The Laser Tornado Lamp!

[Things]

Use "line generator" lenses to view real time cross sections of the tornado.. from any direction.

That was actually one of the things I built into the machine, it's awesome being able to see the cross section.

 

[millirad]

Very cool to see those glowin vortices! Good build info as well. Kudos! :beer:

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Its hard to tell, but do you have a small piece of plex at the bottom? I'd assume to hold in the fog.

I wonder if dry ice could be used as the fog. :thinking:

 

[Things]

Yes, a bit of plex with holes in it. Underneath is a bucket of water with 2 ultrasonic humidifiers, so all it needs to run is water, and is safe to touch since it's not steam. It has a fan in the box to blow the fog up thru the holes, as the fog is fairly dense.

The plex also gives the air a nice smooth surface to rotate around. Your vortex won't work too well if it doesn't have a flat surface to spin on.

Dry ice works fine.

Dan

 

[Tech_Junkie]

Yes, a bit of plex with holes in it. Underneath is a bucket of water with 2 ultrasonic humidifiers, so all it needs to run is water, and is safe to touch since it's not steam. It has a fan in the box to blow the fog up thru the holes, as the fog is fairly dense.

OK, I get it now. Thats definitely doable. I have everything minus the ultrasonic humidifiers.

Thanks Dan. I'm going to throw this on my project list. I think I'll use oak boxes, and copper pipes. Give it that Steampunk look.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

A second thought. :wave:

Add some of Drakes fluorescent pen ink idea and you can make the tornado fluoresce.

 

[Things]

I've considered that, though was worried about the dye staining/sticking to the ultrasonic humidifiers and messing them up. Would be interesting to try though.

 

[styropyro]

This just got featured on Hack a Day! Here's the article: Tornado lamp made with lasers - Hack a Day

 

[Abean95]

Hehe, or just go for broke and build a machine that makes a real tornado!



Built that a couple years back, won me many science awards in school. Also worked well at humidifying your house - which was the last thing I needed in the tropics

Oops, sorry for hijacking your thread styro

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Man that is sweet!

@styropyro The green looks the best to me

 

[laserpyro]

I've used an actual lava lamp, gutted it and at the bottom i mounted a DTR fan with two 3mm(I think) square magnets, and two at the bottom of the lava lamp. To create a simpler tornado like effect.