Motorcycle exhaust effect?

[Mike M.]

Any ideas for a plume of fog from a motor cycle exhaust?

Off the shelf battery powered smoke machines are out of budget. I have thought of making something out of
a vape unit.

Mike

 

[lwinters630]

smoke in a can. $15.

 

[Amiers]

A good vape unit is gonna run you 150$. Then you gotta jerry rig some way to suck the vap out and blow it out the tube.

I am kinda curious to your thought process on how you would make it work.

 

[ruinexplorer]

You might want to check out this thread where a lot of portable solutions were suggested. Some are dead links now. I did find this little tool for model airplanes that might work. It is currently listed at $175.

 

[Leo Mauler]

This Instructable, http://www.instructables.com/id/An-Inexpensive-Smoke-Fog-Generator/, points out that the only part of the vape unit you need is the heating element, which can be as cheap as several for USD$8. Pump 3.7v through it while it is sitting in a pool of food-grade glycerine and you have your smoke.

Now, the motorcycle exhaust effect. Motorcycles have a big puff when the engine is started, and then short bursts thereafter. Probably what you'd be looking to do, with the above Instructable unit, is have a small powerful fan hooked up to it. The heating element would need to kick on the instant the "key" was inserted into the motorcycle, then when the engine is revved the fan kicks on for a big blast of smoke. Thereafter the fan needs to operate in short bursts, to give the heating element the opportunity to rebuild some smoke supply.

You could have a stagehand in the wings, or a lighting technician with some creative DMX work, run the system manually. Alternatively, a cheap USD$10 Arduino with a USD$10 2-Relay unit can run both the heating element and the fogger with control from the actor: insert key, fogger starts engine and puffs while running; remove key, fogger shuts off.