building a dry ice fog machine

[johnnayb]

Hello--does anyone have experience/ suggestions for building a dry ice fog machine? We need enough fog to cover a medium sized stage rapidly and maintaining the cover for about 5 to 10 minutes? Based on the fact that we perfere low lying fog, want the fog to dissapate quickly, and have a low ventilation system, I perfere the dry ice option.

Thanks,

Johnnayb

[cutlunch]

If you look at commercial dry ice machines they are fairly simple to make. You maybe able to get someone to make you one.

They are basically made from a steel drum. With a lid,probably hinged so it just siots on top. This is in case some idiot blocks the outlet. An outlet pipe is welded to the side. Make sure this outlet is never blocked.They have a water heater element inserted in them to heat the water. The dry ice is put into a metal basket that can be raised and lowered into the water. When you need a quanity of fog the basket goes into the water.

Here is link I found where someone has built there own fogger. It might also give you some ideas.

http://home.paonline.com/joespuppets/1-fog.htm

edit: Just found this link that shows a number of ways to combine foggers with dry ice to give low lying fog.

http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/H...OnTheRocks2000

A google search finds many links to this topic.

Just remeber safety first especialy if you go for an electric setup with the water around. Also the stage can get wet from the condensation caused by the dry ice fog.

[BillESC]

I was half owner of F & B MFG. back in the 70's during the Disco craze. Our only product was dry ice fog machines and we built and sold several thousand.

You'll want to start with a 55 gallon oil drum with a epoxy phenolic lining. You'll need to install two 1500w domestic hot water heater elements near the bottom of the drum and they should be fused or circuit breakered as well as switched. In the lid of the drum you can install two or three 4" PVC output couplings and a 465 cfm squirral cage fan and a one 1" diameter flange. The flange will hold the metal rod that holds the drop basket.

This machine which we trade marked as the "Fog-it" fog machine will produce in excess of 40,000 cubic feet of fog in the first two minutes (with a 150 lbs. drop of chopped dry ice.)

Feel free to call me if you'd like more detail and a few hints...

[Chris15]

As with anything, remember the safety aspects cannot be neglected. You are mixing electricity and water, so you would want to ensure that you feed this from a RCD / GFCI. You don't want it to become like this person.

Remember also the risks associated with dry ice and the need for ventilation etc.

[Peter]

Also, remember never to seal the dry ice in a container with no ventallation. As the dry ice turns into a gas it expands and any expanding gas can turn explosive if contained. (My AP Chemistry teacher demonstrated this rather violently with dry ice and I dont want you to in advertently do that experiment he did because it could easly cause great harm)

[DarSax]

I got this through one of the links that cutlunch posted, but

http://ghostsofhalloween.com/projects/fog_chiller/

Seems like a pretty good idea, especially since its a fairly simple way to build an effective one. Not to mention you can easily use regular ice with it, and as long as you take special care to seal up your holes, you shouldn't have any problem at all with leakage/electricity.

[saxman0317]

At school we just put it in a shop vac and duct tape all the connections. Lid seals great and tight, and the plastic holds up well

[CHScrew]

I have the plas for a Dry Ice Fogger attached. The plans are fairly simple.

There is only one major problem people run into. When you heat the water that you're putting the dry ice into, don't turn off the heating element when you put the ice in. If you shut off the heat the ice will cool the water very rappidly and your fog effect will only last a few seconds. Make sure you keep the water heated the whole time.

Oh yeah, it doesn'y show it very clearly in the pic. Actually it doesn'y show it at all. But the bottom of the drum is filled with water up to a little under the whole for the fog hose. This is the water in witch you submerge your dry ice into.


TIP! - I've found that these machines work a lot better if the dry ice is broken up into small pieces, rather than one large chunk in the basket.