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FrozenGate by Avery

Fog machines?

M

Murudai

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While burning the crap out of electrical tape with my new 320mW from jayrob, I noticed that it gives off a heck of a lot of smoke. Since there is a smoke detector nearby, I blew it and dispersed it as soon as any smoke appeared. After I finished burning, I noticed that the beam from this red became really visible! I fired in a few greens, and boy, did they look sweet!

Once the smoke in the air dispersed from all my mini lightsaber battles, that got me thinking. Fog machines must = very cool.

So I'm wondering, who's got fog machines? How much do you love them and where did you get it from? :D
 





What's a techno party? I've seen fog machines at parties though, if that's what you're talking about. But that was mainly just lights into the fog. Just never thought they would be so great with lasers :)
 
Lasers look great in any particle-filled air. Fog, haze, deodorant, fine dust clouds, hot breath on a cold morning or night, steam from a hot shower, all of these work great.
 
No duh...

Okay, let me rephrase this so it's a little clearer :) I know lasers look cool with fog and related effects, the question is where did you get the fog machines :) Do you use just a water vaporizer kind of thing, or a specialized fog machine with the special fog juice and all, etc. ?
 
smoke machines use glycol to make the fog. glycol is used in cars as antifreeze in the coolingsystem. Basically they are just smallish machines with a liquid tank that makes particle fog of the liquid. they aren't even very expensive
 
I got my fog machine at Wal-Mart for just under $20, I got it before I was into lasers though.
 
I got a smoke machine today... i wasn't intending on buying one as i was going to build a small portable battery operated smoke machine, at the moment i only have 650nm lasers (i have just ordered a 5mw green module and a 100mW blu-ray diode). but even with a common red laser pointer it looked bloody amazing!!! it also shows how reflective things are, you can see the beam bounce all over the place, definatly something to think about once i get a FAC lens for my 1W 808nm :-/. i held the button down for less than 2 seconds and my room is completly full of smoke... its been lingering for about 15 minutes now :-P. does anyone know where i can buy a 12V DC smoke machine pump for a portable project?
 
A fog machine has a heated chamber to boil the juice and a pump to feed it. My small $20 unit has a 400 watt heater in it plus the pump. How big a battery are you planning for the portable?

HMike
 
just google 'smoke cartridges'
look for the 3gr that come in 10's or tubs of 50.

There non toxic, non oil based, perfect for indoors.

Heres an example... Classic 3

No Electric required...Hell you can even light them with your laser!!
 
I havn't figured out the exact capacity i need in the way of Ah. i have lots of SLA batteries laying around in various sizes, ranging from 1.2Ah/ 6V up to 17Ah/ 12V :-D.
i think it will probably be a 7Ah... once i aquire a pump, i will carry out tests to find out the optimal power of the heating element. i have a windscreen pump, but that will pump several litres per minute into the chamber, which will result in incredible pressure for a couple of seconds and then a freezing cold chamber and an empty tank a few seconds later lol. i want something that will give a light mist, im think maybe 50-80W. as for the boiler part, i was planning on using constantan resistance wire (or similar) to heat a small bar of aluminium to 150C (which is what i clocked my smoke machine boiler at today, only had it a few hours and the cover has already been off lol).
i plan to drill a few holes down the length of the bar and place copper tubing inside, the aluminium is only there to "store" the heat... if that makes sense? also some sort of fiber-glass insulation to make the whole process more effiecent... does this sound good? i was wondering about the boiler design, what do you think?
Thanks :-D
 
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Unfortunately I dont have a fog machine, used to, but they always brake.

Something to try with your fog machine-
Throw in some damn mirrors in that room, and you will get an AHMAZING effect. Just be careful that the final point of the beam doesnt end up near your eye...heh.
 
I have a fog machine, cost me about £20 and is probably one of the best purchase's I've ever made lol :)
 
always brake? the pump? boiler? thermostat?
transformer for low voltage switching? they should be incredibly easy to fix, given that there is very few components... i hate fault finding lol.
i have roughly 200 2X4cm mirrors left over from a solar project i never finnished. do you think 200 mirrors would be enough? LOL!!!
i was thinking about aiming the laser at a spinning disk with mirrors pointing in various directions. i would alter the driver the make it a little safer though :-D. 80mW does blind a little.
 
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If the pump breaks or puts on the brakes, it's usually because the fog juice dried in the pump. When I run mine, I let it take in distiled water to clean the pump before I turn it off for a long time.

HMike
 
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