Home-made smoke that isnt deadly?

[Doc]

MSDS for fog fluid

http://www.rosco.com/includes/techno...g/clearfog.pdf

[mixedgas]

water based hazer, or mineral oil based with a tank of co2 so the oil is vaporized but not "cracked".

Steve

[trwalters001]

Hi Steve,

mineral oil based with a tank of co2 so the oil is vaporized but not "cracked".

How does this work?

Tim

[Jem]

Hi Steve,

How does this work?

Tim

It's basically like an aerosol but with CO2 as the propellant. The resulting haze is *very* fine and has a superb hang time. In fact it's so good that you probably won't notice that there's any haze in the air at all... But, when the lights switch on that's when the beams really come to life. MDG's are used by a lot of television companies for their lighting effects.

The master of all oil based hazers is the MDG Atmosphere, with the DF50 as a close runner up. To put it into perspective I believe the particle size of MDG haze is around ~1 to 5 microns. Compare this to a glycol based hazer with a particle size of ~20 microns and you can see that even the best glycol based hazers cannot come close to a good oil based hazer.

Unfortunately there is a bit of discussion at the moment as to the overall safety of such a fine particle size. Allegedly this particle size is small enough to pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream, or at the very least to lodge deep within the lungs. I know Health and Safety experts in the UK are currently looking into this.

Cheers

Jem

[mixedgas]

quote:
Unfortunately there is a bit of discussion at the moment as to the overall safety of such a fine particle size. Allegedly this particle size is small enough to pass through the lungs and into the bloodstream, or at the very least to lodge deep within the lungs. I know Health and Safety experts in the UK are currently looking into this.

end quote:

Jem is right, there are issues for long term exposure, or if the particles are "cold" and carry bacteria on them.

Pure MDG "Atmospheres" fluid is a selected monomolecular and biodegradable oil that is tested for its safety. Marc Grengas, the MDG engineer used to be my table partner for lunch at ILDA, and we'd talk. I got a long explanation when Mark and I started building these things. Its the clone fluids that worry safety folks, especially the non monomolecular, low cost, oils.

The 1 to 1.5 micron range is troublesome, because it is one of the few particulate sizes that gets deep into the lungs, yet does not occur much in nature. I doubt you'll achive 1-2 microns unless you strongly pressurize the chamber at 20-40 psi, a few psi will give you say 10 u give or take.
Its still a lot nicer then aquasmog using glycols.

Plans are here, but Mark Schweter uses air:

http://www.laserfx.com/Backstage.Las...HobbyHaze.html

http://www.laserfx.com/Backstage.Las...obbyHaze2.html

Hobby Hazer's particulate size is bigger then MDGs, yet smaller then a fogger.

The 500-1500 watt instaperk elements are easy to get, I was in florida a few weeks ago and got a 1500 watt one from Skypark for 4$.

Replacing the fan with a Co2 tank, makes things much nicer. Liquid Co2 in tanks is cheap because of soft drink machines and forms of welding which use it as a semi-inert gas. If you keep the oxygen off the oil, you do not get a "burnt" smell if things get out of hand from lack of oil or the element gets too hot. With co2 you would enclose the oil more and have a smaller chamber with a constrained exit to keep the air out.

While I would not use anything less then a MDG on a daily basis (And lets face it, at 3500 or so, I'm not owning one unless I hit the lottery!) A hobby hazer is not bad for what you want to do and far less smelly then a 30$ Antari clone. I have one of the older 100$ Antaris, and I like it. I did get a 40$ Chinese machine for 20$ out the door a while back from a Halloween closeout sale, and it works, but the fluid that comes with it is aweful.


Steve

[trwalters001]

Thanks Y'all!

[greenalien]

Engine coolant (antifreeze) and water works well, most commercial fog fluid is now glycol based.

Antifreeze (ethylene glycol) should never be used for making fog, it's toxic.

You can use glycerine or propylene glycol if you want to make your own but it's better to just use a good quality commercial fog fluid.

[thesk8nmidget]

glycerin and water and put it in a clothes iron.

the ration is 10:1 water being 10

[Lasernerd]

glycerin and water and put it in a clothes iron.

the ration is 10:1 water being 10

That is awesome!

[tigerpaws]

water based hazer, or mineral oil based with a tank of co2 so the oil is vaporized but not "cracked".

Steve

instead of using co2 which adds a cost of replacement co2 and runs the risk of asphyxiation at fairly low levels.

just use compressed air to achieve the same effect, you still get the smoke/haze without all of the problems of dealing with carbon dioxide