I just found this nugget in an old (July 23, 1999) issue of Entertainment Weekly, about how they made the flying spheres from Phantasm fly:
“We tried a bunch of really elaborate rigs with piano wire and fishing line to get that sphere to fly,” says Coscarelli. “None of it worked at all. So we got a junior college baseball pitcher at Cal State Northridge to throw the thing from behind the camera.”
C'est Non Un Blog 
sweet!
Shameless plug
They did all kinds of things like that, which is why you should buy the Phantasm DVD if you haven’t already and watch all the behind the scenes extra footage.
Also, I have heard that they have 8 million dollars for the budget of Phantasm’s End, which is AWESOME, because they only needed about 5 million (as far as I’ve heard…). And I think they’ve got Bruce Campbell, but I can’t be sure.
Re: Shameless plug
I do own the DVD and am eagerly awaiting the day when 2 and 3 are out so I can buy them too.