I did manage to make one hand so far. It definitely saved me a whole lot of time. My last attempt at hands was 3 years ago and I got so frustrated and ended up with a hot mess. Thank you so much for the tutorial.


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## Bone Dancer

For pictures of finished hands just check out some of the other albums, any hands you see are made in this manor. The wire frame is the basic starting point for making hands. Depending on what you need them for you can finish them in a number of ways, tubing for bones, or just plastic bag wrapped to fill them out for use in gloves.


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## Pumpkin5

:jol:This is such a great idea! Wow! And I didn't find this thread until I was reading on Devil's Chariot's blog and he mentioned Bone Dancer. And I was like, WHAT? Super great idea William.


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## Lord Homicide

If I do this some day, I'll add tick marks on the board next to my knuckles so I can retain some level of scale.


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## Bone Dancer

The thing I noticed the most was that the 5ft bluckys need smaller hands then the normal 6ft walgreen skellys. Generally just shortening the fingers will do or just make a jig for the different size you may need. Any method can be improved.


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## pennywise

I love the jig idea. It will make the process so much easier. Thanks for sharing!


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## Lord Homicide

Bone Dancer said:


> The thing I noticed the most was that the 5ft bluckys need smaller hands then the normal 6ft walgreen skellys. Generally just shortening the fingers will do or just make a jig for the different size you may need. Any method can be improved.


True lol


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## budude

Thanks for this thread - I plan to make a set of hands for a couple props and this seems easy enough to do.


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## Bone Dancer

Once you have the jig made your all set. I had seen other methods and they had a lot of measuring and cutting. With this all you have to do is wrap the wire around the nails, duct tape the plam of the hand and remove from the jig. Then you can finish it in any number of ways. The plastic tubing, that you can buy by the foot (aprox 10-15 cents) means for a couple of dollars you have all you need to make a pair of hands.


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## scareme

This was posted in 09. Some of the old ideas are still the best. Just one word of advise. We were making a grave grabber at the TX/OK M&T. Some people, I'm not saying who, unless you bribe me, had the job of making hands. We finished, taped and all, when we figured out that we all made right hands. Untape or make more? We settled for a beer while we pondered over that one. Don't remember now what the out come was, but the beer sure went well with a Mexican dinner.


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## Bone Dancer

That the nice thing about this Scareme, it makes both left and right hands. Just turn one over. lol. Another reason to not drink while using heavy machinery .


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## scareme

Yeah, but we had taped them so the fingers curled in, like in your last picture. So the looked like righties. Hey, I never said I was the brains of the M&T, just the cutest.


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## Lizzyborden

Cool this is much simpler than what I did a while back. I drew an outline of my hand and then bent the wire to match. The jig would have been so much simpler. I think I had over an hour in just forming one hand. 

I used rolled up newspaper tubes for my fingers, but I used paper mache on mine to make them stationary. 

How cool that this is an old post, yet I learned a new technique


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## Bone Dancer

Excellent idea using rolled up news paper for the finger bones. There is always a way to do something with what you have on hand. (no pun intended)


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## scarynoyes

Using rolled up newspaper or old phone book pages and white glue makes for strong rigid tubes. Wrap them around whatever you have to make them size appropriate(a pencil is close).


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## medicf43

Could you finish these with liquid latex and cotton balls.


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## Bone Dancer

You sure could. I used latex and toilet paper. The latex allows them to bend at the joints.


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## DreadKnightswife

This is awesome! Wish I had seen this three years ago when the hubs and I made several sets, we measured everything and cut ourselves a few times trying to cut the Bic pens. I am sure there are more hands in our future, hope I remember this technique!


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## Bone Dancer

Well if you make the jig now and hang it up where you do your work you will be all set.
If you have any questions just ask. I'm glad you liked it and hope you find it useful.


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## Bethene

I need to go look at your witches hands,, to see how they look,, your wrapped plastic bags over the wire? I usually need witch, grave digger,, etc hands.....


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## medicf43

IS toliet paper easier to work with that the cotton balls. I am trying my first attempt and using liquid laxex


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## Bone Dancer

I tried cotton balls once and didnt like it. It was kinda messy putting the wet cotton balls on the hand. Granted its going to be a little messy no matter what you do.
For the toilet paper, I wrapped the whole hand (two layers) and then sprayed it with a white glue and water mixture (Elmers glue). Maybe 2 ounces of glue to 16 ounces of water (on or about).
I kinda mushed down the soggy TP on to the hand. and let it dry. Next two or three layers of latex. The latex will go from creamy white to rubber band brownish/yellow. It looks like dead skin but you can stain it if you want to. I used some Oak wood stain and liked the color. If you want it to look more like dried meat use a Cherry stain instead.
Latex makes great dead skin on what ever you want it on. You could corpse a skelly the same way.


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