Evil Dead II/Army of Darkness replica chainsaw

jimmydellamorte

Well-Known Member
I have been a fan of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series since I was ten years old.
I've always been a horror fanatic and even though my fellow horror enthusiast friends consider Evil Dead as a gateway movie, I always disagreed.

It is more than a horror movie, it is a slapstick adventure with more blood than a brothel employee during menstruation.

But underneath all the gags and spatter lies the solid truth that Ash "Ashley" J. Williams, a not-so-bright S-Mart employee, is the most iconic horror hero of all time.

I always found myself obsessed with his chainsaw, for some reason it strikes itself as a piece of art or beauty within my decaying brain. I am utterly attracted to such a prop and for that reason, I have decided to finally quit drooling over the scenes it is featured in or spending time on google wishing I myself had the chance to order a chainsaw from evildeadchainsaws.com when it was up and running and get out there and make my own f--cking chainsaw.







So...





Here we go:





I found an Austin local that was kind enough to sell me an old Homelite XL chainsaw he had sitting in his garage forever for 25 bucks. The thing didn't run but all I really needed was a body that wasn't too dinged up or chipped and broken.

His was in great condition except dirty as HELL:
chain1.jpg

chain2.jpg

chain3.jpg


I pulled out the oil leaking engine and put it aside as I cleaned the saw body... Which took forever:
chain4.jpg


Then I contacted a local prop bud of mine named Eric to modify the saw.

First he went at the body and cut off the top handle, cleared the bay for the plate cover and sanded down the edges:
evil_dead_chainsaw_by_deadheadhorror-d3grlgr.jpg


Next up, he chopped down the side handle:
more_chainsaw_progress_by_deadheadhorror-d3hml7n.jpg

What I have planned for this is to plug the tube area that's been cut and then plasti-dip the entire thing so that it is one flush black piece... And thicker than the standard metal bar that came with the saw as seen in the film.

Here's a shot of the cut sidebar and exposed insides of the saw:
chainsaw_progress_by_deadheadhorror-d3hmlld.jpg


Next he cut out the back of the saw where the wearers hand will insert (where Ash's nub plugs into the wrist cuff):
chainsaw_progress_by_deadheadhorror-d3hmlzf.jpg


Then it was on to the top plate... I had a discussion with Eric about what he used exactly... I think he said it was a metal door stop plate found at Home Depot? I don't remember. Anyway, he cut the plate out to size and popped the toggle switch onto it:
evil_dead_chainsaw_replica_by_deadheadhorror-d3hmm5w.jpg


He then connected the top plate to a hinge that is bolted to the saw body so the saw actually opens like the workshed saw viewed in the scene where Ash and Annie rig the chainsaw for battle:
evil_dead_chainsaw_replica_by_deadheadhorror-d3hmm9i.jpg


Then he bent an aluminum bar sheet into shape for the top handle and bolted it onto the plate:
evil_dead_chainsaw_replica_by_deadheadhorror-d3hmmel.jpg


Another shot of the top handle installed:
evil_dead_chainsaw_replica_by_deadheadhorror-d3hmmy2.jpg


Then it was on to the dowels and so forth... There is a set of three here as we originally were going to make three separate top handles so I could make the dorky red resin piece that took the place of the metal top plate saw towards the end of EDII oddly and was prominant throughout AOD:
preparing_the_handles____by_deadheadhorror-d3i5tz1.jpg

Unfortunately, lady luck has never been that interested in me and the two spare handles snapped and I didn't feel like paying more for supplies... So one will have to do for now.

Eric then chopped the dowels in half and set them up to be bolted onto the top handle:
handle_work_progress_2_by_deadheadhorror-d3i63nl.jpg


He drilled accurate sized holes and then bolted them onto the top handle to form the wooden handles:
chainsaw_handle_attached_by_deadheadhorror-d3i63qz.jpg

I will stain these later for more accuracy, it's no rush at the moment because I want to attempt to mold the entire top piece and cast it in resin......... I'll explain why later in this post.

He then bolted the back of the top handle onto the plate and replaced the plastic pull start handle with a wooden dowel and threw it back at me for completion:
phase_1_done__by_deadheadhorror-d3irrtb.jpg



From here, there are many technical things I must do... First I have to mold the side of the engine where the chainsaw guide bar attaches and cast this in resin. I have to glue and bolt this into the body and then add a handle for the inside of the saw.

From there, I have to obtain a T-Bolt plumbers clamp and bolt that onto the back of the saw as the wrist cuff that secures around Ash's nub.

Then I have to bolt on a real chainsaw bar and chain (I plan on hopefully using the real sprocket from the XL) and muffler.

And following that, I have to grime and dirty distress the entire saw for realism... I have a few tried and true techniques that will do this beautifully.


As far as anything else, I just have to make that strange grill piece that covers the XL logo on the chainsaw.
I have tried this before but can't get it down right, and it literally pisses me off more than anything.

I attempted the grill with a clay sculpt...

Here's me setting up an initial starting point:
chain5.jpg

chain6.jpg


My idea was to etch the lines and then sculpt down deep to widen them and bring them to a raised ridge looking shape.... Yeah:
chain7.jpg

chain8.jpg


It KINDA worked, but I felt it turned out looking stupid, so I scrapped it.

I've viewed a few other prop makers' ideas on how to do the grill and I've attempted it... The wooden piece with dremeled grooves, the resin piece with dremeled grooves, the styrene and sentra and yadda yadda, but I don't know... It doesn't turn out how I want the saw grill to look.

I was browsing the net and found on a Ghostbusters forum someone's grill piece and I absolutely LOVE the look... I don't want the movie style big chunky weird piece, it's easy to do but it's not the look I want... I want the comic book style/movie poster style where it is flatter and more streamlined.

Here's a pic of the grill I found:
heatsink.jpg


I love it... Don't know why.





More progress to come!
 
Thank you very much!
I still have a lot of work to do... But now it is all the fun stuff (molding, casting, distressing) so the task at hand is something to look forward to.
 
Thanks for all the kind words...

I must have led you all on, I meant I found this pic:
heatsink.jpg

online!

I'd LOVE to have that grill piece. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time getting in contact with the maker so I can't commission a resin pull.

I do have a fellow prop buddy that is willing to help me out if my next run on a grill attempt is unsuccessful. I know that the grill is the hardest and most important piece to get right on saw replicas.

If I'm lucky enough to find or make a damn good one, I may be able to sell a few to fellow ED/AOD saw replica makers, but I'd have to post more on here before I can do that through the junkyard.


Anyway, here's an update:



I decided to do a nice clean-up of the saw a final time to remove the grime and dust created from cutting the body and so forth:
more_chainsaw_by_deadheadhorror-d3ja3j4.jpg

I absolutely love the look of the Homelite XL chainsaws... They're the most unique and visually appealing looking chainsaws I've ever seen:
more_chainsaw_2_by_deadheadhorror-d3ja3kw.jpg

And with that top handle and plate, it just makes it all that much more eye catching.


Anyway, I started planning out how I'm going to mount the handle within the saw so I can wear the chainsaw comfortably over my hand.

My idea is to have the handle horizontally instead of what most do (which is obviously vertically).

The reason for this is because I'm going to be casting this whole side area of the chainsaw motor in resin:
ed_chainsaw_motor_by_deadheadhorror-d3ja5p8.jpg

I can attach a metal strip behind this and bolt the handle directly onto that. The two pieces can then be attached to one of the useless but cosmetically needed bolts on the bottom of the chainsaw for stability.

The horizontal handle will take a lot of weight strain off of the resin cast piece and it will last much longer and can put up with more abuse.

I'm excited to start molding:
inside_handle_sample_by_deadheadhorror-d3ja3pe.jpg
 
As a note... That T-Bolt plumbers clamp is hard as **** to find, man.
Screw Lowes, screw Home Depot, screw Harbor Freight... I just might have to order
the cursed thing off of Amazon.
 
This is one of my favorite movies and you're doing an awesome job with it so far. Can't wait to see it finished. Any thought of mounting small speakers to play a chainsaw audio clip inside it? Be pretty cool to turn it on as you walk through a crowd yelling "Listen up you primitive screwheads!"
 
This is one of my favorite movies and you're doing an awesome job with it so far. Can't wait to see it finished. Any thought of mounting small speakers to play a chainsaw audio clip inside it? Be pretty cool to turn it on as you walk through a crowd yelling "Listen up you primitive screwheads!"

I had an idea to make the chain spin and such in homage to the movie saw...
As far as sound, an amplifier with an mp3 that plays chainsaw noise from the flicks would be easy, the hard part would be getting it to play when I wanted it specifically.

I'd only do it if I could crank it up to 11.
 
here is a screen shot of the clamp

t-boltclamp.jpg


and this is the one I can get to my hardware store :

0000-Cobra-Stainless-T-Bolt-Clamps---.jpg


it's not exactly the same one but pretty close for sure
 
You know in reality, that could be the exact same clamp just modified on screen.
I have no clue why production companies want to do this - mostly for cosmetic reasons or to achieve the initial look the writers/directors perceive.

I remember a post on here saying that Ash's saw had that with a camp around it. But if you look at that piece it IS a t-bolt clamp. The cuff itself seems to be chopped with a rubber or thin metal piece attached inside to give it the opening latch sort of look.

I dunno, tequila makes crazed rambles seem more like legit facts.


I'm still working on ideas for the grill piece, a prop buddy of mine said clay with ridges made of wood or any found item laid at proper spacing, then cast in resin could achieve the look I'm wanting.

I will give it a try as soon as I get all my supplies in the mail, which is taking forever for some odd reason.
 
True.

I found out that badass grill was made from a computer heat sink.
Or so someone said...
Supposedly, a heat sink was molded and cast in heated oil clay and then shaped into a circle and "reflanged" with the same heat sink.

Pretty intuitive.
 
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