# Pneumatics- what a learning process



## EvilEye (Nov 14, 2012)

I decided this year to take on the task of building some pneumatic props as I've always wanted to give it a shot.

While I consider myself mechanically well rounded, I hadn't done anything with pneumatics and as expected, it's been a vertical learning curve.

Going from theory to actual implementation can be painful.

I just received some incredible support from Coast Pneumatics because in my infinite wisdom, the solenoids and cylinders I have (courtesy of Ebay) are all BSP while I thought they were NPT.

I started to source everything from a particular haunt vendor, but the price delta between them versus me collecting stuff on ebay didn't add up (e.g. what I'd spend on parts for 1 prop I could buy enough on ebay to do 3 props).

If you're new to pneumatics I'd seriously consider sourcing everything from a single vendor until you can get your arms wrapped around the process. The time you'll save from trying to otherwise put a peg in a square hole will be worth it.


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## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

Welcome to the madness!!!
Make sure to check out the links in the sticky thread I have at the top of the pneumatics section. Lots of great info there to help ease the learning curve.


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## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

I'm a vendor, or at least I work for one. So I hope I don't get in trouble here. Mods, if I cross a line here, just delete the post, and do what you have to do to my account.

We, as vendors, have some overhead costs an ebay vendor, who is much more specialized, may not.

Having said that, most Halloween supply vendors aren't really brick and mortar places anymore. If you don't have on call support, for current and future customers, what the heck do you have? I will go right ahead and say that I fix, locally, Spirit of Halloween items. If you buy something from them, and call them, are you going to talk to the guy that designed, prototyped, and and built the very one you have on your porch? No way. So its disposable, unless you are lucky and live in the same town as a prop-building vendor. And then, you have to hope they are willing to do it, because there isn't any money in repairing the stuff.

I'm 40, when I was, like, 8, I lived in a town of 800. There were three sisters in their 80's, they all lived in a creepy stone house, and would do this witch thing where they all dressed up and made actual caramel apples in a big cast iron cauldron in the back yard. Thank God for them, because if it weren't for them, my Halloween as a kid would have straight up sucked. Everyone else just handed some candy out of a pumpkin shaped bucket. They made the holiday for my whole generation in that town. They did it to the nines, too, acting like witches, cackling, lol, all of it. Imagine them trying to get into pneumatics! No freakin way.

So posts like this bother me. Call. Your vendor should be able to make it easy, and having one is good advice, but it should be fun. The whole thing should be fun. That's the whole point, business aside. I shouldn't, God knows, but I have a depth of feeling over this. Somewhere there are some old ladies who would LOVE to put on a better holiday, and they don't know to just call me and I will make it happen, if it is at all feasible. I loved those old ladies. Never saw them outside of the holidays.

I feel like this may be a bad post, but I'm going to stand by Halloween being fun, and for the kids. Spending money to make fun for kids shouldn't have to mean taking on a big load of suck, and man, when I look at ALL of what is out there, holy cow, that is a lot for anyone to learn.


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## EvilEye (Nov 14, 2012)

No worries Hippofeet cause at the end of the day I'm driven by knowing how much fun the night will be once all of this stuff is done.

I probably should've clarified in that I did go through all of the stickies and trolled various posts in this forum to get up to speed. So functionally I think I had it down in terms of the verbiage and what I wanted hardware-wise. 

But going from theory to bolting it all together is where I got myself jammed up by getting various items from Ebay from different vendors. And of course none of those sellers specified the thread type (probably wouldn't know the difference anyhow).

It's all good though in that I've got what I need and just finished the build of a mechanical pop-up. That was another good example of seeing pics and having the theory but actually building something and putting the dimensions to work is another thing.

I mainly wanted to get some feedback out there for someone who may just be starting out on their first build in that it makes a lot more sense to source everything (cylinder, solenoid, fittings) from one vendor even if it's at a greater cost.


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## davensj (Nov 21, 2012)

Hi EvilEye! Yeah it's a learning experience for sure. A few months ago I was terrified of using pneumatics. Not knowing what was what, and what fits where into where, LOL. I had a lot of help from friends and a haunt vendor, and I'm still learning. Getting your items from one knowledgable and helpful source is the right direction. Once you have a general understanding of this, bringing your imagination to reality is a great feeling. 
The great thing is you're driven to make it fun, and that's what halloween is about, IMO. Another good thing is there are people on the boards who can help with questions you might have. Just ask.


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