Sky Lanterns $4 each

[windstrings]

Yea... maybe If I wait till its several thousand feet in the air.... just long enough to attract lots of attention, then I hit it with my laser, it will look like its a UFO beaming someone up!....or maybe be seen as the ufo shooting something... I would have to hold it very still not to give it away..... LOL!

I know... fat chance!

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

The "fuel" in these looks like a waxed felt pad.  When the fire goes out at bunches of feet AGL, It floats for a long time.  I don't think that felt will sustain fire too long.  These have been around longer than a few of us !!!!  And I haven't heard of any problems .
Like SenKat implied - Use them when things are wet with recent rain.  

They are really nice to see.

Mike

 

[SenKat]

Mike - didja watch my stoooopid movie ? hehehehehe Had fun filming it - you can hear the paranoid Mrs in it, too !

G !

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

G !

I'm lucky to figure how to post a single picture !! I watched your "film at 11" and said "Been there - done that" !! I didn't have time to even pull out my pointer first time.
The first time is always frustrating :

Mike

 

[windstrings]

Well I just launched my first one last night.... toooootally cool!

When you think what a 4 dollar firework gives you in the form of entertainment, these blow them away!

This thing when "way" up in the air where it almost looked like a very bright orange star and then you could see as the fire went out, it started dropping quite rapidly....

It appeared "all" the flame was extinquished while very high in the air.. . .. "unlike" many fireworks and bottle rockets.

I consider them safer than fireworks.

All the negative media I have heard about were kids making their own..... thats quite different than the quality of these.....

Now I'm trying to figure out how to make one big enough to hold me in it!... LOL!.... or at least my neighbors dog!....

Wait a minute... I have a dog I would like to send on a long flight!...... HUMM!

maybe I can add much more fuel for a longer flight and wait for some south winds and send it Senkats way!

Senkat, it will be the balloon that has pee coming out of it! This is the pissenest dog I've ever seen......

 

[Ashton]

Maybe I'm missing soemthing here, but if they're made of paper, wouldn't you risk setting them ablaze by glasting them with a high-pwoered laser like the herc? (which would in turn allow them to track you --- if you're gonna do that, use an IR laser! (lol j/k!))

Looks awesome, if (when) I move to where I can use them I will get a few, but people here are too paranoid, sadly.

 

[jeffwilson34]

Maybe I'm missing soemthing here, but if they're made of paper, wouldn't you risk setting them ablaze by glasting them with a high-pwoered laser like the herc? (which would in turn allow them to track you --- if you're gonna do that, use an IR laser! (lol j/k!))

Looks awesome, if (when) I move to where I can use them I will get a few, but people here are too paranoid, sadly.

They are treated paper.
They will not burn.
You can hold a lighter to them and it will burn a hold but as soon as you take the fire away the paper goes out.

 

[windstrings]

As all our toys... I've been trying to figure out a way to "soop" them up.
By adding Sterno or something so they go even farther and higher..... weight is obviously a chief concern.
A paraffin that would not liquify on the way up or something so that when it ran out, the regular fuel that comes with the unit would take over.... any ideas?

Candles are too whimpy and don't develope enough heat to get it started.... other things are too heavy....

Lets hear some ideas! :

 

[Ashton]

As all our toys... I've been trying to figure out a way to "soop" them up. Lets hear some ideas!   :

oh boy *evil grin* lets see here, gasoline, butane, flash powder, potassium nitrate...

 

[styropyro]

Maybe you could attach some firecrackers to a short length of this fuse and light the slow fuse as you let the sky lantern go. Then after a few minutes they will go off way high in the sky! After that if you live in the middle of nowhere you could try using small flash salutes intstead but that would be getting a little dangerous. That fuse looks fun to play with, who knows what you could add to sky lanterns! But the weight of the fireworks could slow down the sky lantern though.

 

[windstrings]

[quote author=windstrings link=1187663615/30#39 date=1189891171]As all our toys... I've been trying to figure out a way to "soop" them up. Lets hear some ideas! :

oh boy *evil grin* lets see here, gasoline, butane, flash powder, potassium nitrate...


[/quote]

Gasoline may work, but is too heavy in any quantities.... so is the cannister for butane, flash powder too fast, as well and potassium nitrate.... we need a very light long burning solution.

I have thought of making an acetylene bomb out of a 44 gal trash bag with a "very" long fuse and carry it up with helium!... but that too is extremely dangerous as mere static electricity can set that stuff off and its another story anyway....

We want that mysterious glow thats gonna make the UFO headlines the next day!

 

[Daedal]

Has anyone thought of alcohol? :-?

It burns VERY slowly and for a very long time. It's HOT and will not blow out!

I've covered my hand with it once and lit it on fire... it won't burn your hand until the alcohol is depleted... KIDS... DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!! ;D

To turn it off, have a bucket of water handy, and be ready for the surface of the water to catch fire too... ;D ;D

Another option is Butane. A rigged lighter could burn for quite a while and wouldn't weigh much... but would generate a lot more heat than a candle

--DDL

 

[windstrings]

Has anyone thought of alcohol? :-?

It burns VERY slowly and for a very long time. It's HOT and will not blow out!

I've covered my hand with it once and lit it on fire... it won't burn your hand until the alcohol is depleted... KIDS... DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!! ;D

To turn it off, have a bucket of water handy, and be ready for the surface of the water to catch fire too... ;D ;D

Another option is Butane. A rigged lighter could burn for quite a while and wouldn't weigh much... but would generate a lot more heat than a candle

--DDL

A butane lighter that puts out enough heat to actually propel the balloon upward would have too big of a container, unless it was one of those small bullet ones or similar, but thats worth exploring.... I would think it would need to be mounted very well and it would be hard to rig it so that when it was depleted the remained fuel that comes with the balloon could take over.
The other "negative" thought is if it fell out, it would burn all the way down and most likely catch something on fire for sure since it burns so hot.

Alcohol on the other hand would be nice but has some of the same challenges as gasoline.... "weight".
I've thought of a paraffin block with several wicks so that there was enough heat to generate lift, but it would turn to liquid if not housed by something and then that adds weight again to the already heavy paraffin wax.

Some of these ideas would just have to be tried to know for sure.

I"m trying to think of something thats cheap "like you could pick up at an outdoors store, like GI Joes or some camping store".

We have to be careful or we will turn this 4.00 balloon into a 40.00 balloon!.... LOL!

You can buy Helium in compressed form if you want to cheat to to a balloon to "add" to the top to give the balloon more lift in spite of the weight of say a Sterno Cannister that may burn for like 30 minutes.

All you would have to do is find a rather large balloon and fill it with helium and tie a fishing string to it thats about 6 feet and put a pin hole through the top of the hot air balloon and put the string through and tie it to a small stick or something thats about one inch long to prevent from pulling through.

We don't have to stick with the purity of a hot air balloon, we can cheat!
We are looking for "effect".... that UFO look that keeps on giving!

 

[Ashton]

um... if you fill the balloon with helium, then add burning fuel. you get a KABOOM! because helium is explosive! and if you're gonna build an explosive baloon, C4 is much lighter and more dangerous

you might try mixing a few drop of formaldahyde with the fuel to make it burn slower, but then it will ahve less lift, so...

 

[pullbangdead]

um... if you fill the balloon with helium, then add burning fuel. you get a KABOOM! because helium is explosive! and if you're gonna build an explosive baloon, C4 is much lighter and more dangerous

Umm...are you sure about that? Maybe you're thinking hydrogen, it's fairly reactive (see attached photo), but if I remember correctly, helium is pretty far from reactive, since it's technically a noble gas (full outer electron shell).

 

[Ashton]

oooooooo! pretty fire... *insane grin* (yes, I'm a pyro, but I've learned to only let that out in safe places)

I thought helium was explosive because that's what they used in the hindenberg (sp?) and it exploded in quite a blaze (though it's been years since I read about that, I coudl very easily be wrong and more than likely am......) If I was wrong, I appoligize.