Do you have the electronics skills to design a good home made smoke machine?

In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:46:23 -0000 (UTC), Arthur
Wood > wrote:

>trader_4 wrote:
>
>>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2XYORX
>> That's what I was telling him about in the other thread here, that I've
>> heard people have used one of those disco smoke gizmos. Seems you
>> should be able to rig up something to pipe it in. Plus, with a boom box
>> and some songs, you can have a business at parties and weddings as a DJ.
>
>I thank you for coming to my aid, and I apologize for not having "believed"
>in your previous suggestion. (See below why.)
>
>For some reason, I had thought that the "party foggers" had a big opening
>at low pressure (like the size you can put your hand through) but this one
>in the Amazon picture seems to have a one-inch opening with a tiny 1/4-inch
>nozzle.
>
>Is that right?
>
>If so, I don't see why it's not perfect for the task - if it generates the
>smoke at enough of a pressure to get us a couple of psi for a long period
>of time. It has to be in the goldilocks range of a few psi (maybe 2 to 4
>psi?).
>
>The output is 2000 CFM, which seems like a lot.
>Is there a way to *convert* that to PSI?

Why are you concerned with PSI. AIUI, you only need enough pressure to
get the smoke out of the machine, or out of the hose**. Plainly it has
that much pressure, or the machine wouldn't function for its original
purpose.

After that the smoke just has to float around near the vacuum leak and
the vacuum will suck it into the engine.

If anything too much pressure would make the smoke zoom by the leak
without stopping. LOL Well, not unless it was r eally fast, you'd
still probably see some of it get waylaid and sucked into the engine

**Or are you saying it needs enough pressure to get through the hose?
The pictures don't show it being used with a hose, but if it doesn't
have enough pressure to get it through the hose, then skip the hose and
just blow from the machine to the engine. You can put the machine on a
chair or stepladder if need be. You can hold it closer to the engine
if need be.

The pictures show the smoke going out 3 feet or more. That seems like
enough pressure to me, and a bigger problem is likely that there is too
much smoke. Is that why you want to use a hose? If there's too much,
cut a hole in a big piece of paper near the engine so that only so much
can get through the hole. It's not like you have to do this for 50,000
miles, only long enough to find the vacuum leak.

>The "wired control" might even be useful for one-man operation while
>debugging a vaccum leak on an engine.
>
>The machine holds 0.5 liters (1/8 gallon) where a gallon of the fog juice
>(propylene glycol perhaps?) is $20 which means the machine, over time, is
>cheaper than the fluid used to make the smoke!
><https://www.amazon.com/Gallon-Great-Party-Fog-Machines/dp/B005UQPPK4/ref=pd_sim_267_1/135-2052768-3676406>
>
>So I do agree, for forty something bucks, it's about the same cost as what
>it cost me to make that tin-can smoke machine that didn't work.
>https://www.turboimagehost.com/p/368...moke1.jpg.html
>
>Any idea how to calculate the PSI out from the 2000CFM spec?

No.


Typically, fog is created by vaporizing proprietary water and
glycol-based or glycerin-based fluids or through the atomization of
mineral oil. This fluid (often referred to colloquially as fog juice)
vaporizes or atomizes inside the fog machine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_machine