This is a not my idea but a version of Lawrence Lunds prop.
My pit is designed with double walls for stabality and also for a place to hide cords and a tape player. Instead of using a regular 2-way mirror we're using a piece of Flexiglass covered with a mirror tint. This is for the safety of the TOTers and the pocketbook. Before you begin this project I suggest you find the mirror tint first. That was the last thing we needed to pick up and it took two weekends of searching.
We searched auto stores, hobby stores, craft stores and home improvement stores. We found window tint but only in smoke and black. It's important that you use the silver tint with at least 50% reflectivity.
We finally found Gila Window Film
at Home Depot in their window section - the last and only box. It wasn't in their system so we got the box for $12 - regular price unknown. If we hadn't found this then our other alternatives were to purchase a mirror from Terror By Design or to go to a regular auto window tinting store.
The mirror measures 28x32 so starting with the inside walls we cut out 4 pieces of wood that the mirror will fit snugly into. The height of the box is 2' 6". Since the wood was too thin to screw together (we're cheap) we screwed some blocks of scrap wood to the corners of the side walls. We cut the front wall an extra 2" to allow room to attach to the scrap wood. We had to secure the box together on the outside of the wall because anything on the inside of these walls will be reflected over and over. We drilled pilot holes in the scrap wood to prevent splitting and then screwed the box together. Before completing this step make sure that the mirror fits snugly. The mirror lays flat on the bottom with the reflection side up but we test fitted both the top and bottom because you want it as perfect of a square as you can get.
We then cut a piece of plywood for the base extending it 3" on three sides with the front flush. In the pictures the side without a wall right now is actually the back. We screwed 3" boards around the base edges - this is what the extra 3" of the base floor was for. The box fits inside the base. The outer walls will be screwed into the 3" wood pieces.
Now for the light fixture. We drilled a hole in the center of the front wall. We got some wire, a light socket and a plug. We connected the wire to the socket and then the wire to the plug.
With the light in place its now time to work on the inside walls. Here you will see that I at first used a brown patterned cloth. This looks great but once the whole pit is done I found that I wanted something with more texture and lighter in color to give it a strong visual contrast. I ended up using 1" foam that was carved and painted to look like stone. I also added a blood drip going down the side. We then turned the box upside down and attached the base. After that we turned it the right way and slid the mirror in place and attached the back wall.
This is how it looks inside the pit. In the upper right you can see a small board that is screwed in above the lightbulb. I glued some of the fabric to the top of the board and on the bottom my husband had some reflective tape that I used. I think aluminum foil would work also. This is so that when people look in they wont be blinded by the light.
To attach the outer walls we cut some boards that fit in-between the scrap pieces. To get a better understanding of this then click on the picture. Also note that these boards do not go all the way to the bottom. This allows the cord (which we stapled to the pit) to come out and also a place to hide the tape deck.
We sandwiched the plexiglass mirror between some boards. We used Liquid Nails and then screwed it together. This just lifts on and off of the pit. For added stability since the TOTers will most likely lean on the rim this will be screwed down.
Here's how it looks looking down the pit and the outside completed. It's kind of hard to get the effect to look right from a camera. If you look closely on the bottom and right hand side of the walls you can see where I put some blood running down. Of course the colors show better in person than on camera.
