# Vortex Tunnel Progress



## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

After aggravating the crap out of Neil, who has been graciously helpful, I've finally begun my Vortex Tunnel. For those of you that don't know, I run a fund-raiser haunted trail and we go live Saturday, Oct. 3, so I have a month less than most of you to get ready.

Neil said that we were obligated to expand or improve on his vortex tunnel, so he has shamed me into doing two connected 10 foot tunnels. Here is a pic of the completed walkway portion:










I'll probably catch some flak (sorry, Fritz, lol), but this walkway cost me exactly the price of the nails used to put it together. I went to buy my son a truck this past year and the guy's barn looked like, well, maybe it had Katrina damage. I asked what he was going to do with it and he said he wanted it gone. I told him my group would tear down his 2-story barn in exchange for the materials. Four Saturday's and one trip to the emergency room later (that's another story), and off we went with our barnful of wood. The concrete pylons supporting the center of the walkway also came from the barn.

Next, a friend of mine knows a local lumberyard owner. While having his order loaded on his truck, he asked about a pile of wood off to the side. Turns out it was "returns", or material that people decided they didn't want, or it was damaged. After telling him why we wanted the wood, he was nice enough to give it all to us - it took two trips using a 15-foot trailer.

Today I picked up the PVC for the axle and the rings. I intend to increase the ring-size so that the roof of the tunnel is a little more out-of-reach.

I have a building facade made out of sheet metal from Year One of the Trail. I'll paint some Russian translated words/warnings on the front, the symbol for radiation, and hang a bucket of 3D safety glasses there. Inside the door, up the steps, through the black curtain, and onto the walkway. I ordered the attachments (?) posted previously to "turn any light into a strobe light, including black lights". Man, I hope those things work! Neon paint in the tunnel, spray foam insulation painted neon green on the rails. Twenty feet of Vortex Tunnel later and down the ramp into my black-light/neon big-top tent populated with my clown actors, including Joker's strait-jacket massager clown.

I'll most more updates and pics as the Vortex Tunnel and Clown Big-Top progresses.


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## Warrant2000 (Oct 8, 2008)

Exciting! I hope you have enough time, it sounds like quite a build.


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## Hobie14T (Apr 8, 2009)

Where are you located? I live in Mobile and would like to visit your haunted trail.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Hobie14T said:


> Where are you located? I live in Mobile and would like to visit your haunted trail.


We're located in the northern portion of Hurley, Ms. I thought JustWhisper was located the closest to me in Pensacola, but I'm glad there's another board member even closer. We tried something different this year and are advertising at the two Carmike Wynnsong theatres in Mobile. Our website www.trailofterror13.com will map directions for you. Interested in becoming a Trail staffer, lol?


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Warrant2000 said:


> Exciting! I hope you have enough time, it sounds like quite a build.


It happens this way every year even though it seems we work year-round. When this coming weekend is over, I expect to have the wall structure of the Big Top completed, the roof support of the walkway done, and possibly raise the center support for the Big Top. I'm hoping to have two weeks to finesse the tunnel movement.

We'll have eight major stations this year, plus our stand-alone's, so there'll be some kind of crew working every FR, SA, and SU until the Trail opens. I have some very dedicated and talented people helping me, so I'm not in a panic just yet.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

I wanted to give you an update on the vortex tunnel, but most of the work this weekend was directed to the "clown big-top tent". We spent quite a bit a time working out the development details for the tunnel, but here's what was accomplished for the big-top.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Is that a satellite dish?


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Revenant said:


> Is that a satellite dish?


Yes, lol, a very old satelite dish. I think that this is the third year that it has made an appearance as some type of prop in the Trail. I think that thing is 10' in diameter.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Well, we spent Labor Day laboring and I wanted to share our progress with you:










We added the entry steps and the exit ramp to the tunnel walkway and got the framing for the roof done. The rails for the walkway and the ramp are started but aren't really clear in this pic. We also added a "toeboard" along the walkway to make sure no one's foot slips under the rail. We added the last two legs of the tent wall and tied the walkway roof to the top of the big top. I had some extra help show up who wanted to paint, so I got them started painting the wall supports of the big top tent. The interior will be done in fluoresent and black light, but I'm still not sure if the wall supports will be blacked out or done in the neon colors. I'm thinking that with the ceiling struts it might look pretty cool in fluoresent colors.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

I know this is premature without pics, but I had to post anyway. We got the roof covering on the "barn" and decided to start putting the actual tunnels together today. Got the axle built, motor attached, and built the framework for both tunnels - and it works! I'm going tomorrow to paint and will take some pics of the progress. It's been like monsoon season down here and I never expected to get so much done today - so I didn't bring my camera.


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## Moon Dog (Oct 3, 2006)

Looking forward to seeing a video if possible on the completed vortex tunnel!


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Finally! I just received the video from this past weekend's test run of the vortex tunnel. It was filmed using a cellphone and I guess the phone was held sideways while filming. No really, that was done on purpose so you'd get a better feeling of the vortex effect.


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## morbidmike (Sep 11, 2009)

do you dissassemble each year or just keep adding to your attraction


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## lowdwnrob (Jul 2, 2008)

That thing is awesome. I think we are going to build one next year for my yard. What kind of motor are you using?


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

morbid mike said:


> do you dissassemble each year or just keep adding to your attraction


The first three years we set up fresh each season. However, the summer before year three we built an 800 sf house to be our grand finale a la "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". This is the second year we will use the house, but the interior has been redesigned. Also for year three, we built an 800 sf clown maze. This was the second maze we'd done in as many years, though much larger than the previous year, so I didn't want to do that a third time. We tore down the interior walls and are using the outer structure and tunnel for our vampire station a la "30 Days of Night".

My original intention for the Vortex Tunnel was for just one year. However, we've put so much time and effort into the construction, and it's turned out to be very stable, I'm sure that it will be a repeat next year. The third year (2011), we will likely use the structure but for a different type of scene. And now that we have the "barn" and walkway built, and understand the requirements of the tunnel a little better, it wouldn't be a big deal to rebuild the tunnels themselves each year or whatever. It would also give us the luxery to spend more time on the tunnel design and hopefully improve it.

Because of the House and now the Vortex Tunnel, my goal now is to build one "super station" each year with the expectation of getting 2-4 years use out of it.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

lowdwnrob said:


> That thing is awesome. I think we are going to build one next year for my yard. What kind of motor are you using?


Thanks very much, Rob. With Neil's guidance and having some great folks involved in the project, it has really been fun. As one of my guys said last week, "This is the kind of project that it's just fun to be a part of". Starting early is the key, as well as being open to new design ideas.

As for the type of motor, we had looked at using some kind of engine/motor with a pulley/belt attachment - I'm not very mechanically inclined, so this was obviously not my idea. In the end, we stuck pretty close to Neil's design, though we run our's quite a bit longer than he does. I would describe it as a heavy-duty or industrial drill. It's 8.5 amps (cause my electrician told me) so I had to buy a ~$50 dimmer switch to keep from burning something up (cause that's what my electrician told me). Also, we're using the one drill to turn our one axle which is 24' long and has both of our 10' tunnels riding on it.

Neil has been really great guiding us and we're even discussing future design changes. I encourage you to gain as much knowledge as possible from him before you begin. Also, I'd be more than happy to provide you with as much detail and guidance as I can. You can't help but learn a lot as you progress through a project like this. I've taken many more pics than I've displayed here, I just didn't think everyone would want to see all of it. Needless to say, this has been my pet-project this year.


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## Dr Frankenscream (Dec 1, 2007)

I would definitely like to see more pics...please post.


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## Phil (Sep 2, 2007)

Building a vortex is a big job and you have nailed it so far! Great job!


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Phil said:


> Building a vortex is a big job and you have nailed it so far! Great job!


Thank you very much. Though the vortex tunnels do work, the real test will be if it can stand up to the near-constant running. We open two weeks from today, lol.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

Dr Frankenscream said:


> I would definitely like to see more pics...please post.


Glad to - here ya go, Doc:










Instead of taking up too much space here with all my pics, I've created a new album under my user-name called "Vortex Tunnel". For now, I've only added the progress pics that I took early this morning, but I will add all the other progress and detail pics soon. If there's something or some part in particular that you'd like to see, just let me know.

Here's a link to the new album:

http://hauntforum.com/album.php?albumid=415

As always, I appreciate all comments and/or criticisms. That's the only way I can continue to try to improve on this or anything else - thanks in advance.


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## lowdwnrob (Jul 2, 2008)

Thanks for the info but I do not know who Neil is to talk to. Could you help me out with that also? Thanks and I might take you up on asking you some more questions. I dont plan on starting this project until May at the earliest. Am I a fool for that. I have a friend who owns his own business and we he is very good at building things so I think the biggest problem is going to be powering it.


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

lowdwnrob said:


> Thanks for the info but I do not know who Neil is to talk to. Could you help me out with that also? Thanks and I might take you up on asking you some more questions. I dont plan on starting this project until May at the earliest. Am I a fool for that. I have a friend who owns his own business and we he is very good at building things so I think the biggest problem is going to be powering it.


Neil is "Toktorill" here on the forum. Check out his profile page and his how-to's. He has some really nice ones that he's done on a shoestring budget.

I would gladly share any knowledge I've gained by building this tunnel. I have no idea if my e-mail address is accessible through my profile page, but if it isn't, just pm me or whatever and let me know. I'm always willing to talk about the "Trail of Terror" or any of the Trail stations, lol.

Neil may disagree with me, but in my opinion, the most difficult and most important part is building a secure and stable walkway. I've already decided that I'll be using our vortex tunnel next year - actually I'll be using the walkway and the axle. I intend to cut down the hoops of the tunnel and try to straighten them so they can be used for something else. I don't expect them to retain the proper shape after a year so they won't be of any use to me. I'm very confident that with the rest of the structure in place, I can replace the actual tunnels in just one day.

As for powering the tunnel, I assume you mean turning the axle. Like a former boss used to say, use the KISS method, "Keep it simple stupid". We discussed several options, but in the end, we came back to Neil's way as the simplest and most straight-forward, and just used a mounted electric drill. There may be better or easier ways, but it worked for Neil and it appears that it's going to work for us.

As for when you start, that depends on your overall plan. Neil had access to his location just one week (I think) before Halloween weekend and he got his vortex tunnel finished in time. I have year-round access to my location, but I had other issues to deal with, particularly that my tunnel would be outside so we had to build a secondary structure around the walkway and tunnel to protect it from wind and rain. If you're firm on your design, get the walkway done as soon as you can. It really doesn't take that long to do the rest, but if you're walkway isn't stable, the rest of your efforts will be wasted.


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