9 Foot Nutcrackers - Very Nice DIY Project

[kidcole]

I was poking around the internet looking at various Christmas Projects and ran across this site. It has nice pictures and a complete set of plans, in case some of you would like to build these. This guy did a great job and it also looks like it will stand up to the elements. If these plans are too big, just scale them to any size you like.

He talks about linoleum covering the body parts but does not give any details about it. I am thinking CoroPlast would work too, and save weight.

Hot to construct 9 foot Nutacracker for Christmas Yard decoration

[Al in Raleigh]

Man, that is neat. I think I might use fiberglass rather than vinyl sheeting and Styrofoam. Regardless, they did a really good job.

[kidcole]

Yes, a first class design. I also emailed the guy who made them and he sent me some more details about the linoleum and additional parts .. in case anyone wants to do the project...

Here's his reply:

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Hi Denny

I had left over linoleum from when we redid the floor in our bathroom.

As for sizing.

with a 19" diameter body, multiply by pi to get circumference = 59.7"
You need some extra to wrap around so i think it was like 66-70" wide

So for the top of the torso
14" high by 66" wide

for the bottom of the torso 10" high by 66" wide.


the belt area was made from the 1/8" x 4x8' plastic wall panel (item #20 on bill of materials)

You need to also cut a cone frustum for the pieces that go from the 19" torso to the 17" belt.
Surface Area and Volume of Frustum - Geometry Calculator

You also need to cut out of the plastic wall panel for the wrap around the hat.

I know that for the hat i needed a string 8' long.
So in the picture on that web page x = 96", h=17"
I drew an arch
the arch for the bottom of the Hat was 46". I think you need 40", i had a 6" overlap.
Here are the dimensions for the hat. The Yellow area below is what will get wrapped around the hat frame.

So
1) Get a string 96" long and draw an arch 46" wide. I attached a nail to a piece of wood 8 feet away from the plastic.
2) get a string 113" long and draw another arch
3) Cutout the cone frustum, It will look like the YELLOW area below
4) Wrap this around the hat frame. Staple in 8 places, the 8 struts. The struts were cut with a 7 degree angle.

thanks

sean meighan
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[bartkiewicz]

Nice project, I might consider doing it but bit smaller.

Dariusz