This year we had an Asylum Halloween so I felt we needed an electric chair to “shock” our guests. This was our end result, it was quite easy to make and was very effective, we added strobe lighting and “electricity crackling” to enhance the realness of the chair. We hope you enjoy our tutorial.
This was part of a large asylum party which can be viewed here.
How to make an Electric Chair
How to make an Electric Shock Chair
Step 1
Starting with the Electric Chair Brain electrode: This was made using an old colander, Battery operated red LED lights, Paint and an extension cord with 1 meter reserved for the cap.
Step One - How to make an Electric Chair
Step Two:
Paint the colander all over with black paint, this will take a few coats of paint, Remove the plastic cover from approximately 1 meter of the extension cord so you can use the wire (Careful where you cut as you want to preserve length near the plugs). Paint the remainder of the extension cord, including the plugs in black paint.
Step 2 — How to make an Electric Chair
Step Three
Push the red LEDs through the holes in the colander and secure with a hot glue gun, twist sections of wire so they protrude and look exposed from the top of the cap, I also used wire to secure the light battery in place.
Step Three - How to make an Electric Chair
Step Four
Add the end of the electric extension cord to the centre of the cap and secure in place, I split the wire on the hidden end and tied the wires in place.
Step four - How to make an Electric Chair
Step five
The frame was made to be secure, I found an old pallet and spray painted it black, we they made a sturdy fame of treated pine that was screwed to the pallet, we attached coasters for the chair legs so the chair would stay in place.
After lots of searching for the perfect chair we settled on a hospital style mobility impairment chair, this had a sturdy frame while having that “medical institution look”. We managed to find this in a thrift shop.
Halloween Electric Chair
Step five - How to make and Electric Chair
Step 6
I made the sides of the chair using plastic stone wall wrap, this was secured in place using large bull dog clips, black fabric was used for the top. The electric brain cap was attached to the remainder of the electrical extension cord, we left the extension cord only loosely attached so it could be placed lower or higher depending on the height of the victim.
Step 6 - How to make an Electric Chair
Step 7
Arm and leg restraints were made from wide belts, found at thrift shops and cut to size
Step 8
Two strobe lights were attached to the top of the wooden frame, with more bull dog clips, they were then attached to a single power source. We placed a sound track of electricity crackling near the chair that was controlled via an iPad.
Step 8 - How to make an Electric Chair
Step Nine
The final finishing touchers included placing dark green velvet at the front entrance, our electric chair photo booth sign, some carrion birds and lastly an electric danger animated device that I happened to find at a local party shop. Our Electric Shock photo booth sign can be downloaded here.
We hope enjoyed this tutorial.