Someone on one of the Halloween e-mail lists mentioned the idea of a hanging cage for their Mr. Thrifty 33 inch skeleton from Anatomical Chart Co. That stuck in my mind. I wanted to make one, but I didn't like any of the designs that I thought of. Then on a trip to Home Depot I noticed some 12 round particle board disks. All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and I built my cage. This project only took one evening to build, and cost less than $15.
PARTS LIST
2 - 12 inch particle board disks ($2.50) available at Home Depot
12 - 1/2 inch x 36 inch dowels ($5.16)
2 - cans of flat black spray paint ($1.96)
3 - small eye hooks ($.99)
3 feet of small chain ($.93)
1 - keyring ($.30)
Take one of the disks and draw this on it. I used a drafting compass and a straightedge. If you get this done, the rest will be easy. Take the two disks, line them up, hold them down and drill three small pilot holes through the disks at the locations indicated. Also drill a hole into the center of the top disk. Screw three 1.25 inch sheetrock screws into the 3 holes. This will secure the disks to each other. Now drill twelve 31/64 inch holes at these locations, all the way through both disks. Unscrew the disks. Push 11 dowels into the holes in the disk. Place the disk on the floor and use a hammer to tap the dowels all the way into the holes. Take the second disk, place it on the other end of the dowels and work the dowels into the holes. This will take some patience. Use the hammer to tap the disk down until the end of the dowels are flush with the top of the disk. Drive 1 inch brads into the edge of the disk and into each dowel. This will pin the dowels to the disk. Paint the cage and the last dowel flat black.
Drill a small hole into the top of the skeleton's skull directly above the nut the holds the head on. loosen the nut and attach a piece of thin wire or fishing line, and tighten the nut. Thread the wire through the skull. Put the skeleton into the cage, and thread the wire through the hole in the center of the top disk. Screw a short sheetrock screw into the center hole to secure the wire. Screw three eye hooks into the three holes that you use the secure the disks together during the drilling process. Cut the chain into three 12 inch pieces. Connect the three chains to the eye hooks. Connect the other ends of the chain together using the keyring. Use a hair dryer to warm up the skeleton's hands and curl them around the dowels. Hold the hands in place until they cool. Pin the hands to the dowels using some brads. Place the last dowel into the bottom disk. Tap it down into the hole, and out the bottom of the disk by 1/2 an inch or so. Work the dowel into the hole in the top disk and tap the cage down until the dowel works its way up into the hole, flush with the top of the disk. Hey, your done. Hang the cage by the keyring.
NOTE: If I was going to build another cage, I would use smaller dowels, perhaps 3/8 inch or 7/16 inch. I would also paint the dowels before I assembled the cage.
