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Step 1
Start by acquiring a book shelf. I would recommend either a pre assembled one or that has all the parts in a box you have to put together. If you decide to build one make sure it is sturdy as it will have to with stand all the movements. If you look hard enough on big trash day you can find one in decent shape that might need just a little fixing up. I found one with just a small chunk missing at the bottom for free.
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Step 2
Once you have your bookshelf you need to paint it. I spray paint but you can also use latex paint and a roller. Start off by painting the whole book shelf flat black. Once the shelf has been painted black, get some gray primer and a paint brush and lightly streak the grey on over the black. You don’t want a lot of paint on the brush. Alter between heavy strokes and lighter thinner strokes to give it an irregular rustic look.
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Step 3
While the shelf is drying you want to round up some old, preferably hard back, books. Look at flee markets and garage sales for cheap. I have some at a flea market for .10 a piece so I loaded up. One problem I had was, the books were too heavy for the shelf to move the way it needed to. To solve that problem I cut the covers off of each book. Be careful not to rip the cover too much. You want to keep it in tact as much as possible. Next get some thick Styrofoam, or two or three thin sheets glued together, and cut them to fit inside the book. The best way to do this is to use a drywall hand saw to cut the foam and use the part you previously cut out of the cover to trace around on the Styrofoam. Once you have your foam cut to size use a tube of liquid nails to glue the foam inside the covers. I cover both sides of the foam and spread the liquid nails out with a putty knife.
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Step 4
slide out. Put a few more screws in the sides if you need to. Now that your books are ready either use liquid nails or spray adhesive glue to glue them onto the bookshelf. Make sure the shelf is secure and doesn’t
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Step 5
Complete these steps for the other shelves or if you want to add other decorations like skull, candles, busts, or anything else to give it the finishing touches. Just make sure everything is well secured to the shelf and that the shelf is well secured.
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Step 6
Now that the shelf looks creepy we need to make it look like it is falling over on patrons as they walk by. In order to do this you will need an air supply. Most commonly used is an air compressor. I won’t go into too much detail about the whole air compressor set up, that will be a different how to. Let’s just assume you have your air supply set up and all you need to do is connect it. For this part you will need an air cylinder of desired length and the appropriate brackets. You want to attach the air cylinder about ¾ of the way to the top. Secure one end to the back of the book shelf and the other end to a secure wall. Once you connect the air supply the arm/piston in the air cylinder will shoot out and force the bookshelf over, the length of the piston. Once the air supply is disconnected the piston will retract brining the book shelf back to standing position.
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Step 7
In order to make the bookshelf lean over on command without having to do it manually, you will need an air solenoid, a timer controller, and a trigger. I will go into more details about all of that in future how to’ s.
