Desktop tornado machine!

[Things]

Yeah, wood doesn't really cut it

This is the CO2 laser inside the machine:

 

[mhemling33]

So are you going to make a gb for tornado kits!

These things are awesome

 

[KapHn8d]

Wow. I am fascinated by this... thank you for sharing! Can you link some good reference material to learn more about these (ie. construction, how they function, etc).

Very cool!!
-c

 

[scumbagatheist]

I am already thinking about building one of these for my SO.

She teaches severe and profoundly learning disabled children. I can just imagine the calm and fascination if one of these was in the room to entertain the kids.

 

[Lazerbeak]

~ LB

 

[Blord]

That is a cool gadget. Thanks for showing it us !

 

[norbyx]

Well selling a tornado machine would be cool... I wonder how much would you eventually sell it for?

 

[Things]

The acrylic is by far the most expensive part of the whole thing. I have had a few people ask if I'm going to sell them, so I'll look into it, though I'd have to purchase the acrylic in full sheets (Which is over $100, if not closer to $200), so colours would be limited. So far blue and red seem to be the majority.

But yeah, there would be some pretty big startup costs involved with these, and I'm not the type of person that likes to take money until the items are ready to go. Luckily I start a job next week, so I might be able to start collecting parts.

Unfortunately shipping outside of Aus is fairly expensive, and even moreso if it was assembled. The electronics are fairly simple, however the real pain would be the acrylic assembly work, you'd really need proper acrylic glue and an applicator to do it well (especially since the bottom part needs to be watertight). So not sure what I'd do about that.

 

[IsaacT]

You could always make a little build thread showing how you make them. You'd probably get mad rep your pics are always great!

 

[Sigurthr]

Very awesome, Things!

1) Consider adding a dye to the water which is completely opaque to the laser wavelength; use a dark green or blue dye for a red laser. This will produce a dark tornado effect if you use uncollimated or diffused laser light.

2) Where did you get those CO2 tube mounts!?! I NEEEEEEED a pair for my 15W tube.

 

[norbyx]

You could always make a little build thread showing how you make them. You'd probably get mad rep your pics are always great!

That would be nice. I am ready to rep you if you did...!!!

 

[Things]

Hmm, I'll think about doing a writeup for it. I think you'll find most tornado machine information on the web is very outdated, but they are very simple in design if you follow a few basic guidelines. You basically only need 2 elements, an updraft, and some rotation. Get those going and you'll have a tornado in no time.

@Sig, I don't think adding dye to the water would work very well, the nature of the fogger means it'd probably separate the dye from the water particles. I might try it though - it'd be cool to put in some fluorescent dye and light it with a UV light - it would give the ultimate in visibility.

As for the mounts, they came with the machine. However you can buy similar (and higher quality) ones from here: Search

I have actually added speed control to the fan on my large machine today, by just PWM'ing it at a very low frequency (about 10hz, since it's an AC induction fan). Doing that and fine tuning the rotation fans, I was actually close to achieving a multi-vortex tornado. I think there are a few other things I could do to get them more reliable, as they're very temperamental.

Dan

 

[Things]

Mini machine inside the big one

The big one can juussstt form a tornado with my bulky camera in it. If I had a tiny HD camera I could actually get some footage inside the eye without disrupting it.

 

[Things]

I couldn't resist putting a bit of fire into it - this is actually a much more realistic representation of a tornado in that the updraft is being provided by heat on the ground, instead of from the top. All you have to do is provide a bit of rotation around the fire, and it really takes off, so much so it throws the container around once the metho has burnt off enough.

 

[Lazerbeak]

I just had a pyro moment So awesome!

~ LB

 

[IsaacT]

I'm glad my suggestion worked It looks really cool, too! Can you easily see the vortex in the fire or doesnt just look like the flame is being stretched upwards?