Meat Grinder Halloween Costume

Halloween is a great opportunity to express your creativity and clever sense of humor with an unusual costume. If you want to go all out, you can build a meat grinder costume! Make sure to take a careful look through the instructions before buying materials.

• Four large cardboard boxes
• Four red pool noodles
• Black paint
• Grey paint
• Silver spray paint
• Dark grey paint
• Orange/rust paint
• Small, medium, and large paint brushes
• Plaster Cloth
• Boxcutter
• Cardboard screws (not necessary but fun to use)
• Hot glue gun and glue for it
• Meter/yard stick
• 2 Hula-hoops (one large and one small)
• 2 ratchet straps
• Duct tape
• Clamps
• Tub/bucket of water
• Portable drill or a drill press
• A forstner bit
• Roughly 2' board
• Plus a little more board, can just be scrap. About 2"x2".
• 2 cardboard mailing tubes

Start with a long rectangular prism for your box. Open up the flaps, then make light cuts up the inside of the box. These should only go through one layer of cardboard. Then push the box out into a cylindrical shape. Cut out three cardboard circles that fit tightly into the cylinder; they are used to stabilize the body. Glue one in the middle and one on each end. Use ratchet straps to hold the ends while the glue dries.

Start with a box that you know your body will be able to fit through. Open the flaps on one end and then cut each flap into several strips, but keep them attached to the rest of the box. Duct tape the smaller hula-hoop to the joint where the strips connect to the rest of the box. Then, bend the top of each strip, all at about the same height. Bend these over the larger hula-hoop and keep the hula-hoop right at the joint where you bent the strips. Glue the strip to itself and use clamps to keep it in place. Do this for every strip. Cut the flaps on the bottom off.

This next part is going to get messy, so do it in your garage, the sidewalk, or put newspaper down for easy cleanup. Cut the plaster cloth into strips. Dunk each strip in water and stick it onto the cardboard. Cover everything from the joint where the strips connect to the rest of the box to the larger hula-hoop. Try to keep creases/folds in the cloth managed. You may have to refill your water bucket. Then let the plaster dry.

This part is pretty simple. Get a somewhat tall, skinny box that you know your body will be able to fit through. Cut a hole in the body about the same size as the opening of the box. Then line the two openings up and use the box's flaps to attach it to the body. You can use 3D printed cardboard screws or just hot glue. All you have to do is make sure it's secure.

For a meat grinder to work, it needs a crank! Find the diameter of the mailing tubes and drill a hole in each end of the board using a forstner bit that will create a tight fit for the tubes. You can use a bandsaw to shape the handle if you would like---you can go fancy or not shaped at all.

Take the extra 2"x2" piece and use a slightly larger bit to drill a hole right through the center. This is used as a buffer between the handle and the main body, so the tube should fit loosely in order for it to turn.

Glue the mailing tubes into the holes and then slide the buffer over the tube that will go into the body.

Cut a hole in one end of the body that the tube can fit tightly into. Put the tube through the whole and glue the buffer onto the body.

Like with the crank, you can go simple or fancy with your paint job. You can get something decent looking in an hour and a half to two hours, like mine. Here are some suggestions, but feel free to get creative!

Start with an undercoat of dark grey; primer is always a good option but regular paint works too. When you paint over the plaster, you'll have to use more paint than normal, as it will soak up more paint. Let this coat dry.

Use the silver spray paint to make the highlights, the places where the light would hit the object and reflect strongly. Use small bursts to get a slightly fuzzy pattern that makes the light seem more realistic. Make sure to do the spray painting outside or in a well ventilated room.

Come up with a fun brand name for the grinder. I used "Wurstmeat," but you can of course pick something else. Either way, sketch out the letters with pencil. Add just a little grey paint to the dark grey paint used as the undercoat. Use this slightly lighter tone to fill in the letters. Use black paint to put shadows on the bottom and right of the letters, and other places where there would be shadow. See the pictures for reference on the shadows.

Dry brush rust colored paint onto edges and where ever else you feel it is appropriate. Make sure not to use too much.

You may want to only do details on the side with lettering to save time.

Cut each pool noodle in half to get eight strips. Cut a pattern of holes into the front disc of the body. They don't need to be pretty, just jamb the box cutter in and twist it around. Glue the pool noodle strips somewhat evenly into the holes and let the glue dry.

The hopper and the body were made as separate components because you have to put the body on over yourself and then put the hopper on after that. Also, it may be difficult to get through doors if the hopper is too wide, so it is helpful to be able to detach the two pieces and put them through doors separately. You may also need someone else to help you put the costume on.

Now you're done!