Balloon Displays

[lasersbee]

It may also ease some of your concerns to know that I have added a Spartan 100MW green laser and a 5MW green laser to my collection, so that I can experiment with effects of laser line generator ( I think will be my next purchase) and possibly some of the crystals available from CNI. The descriptions of what each do is quite vague on the site, so that is another area of searching and learning I am actively pursuing. The line generator looks like a great effect, but I am not sure how it would work with a hand held laser on a stand. I am going to call CNI and discuss and hopefully get more thorough explanations. There online chat support is not very helpful.

I believe you mean milliWatts (mW) and not MegaWatts (MW)..

Do be careful with your explosive experiment...:beer:


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

 

[Atomicrox]

Hello Atomicrox, I also have a Spartan 1W Blue 447nm laser. That should increase the distance and shorten the time to ignite the flash paper.

That'll be better but due to high divergence the range will still be kinda short. Igniting flash paper is slightly harder than popping baloons and easier than lighting matches so maybe you'll get some 5m of usable range.

 

[remmy460]

taping flash paper to the outside is still a challenge. Its seems to be about 25% of the time the laser ignites the flash paper before popping the balloon. I often have an outcome (Approx 75%) where the balloon pops, the gas disperses and I have a lit piece of flash paper float down for a moment. I have been using black balloons. I am hoping that by using a white balloon and possibly doubling the thickness of the paper will ensure that the paper burns in conjunction with or prior to the balloon popping. Anyone tried this? Will the color of the balloon effect the time it takes to burn through it?

 

[Laser Smith]

The color of the balloon will definitely effect the amount of time it takes to burn through it, if by that you mean burning it with the laser. The flash paper will burn through any color balloon at the same rate, popping the balloon from combustion. Using a white ballon will help keep from lase popping it. Then you just point the flash paper, sizzle, balloon pops, ignites gas, fireball, yay

 

[Atomicrox]

I've seen people hang a piece of flash paper inside a transparent balloon and burn it without popping the balloon. That might (or might not) be easier, not sure if you'd need to leave some oxygen inside.

 

[Flaminpyro]

You have forgotten one gas, Oxygen, The garbage bags are usually filled with a mixture of O2 and fuel generally Acetylene
but any of the gases you have mentioned here will work fine with O2 if you are looking for a LOUD noise !

I knew this lawyer back in the early 80's and I went over to his house a couple days after new years and he had this Oxy/Ace
tank set in his garage, Well I knew he didn't know any thing about welding so I asked him what he was doing with it and he said,
I rented it to make bag bombs with for new years and he went on to explain how they went to a dry cleaners and bought a ton
of dry cleaning bags and He lived on a cul-de-sac with houses all around and they put a block in the middle of the street to hook
the bag bomb to and then they stood back and threw fire crackers at it till Ka-Boom
BTW the lawyer did tell me he would be paying for a window.

This was the first time I had heard of this technique, pretty cool :eg:



Now if you want something quiet lets say then put only fuel into the balloon and when it ignites it will be so fuel rich it will
burn slowly with a pop instead of a big BANG.

I like the idea if the flash paper stuck to the balloon and maybe a match head behind it for certainty :thinking:

We pretty much only ever set off bag bombs with electric squibs when I was doing it at baseball and foot ball games during
the fireworks displays but this way seems like a lot more fun, it's a bit of a challenge if you make the flash paper target small

Have fun and be Safe

thanks for the advice. I will get some flash paper and try various gases. Propane I have. Hydrogen or acetylene, I will have to rent a tank from a welding shop. I can try the match head idea, Maybe a couple glued right next to each other on a balloon. That would definitely be the least expensive. Flash paper is not cheap.

stick flashpaper onto outside of balloon- BE CAREFUL esp w/ Acetylene
I have seen garbage bags of it get lit and it can cause a pants full or worse.

I have found a local supplier of hydrogen at a very reasonable price. If I fill a balloon with hydrogen and use a little flash paper to ignite the Gas will it ignite with a decent flash and noise? I am hesitant to use acetylene because I have seen many posts that state it is a bit more unstable and can be extremely loud when ignited. So, what do you think. Hydrogen with flash paper taped or glued to the outside of the balloon. Will it give me a decent display?

 

[MrBland]

I've seen people hang a piece of flash paper inside a transparent balloon and burn it without popping the balloon. That might (or might not) be easier, not sure if you'd need to leave some oxygen inside.

This seems like the best idea to me. I have set matches on fire inside of a balloon without popping the balloon until the combustion of the match popped it.

I would try using a clear balloon; filling the ballon part way with gas, then part way with O2. Use dark flash paper, and hang in on a string inside the balloon, then fire away. I might try this myself over the holidays. My family has a lot of acreage that would work nicely for trying this out :eg:

 

[Manongjojo]

It takes sparks or fire to ignite gas. Lasers no matter the power will not ignite gas as they don't put out fire or sparks.

 

[MrBland]

It takes sparks or fire to ignite gas. Lasers no matter the power will not ignite gas as they don't put out fire or sparks.

That is what the flash paper is for...

 

[Hovermn]

Maybe I'm wrong, but do you really want to fill a balloon with flammable gas?? I seem to remember using a balloon's static holding capabilities to annoy my friends little girls. I don't know. All this talk about Hydrogen and balloons brings thoughts of a certain zeppelin. It would sure make for a bad day if the two properties met in the middle during setup.

That said, I'm totally buying some clear balloons and doing some experimenting