Take a Trip Down Elm Street for Halloween & 3D Print This Freddy Krueger Glove 

3D printing and Halloween are an undeniably winning combination. Previously All Hallow’s Eve was not my favorite holiday, as I’m usually trying to avoid eating handfuls of chocolate, and sewing is not my forte (or my mother’s), so I never made any elaborate costumes, wowed everyone walking into a devil-themed party, or won a contest. Trick-or-treating on roller skates one year was as crazy as I got, and that was ‘tricky’ enough in a full-length, store-bought Princess Leia gown.

The days of having to sew a rudimentary costume may be going bye-bye however, as digital design and 3D printing pave a brand new path to big bags of candy (and future trips to a very disappointed family dentist) for your kids, as well as stunning everyone at the next adult get together where you might be scraping the walls and lashing grim long steel nails in the air with something like the 3D printed Freddy Glove.

Peter Gross

Perhaps beginning with this as an accessory, you’ll be inspired to make more for the costume overall–although the 3D printed hand plates and fingers should be enough to make everyone cringe and recoil in immediate trepidation as they remember the singsong chant, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…”, and the horror of serial killer Freddy Krueger (plus the early days for one Johnny Depp).

Perfect for terrorizing innocent friends and family with fear, the 3D printed glove is the nightmarish Halloween project created by Peter Gross of Illinois, and available on Thingiverse. With this project on the back burner for a while, Peter decided to go for it before Halloween came and went again without any Krueger claw action in the mix. He boiled the project down to size simply in realizing that he needed just to design one finger, starting with the pinky–and then the others could be easily scaled, at 1.15 percent. There was some mild trial and error involved; however, Peter recommends that method as it didn’t take long and ended up working very well.

For the paper fasteners, he went to JoAnn Fabrics. These were responsible for the hand rivets. He made the finger joint rivets using PLA, and also recommends the use of a soldering iron.

“For the glove, I used the first cheap thing I could find in the garage,” says Peter.

We think Freddy would approve, not exactly a style icon himself, and certainly he used some items from around the house before he set out to make life miserable for the teenagers on Elm Street, all via the imagination of horror icon Wes Craven. The famous creator of Freddy in all his terror probably would have been glad to have a few 3D printers on hand for many of the still-riveting special effects in the series of movies that made their mark in the ’80s–from which were born one of the most quintessential and unique serial-killing monsters–and the trademark glove.

3D printing lends a great deal of latitude to holiday accessories in general, but none are more fun than the gruesome designs abounding at Halloween. With the flexibility offered through digital design, allowing for such ease in creating as well as making multiple prototypes, 3D printing is a game-changer for a world of do-it-yourself projects.

Not only can you make your own, but a truly passionate designer could even produce his or her own line of terrifying getups and chilling accouterments for this special night celebrating the specters and spooks, and goblins and ghouls. Last year, as Halloween quickly started to become one of our most favorite holidays due to the energy generated by extremely resourceful makers and big fans of the enchanted evening, as well as a wide range of contests, we reported on everything from mad scientists to a wide range of projects for 3D printed masks.

Is this something you are interested in 3D printing for Halloween, or do you have other plans for fabricating an innovative costume this year? Discuss in the 3D Printed Freddy Krueger Glove forum thread over at 3DPB.com.