Dry Ice smoke machine

[ship]

I was just doing a bit of research into tiny foggers tonight and noted some CO2 machines already on the market. Think we even have one but I have never used it. Anyway from what I did notice is that the hoses and parts are set up for a very cold temperature. Normal hardware store parts will probably fail.

Same with home made dry ice machines though you might find something of interest in the USITT tech notes. Normally with the old 55 gal. drum dry ice machines you are talking about submersable 20amp heating elements to heat the water sufficiently so the dry ice does not just kind of evaporate without a volume of fog. Also, those old dry ice machines tended to rust really easily for some reason. Even the City Theatrical dry ice machines I have to prep frequently have problems of their own with rust, leaks etc. You might be able to whip up something as has been done in the past, but they are not known to be very dependable. Hope it helps.

 

[bohica]

Dry Ice machine

I realize this post is late for the show discussed, but in case it will help someone else, here goes: I have used a large rubbermaid tub with lid and built a framework with casters to roll it around. I cut two holes in the lid, used a pvc 4" connector to mount an equipment cooling fan (4") from Radio Shack and stuck the connector into the first hole. Ran dryer hose out of the second hole, have used a Y connector and run two also up to 30 feet. I put HOT water into the tub, rolled it into position, and on cue dropped a slab of dry ice into the tub, put the lid on and turned on the fan. Makes great low fog and plenty of it.
The problems: timing important; dry ice storage; dedicated stage hand for handling ice machine
The good: dissipates quickly enough; does not smell or choke anyone out; looks really good for low applications or dropped from above/out of set pieces.
Steve

 

[thelightingmancan]

Dry ice is an exteme pain, and you must be over eighteen to buy it. You can make a pretty sweet bomb with it, so show some ID. It depends on several factors on the ability to fill a stage. If you want the fog to hug the floor, than stay with dry ice, but Chemi-fog will drift upwards, so it sometimes is better. You can also run Chemi-fog through a pan of dry ice to keep it low, which can sometimes work better, since the fog machine has an output measurement on the machine.