Paul B. Anderson Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 For my next Halloween show, I would like to build a pipe organ (easy enough), but what I want to do is have it blow fog/smoke from each pipe respectively through the sequence. Not sure how to go about that. Anyone done anything like this? Maybe use a valve at the base of each pipe, and sequence the valve to open/close? using a seperate fogger for each pipe would not be cost effective.Any thoughts?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 I can picture small fans at the bottom of pipes. with the fog machine feeding into a reserver area. You may need relays though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B. Anderson Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 Yeah, I had thought about using fans too, along with a reservoir for the fog; then simply turn the fans on/off. But with the fog in a reservoir, would it condense back to liquid if not released soon enough? I may have to play with a few ideas. I hope I can make this work somehow, I can see it in my minds eye - but everything looks good from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 I have found this site very helpful in a lot of prop builds.http://www.halloweenforum.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Foley Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Paul, it might be worth you while to experiment with a laminaur flow stream cutter. The principle of moving a cutter plate to use as a valve is demonstrated here:You would still postive pressure in the fog box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Not familar with a fog generator. Is it generated by heat or atomizer?A few thoughts. I would think that the fans would not be fast enough to get the fog out, or to stop the fog. Also depending on the pressure in the holding tank (cant spell worth the darn "resviour"). The fog might just slip past the fans even when not on.As for the fog condensing back to liquid. If it can be reused, then put a drain tube on the tank and if possible route it back into the tank on the fog machine if this tank is not under pressure.My only concern is that if the fog is generated by heat. And a certain amount of air must flow across the heating element. Then stoping the fog in a tank might cause a rise in the temperature of the heating element. To what degree I could not say, but might be enough to cause damage. If it works on atomizing the fluid, the again stoping the air flow might cause the fluid to condense at the machine. Hopefully they have some means to already manage this.Good luck and keep us informed how you did this.Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B. Anderson Posted April 14, 2009 Author Share Posted April 14, 2009 Thanx for the thoughts guys.......What I'll try first is to have the vertical pipes mounted to a common feed pipe, or reservoir; and have a pc fan at the bottom of each pipe where they mount. The trick might be turning them on/off fast enough and sharply. Looking forward to the June sale for the DC controller.Max-Paul - I believe the fog juice is atomized; I think - I'll have to check...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmkrause Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Have any of you thought of having a chest with water and dry ice. On top of the chest you could have your pipes with small muffin fans to turn off and on. The pipes may over flow but so what it would give it an errie look. When the fan turned on it would accelerate the "fog" and make it look as if the pipe was creating a tone. The old church pipe organs used an air chest and valves were opened to sound the individual pipes. Thought this mite by a different concept. Dry ice is readily available at markets now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B. Anderson Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 Dry ice would make a good effect, but isn't it hard to keep aroung for any legth of time befote it evaporates?Jeff Millard,Sounds like your setup works pretty good! I won't need the fog to hang low to the ground 'cause it'll be coming out the pipes that will be higher; so I may not have to chill it.My hunny says I should just light up each pipe instead to keep it simpler; she says I have too many projects going on at once. But I'll still play with the fog pipes; she won't know..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Why not have both?Use the fog out the pipes constantly and the lights on each pipe with the music. The fog would look good from the glow of the lights.Paul B. Anderson wrote: Dry ice would make a good effect, but isn't it hard to keep aroung for any legth of time befote it evaporates?Jeff Millard,Sounds like your setup works pretty good! I won't need the fog to hang low to the ground 'cause it'll be coming out the pipes that will be higher; so I may not have to chill it.My hunny says I should just light up each pipe instead to keep it simpler; she says I have too many projects going on at once. But I'll still play with the fog pipes; she won't know..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Jones Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 how about using LN2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjgiles50 Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Paul B. Anderson wrote: Thanx for the thoughts guys.......What I'll try first is to have the vertical pipes mounted to a common feed pipe, or reservoir; and have a pc fan at the bottom of each pipe where they mount. The trick might be turning them on/off fast enough and sharply. Looking forward to the June sale for the DC controller.Max-Paul - I believe the fog juice is atomized; I think - I'll have to check......I think this is almost the right direction. I think one fan blowing the fog into a common manifold then using rc servos hooked to flapper valves like those in a toilet tank woud get you what you want. The air pressure and a small sprint would hold them shut tightly and you should be able to get crisp puffs of smoke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B. Anderson Posted April 19, 2009 Author Share Posted April 19, 2009 aahhh yes, servos and flappers on springs.....that should help in sharpness. The fans by themselves seem to do OK, but leak so much that i'm getting fog out of all pipes almost constantly. Only have 5 set up right now, just using a DC power supply and momentary push-button switches for testing. Nothing is hooked up to LOR yet.Max-Paul was right, fans by themselves dont seem to control flow sharp enough.Jeff Millard used a cooler to chill and settle it, I may have to try that too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 I think that wjgiles is going in the right direction with the servos and flaps. Servos are expensive and require a controller. Also again the servos might be a bit slower than using a soloide (can you believe an electrician could misspell such a word, sorry.) Now I am talking about a mechanical soliode that you could link to a small rod to open the flapper. I would think this would give a quicker responce. Coupled with the fan blowing into the holding tank to give it both pressure to shoot the fog up the pipe and volume.Dry ice is an interesting idea for a one day event or just a few. Would think you would need to get some new each day. Use a very well insulated chest for containment. I suppose a water drip would be the way to feed it. Might need some heat to keep it going. The water applied will cool and freeze thus making a layer of insulation and the dry ice will slow its production of fog.Again with the fog machine, there will be some of the fog condensing and this will need to be dealt with too. But first the handling of the fog. And for that I think we can thank wjgiles for an excelent recommendation of the flappers.MaxJust a quick thought on the contruction of the flapper. I am sure everyone has seen the flapper on the exhaust stack of a bulldozer. the one that automaticly closes the stack when the engine is not running to keepthe rain out. Well build this on the bottom of the pipe so that it falls down into the holding tank. Simple construction with single pivot point. Now mount the solinode so that the weight of the steel core and maybe some counter weight keep the flapper closed when the solinode is not energized. And the core is relaxed in the down position. When energized, the core moves up and the flapper drops. Then when it is denergized the core and counter weight along with the air currents help the flapper return to the closed position. Might need fine tune the counter weight to get fast responce.GL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 Paul B. Anderson wrote: My hunny says I should just light up each pipe instead to keep it simpler; she says I have too many projects going on at once. But I'll still play with the fog pipes; she won't know.....Light AND fog would be cool. A couple of leds placed in each pipe would make the smoke glow as it came out.I use dry ice as the cooling medium with my fog chiller. It does a better job than ice and is fun to play with. You will need a lot of it though, it does not last very long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B. Anderson Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 Yeah, I probably will use lights in addition to the fog. I'll need to stop at the Science and Surplus store for solenoids and flappers and stuff. May have to wait a few days.....BTW - the local Science and Surplus store is awsome!! They have motors, discs, led displays, wheels, shafts, gears, solenoids, power supplies, fans, scissors, paper, pnumatics, pumps, check valves, toys, glass jars and tubes, springs, balls, bearings, axels, differentials, rocks, on and on and on!!! Everything for the tinkerers shopping delight!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjgiles50 Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 This is a link to my favorite surplus store:http://www.sciplus.com/index.cfmGood people to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul B. Anderson Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 ^^^yup, thats the place! Is it local for you too? I'ts much more fun to shop at a place like this in person then it is on the web; cuz you can play with stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjgiles50 Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I wish. All of there stores are in the frozen north. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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