# Ticket Booth Drop Panel



## DJCarolina (Sep 10, 2010)

For our Psycho Circus themed haunted house this year, I knew I wanted to embark on a themed drop panel of some kind. As I started thinking, I decided that a Ticket Booth would most likely fit the bill for the theme requirements (not too many circuses have hallways of pictures). So it started with some drawing in MS Paint and now we have the finished product.










I design everything in my haunts to be both modular and fairly symmetrical. All the rooms in the maze are 5x5 and can be broken up into hallways, rooms or cubes. I didn't stray from the theory when I built this drop panel. I used a design similar to one I saw (possibly on here) a couple weeks ago, and built it using 4' and 7' 2x4s. The total cost of the project came in right at $100 including the lumber, foam, paint, and even the blacklight.

The design begins with a basic rectangular frame. I designed mine to be 7' tall for a couple reasons: 1) Our haunt's ceiling is approximately 7.5' tall 2) At 7' tall it easily rolls into and stands up in the garage and 3) It works perfectly with an EzUp to create a portable ticket booth scare.

I cut 2 of my 2x4's to 7' tall and then cut the additional 5 2x4's into two 4' sections. I used steel corner braces to create a rectangle frame that was 4' wide by 7' tall. From there I screwed on a 4' support "leg" per side and attached a 4' diagonal support to connect the main frame to the leg again.

To create a stop for the dropping door, I installed a 4' section two feet up from the bottom of the frame and supported it with (2) two foot sections.

Now for the fun part.

I cut 1 piece of 4x8 plywood down to 4x7' and cut an 18" wide by 22" long rectangle in the center. I then screwed this piece onto the frame. I then took another sheet of plywood and cut a 22" wide by 22" long square of plywood and attached a pair of heavy duty drawer sliders (the flat mount ones- $14 at Lowes) using heavy duty screws (not the ones that came with the sliders). Then i mounted the bottom of those sliders flush with the 2' tall support at the bottom and attached a handle to the top of the square sliding piece.

Now came the trickiest part of the entire project- making the gate latch work. After trial and error, I found the best way was to mount the metal "stick" part of the latch horizontally towards the top of the sliding panel about 1/2" below the top. For the actual "latch" part- I screwed a scrap piece of 2x4 (about a foot long) into the frame and the front plywood, and then attached the latch on the edge of this. Make sure you cut your 2x4 down so that the panel doesn't crash with it when you bring it up.

Now, I know all of this is probably hard to read, and comprehend, so I've also attached some pictures after I built the basic frame.


















Video (Pre-Facade): 34b484a1.mp4 video by djcarolina16 - Photobucket

The final piece of construction for me, was to install a pair of heavy duty casters on the front, bottom corners. When I need to move the structure, it easily moves and rolls behind me (and it doesn't weigh much either).

A word of caution. I designed this to be used just about anywhere. With that in mind, I didn't design it with front braces so that they wouldn't trip people. The way I keep the unit steady and from falling forward is by using a pair of 50lb bags of play sand placed on the support "legs" on each side. With this in place, the entire structure is sound and can handle an actor pushing forward on the frame.

For the Décor:

I wanted to be able to reuse this panel year after year, so, rather than stripping the paint each year or applying 100,000,000 coats of paint to it- I decided to create a facade each year. For this year, I wanted a ticket booth.

I started with a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" foam insulation and cut it down to 7'. From there I laid down 2 coats of solid white latex paint which coated the blue foam nicely (one coat wasn't enough).

I then masked it off and painted 6" red alternating stripes and a little side stripe just to balance the design out.

I measured and cut the hole in the center, painted the plywood dropping section white (i can deal with repainting it each year) and added a dollar store "Closed" sign to it.

For the TICKETS sign, i took the extra 1x4' section of foam and cut it down to about 3'. Then I used Constantina font and the outline feature in MS Word to create templates. After taping those to the foam, I cut the pattern with an x-acto knife and removed the plastic coating on the foam all around the letters. I laid down 2 coats of solid black and then peeled the plastic off from the letters themselves and then painted them in with neon paints from walmart.

The gag is completed with a couple of "extras". I bought a glow in the dark clown mask, and installed a 2' blacklight at the top of the frame (inside), and I added a small port under the window where i can easily stick a solenoid and air line to give people a nice shot of air to go with their banging ticket window and clown face. The only other thing I'm considering is installing a small fan somewhere on the back side of the panel to keep my actors cool.


















I welcome any comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism and am happy to answer any questions.

The next project I'm working on as we speak is a spandex wall painted to look like a circus sideshow poster!


----------



## skeletonowl (Aug 8, 2006)

I think it is a really great idea! Sure to get some good reactions.


----------

