Everyone has seen small smoke machines in dance clubs, bars and discos. They do emit a nice puff of smoke, but their output is low - barely enough for a small hall. We will make a smoke monster with a power of 4.5 kW.
First of all, let's find out how a fog generator actually works. We have an 800 watt industrial smoke machine. Let's take it apart and see what it consists of.
Each such machine consists of three different parts. It has a reservoir containing fog fluid. The liquid is a glycerin-based solution, which evaporates into a thick white vapor when heated above 175 degrees Celsius.
The smoke machine also has a pump to pump liquid from the reservoir through a heating element, which evaporates the liquid into white steam.
The heating block is simply a tube coiled around a heating element. Heat is transferred from the heater to the coil through cast aluminum. A thermal switch installed on the tube turns off the heating element when the unit reaches a temperature of 260 degrees Celsius.The heater is covered with thermal insulation material, which helps the unit retain heat.
The machine is equipped with a control panel that allows you to turn the pump on and off. A LEDs signal when the heating element has heated up to a sufficient temperature.
Making a smoke machine
Let's start making our monster. First you need to make a heating block. Flexible copper tubing is very expensive, so we decided to use tubing from an old refrigerator heat exchanger.
The only problem is to separate the tube from the metal mesh. This was done using the skills of a mechanic, a drill and a hammer and chisel. From 4 heat exchangers we got 40 meters of copper tube. We roll it into a coil using a piece of PVC pipe as a template. Now you need a heating element. Several 1.5 kW heating elements were purchased. The heating element will be located in the center of the copper tube coil.
The entire structure is placed in an aluminum tube.
The whole thing is filled with molten aluminum so that heat is transferred from the heater to the coil.
A homemade improvised “foundry” was used to melt aluminum. The aluminum was obtained by melting down old drink cans and old aluminum parts. The result is three heating blocks ready to operate. To control overheating, thermal switches are installed with the same thermal threshold as used in an industrial smoke machine, i.e. 260 degrees Celsius. They are attached to heating blocks using steel wire.
Replacement pumps for 31 W smoke generators were purchased from the online store.
It's time to assemble all the parts into one machine. We do this on a piece of MDF. The heating blocks are wrapped in thermal insulating material made of stone wool.Having finished securing the elements, it was time for the electrical circuit.
Here is the electrical diagram of a homemade smoke machine.
The homemade remote control contains a switch and a small light bulb that signals when the temperature reaches 260 degrees Celsius.
The pumps were inadvertently ordered for an operating voltage of 110 V, so a transformer had to be used. Assembly is complete, let's go outside to check.
First, let's run an 800 W industrial machine for comparison. It's not impressive outdoors. Then we will test the homemade device. The entire yard of the dacha disappeared in smoke. The effect is obvious.
Finally, the device was tested indoors. For several minutes it is impossible to see anything, not even your legs.
Liquid for a fog machine is just evaporated water and glycerin. The solution is non-toxic and does not cause breathing problems. You can add flavoring to the solution, which will give the steam a pleasant fruity aroma.
