Today's tidbits

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Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:15 am

I used the 1/2 inch tap to tap the half inch side of the bell so that I could start the pipe from the inside of the bell. The canister is 3 inches in diameter, even though it looks narrower and distorted in the scan and 6 inches tall if you count the 1 inch diameter threaded neck, with the bell screwed on, it is 7 1/2 inches tall.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:21 am

Another perspective, you can see the "volcano tube" that I had hoped would have resonanted jam jar or pulsejet style but it didn't. Still, it wasn't a total failure, for I discovered how to light my ceiling on fire and make fleeting green fire rings. They are very neat to watch in the dark of night.
I thought about trying the idea out with my 2.5 gallon snorkeler tank, thinking I could shoot rings way higher than my house. The little canister makes a whoomp sound like a mortar being fired, it's not loud at all.
It would be neat to make a repeating fire ring thrower.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:36 am

I remember that this canister works best with just a very small amount of alcohol, you don't need very much to make a big fire ring. Here you can see the pipe is just an ordinary piece threaded at both ends. I screwed the tap into the bell just for the heck of it in this scan.
Mark
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steve
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by steve » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:47 am

so basicly its nothing more then a snorkeler with the snorkel inverted? Neat! I think I'll weld one together sometime next week
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:52 am

PS With that pipe screwed in the normal way, on the top of the bell, this canister runs for about 10 seconds at best, but it's loud enough to annoy your ears, like a towel popping sort of, its hard to describe and didn't capture when I tried to record it, it sounded whimpy which it isn't. It's inbetween a jam jar and pulsejet sound. It's getting some air fed into it from the skirt of the bell because the bell doesn't match the canister threads perfectly, but it is very slight so I don't know if that is critical.
Getting back to the volcano tube design, I tried all sorts of lengths decending down into the canister and even some arrangements where there was a tube inside the canister and one atop the bell too, sharing the threading to no avail as a pulsejet or jam jar oddity.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by steve » Sun Apr 03, 2005 5:56 am

I know the sound you are talking about, one of my smaller snorkeler attempts does the same thing and also only sustains for 10 sec at most.

perhaps I should just canabalize it to make the fire ring launcher since I never run it anyway.
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by steve » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:01 am

Either one of these should work fine I think:
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Mark
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Re: re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:21 am

steve wrote:so basicly its nothing more then a snorkeler with the snorkel inverted? Neat! I think I'll weld one together sometime next week
Yes, that' all there is too it, remember to use a colorant and do it at night (so you can see the color) aimed straight up. It didn't work for me aimed sideways. A tablespoon of methanol may even be too much, I remember about 3 to 6 pumps from a spray bottle is all you need. It's been awhile since I did this, but when I showed it to some other people, they really liked it I could tell.
I tried some magnesium powder in the mix but only got glints of white light, I guess most didn't ignite. If you for some reason you used non-oxidized magnesium, stuff without the gray oxide coating, you might make a bomb/bang because I put one of those camping magnesium fire starters in methanol and it started to fizz making hydrogen gas. I don't remember if HEET will work with magnesium or if it has an anti corrosion substance in it.
I remember too reading that magnesim and methanol can be detonated and is more powerful than some military explosives. You'd have to hit it with a lot of shock to do that though.
A sparkling fire ring would be a nice touch.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:39 am

Just don't go too big or confine too much fuel/air. It's awkward for the hot gases to get out of the canister via that tube. I like the fire ring shooter though, it looks from the outside just to be a humble canister, but secreted inside is the pipe that makes it work.
I hope you like it, it will be near impossible to capture the rings on camera, they fly up and out fast, and might not make enough light. Maybe if you scaled up, it would be funny to get them to grow to 10 feet across or more, the neighbors would think aliens had arrived, with glowing green rings whizzing up into the sky. I work about a block away where nut heads from all over the US come to look for UFO's at a nearby park with a pier located on the sound. I was at a bar one time and the guy next to me said they were already here, so watch out everyone. The green fire ring thrower would be just the thing to play some prank.
Mark
http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/gulfbreeze.htm
On this site you can see a red fire ring toward the bottom of the page!
http://ufocasebook.com/gulfbreeze.html
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Re: re: Today's tidbits

Post by steve » Sun Apr 03, 2005 1:49 pm

Mark wrote: I hope you like it, it will be near impossible to capture the rings on camera, they fly up and out fast, and might not make enough light.
Ive found that the best way to capture things like that is by taking a short video and then doing a screen capture (print screen button) of the frame you want

here are two examples from the last time I went shooting:
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me firing a chinese made soviet Simonov SKS carbine in 7.62x39mm
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My friend firing his flintlock rifle
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Sun Apr 03, 2005 2:21 pm

It would be neat to see one but the ring is moving fast and the green light relatively low. I wonder if you could capture one by postioning yourself or camera 10 feet above it or just off to the side above it, would make for an interesting perspective? How sensitive is your camera for low light?
Your eye will see it fine though, that's for sure.
One thing I have done with methanol and boric acid that is very visually stimulating is, (and don't laugh), is just pour it on a 2 foot by 2 foot bed of sand that is not level but with some terrain to it, just so it isn't flat. Then watch how the green flames move/dance about, especially when most of the alcohol has about burned off, the fire will race here and there, re-igniting and moving about the chess board, lasting a seemingly long time, it's hypnotic. Again, by accident, I had some leftover methanol/boric acid that I poured out in the sand and saw this neat effect. It will burn longer than you think. The boric acid color is very vivid too at night.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:13 pm

An interesting can, or an interesting fuel tank.
Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by evildrome » Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:50 pm

Hi Mark,

I agree about putting methanol on sand.

In the summer I used to go to the lake shore here in Scotland for a barbeque. At the end of the night I used to take a one gallon can of petrol (gasoline) and run around the now empty car park in a giant circle (60 - 100' diam). The petrol track was about 5 - 8 inches wide. When I got back to the start I'd light it up. It pretty quickly burns down & you get the characteristic flickering blue light. The car park was concrete & it absorbed the petrol but released it as a vapour when lit. Like a wick I guess. Probably wouldn't have worked on a bitumen car park. Lasted quite a while too. Very trippy.

Cheers,

Wilson.

Mark
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Mark » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:20 am

Yes Wilson, there is something about the way the flames modulate that is very captivating, as if it were trying to do something, darting about like a bug distracted by a streetlight. If you were in a larger theater watching the combustion on screen, I'm sure you could mesmerize the audience, there is something strange about it, I wonder what music would play well with it?
Mark
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Al Belli
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re: Today's tidbits

Post by Al Belli » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:52 am

Hi Mark,

I would recommend Manuel deFalla's Ritual Firedance as appropriate music. For longer performances, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite is a better match.

Al Belli

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