# Need Last Minute Helppppp!!!!!



## higginsr (Oct 4, 2007)

For all you silk flame gurus... this will be my last gag of the season... I am attempting to create a rather large "Hell fire" effect using one very large planter and a leaf blower... the leaf blower is a B&D "Leaf Hog" that has a rather high CFM... blows at about 200MPH... to combat this I am piping the blower through ~20 feet of PVC into my pot... below is a very fast rough diagram of what I am attempting... the 1/4" ply will be sealed in creating an air tight chamber... my question is what design would be best? Example 'A' simply pipes the air produced from the blower into the air tight chamber and out four 3/4" holes drilled into the ply, which would force the air over the flames. Example 'B' pipes the air directly through a vented drain stop, foregoing the air tight chamber&#8230; the surface of the drain is roughly grated 8".
This is a one shot attempt as time and resources is out so experimentation is a no-no.
Thanks!


----------



## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

Plan B is built more like the silk flame units I have. I'd go that direction. With that said however, I tried to make a giant silk flame a couple of years ago with a large fan and never got the flame to go up very well. There was a swirl to the air flow that keep pushing the silk sideways and down.


----------



## MansionHaunter (Sep 20, 2006)

Good luck with that. I've never had any luck making these things work right.


----------



## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Definitely Plan B. You need to minimize turbulence and try to create a laminar air flow pattern. Any swirling or turbulence will cause the silk to flop and fall.


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

ScareFX said:


> Plan B is built more like the silk flame units I have. I'd go that direction. With that said however, I tried to make a giant silk flame a couple of years ago with a large fan and never got the flame to go up very well. There was a swirl to the air flow that keep pushing the silk sideways and down.


If you had the fan mounted below the silk and blowing directly, I'd expect a large fan to do just that. that's why a lot of people put stators or "flow straighteners" after the propellor or fan of a hovercraft, to remove rotation from the column of air coming out. But I don't think rotation would be an issue with hig's design tho... that leaf blower he's using (I've got the same make) is more like a turbine, not a fan. And the open end of the turbine is the intake; it pushes air out omnidirectionally from the face of the cylinder into a chamber, and the high pressure in the chamber forces the air out through the duct. It should be pretty much a straight linear flow by the time it gets to his pipe.


----------



## ScareFX (Aug 18, 2004)

Good points Revenant. That makes sense. Maybe I'll revisit that big flame next season. Seems like I saw the framework just recently...


----------



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

http://hometown.aol.com/martycoz2000/page1.html

Here's a simple one.


----------



## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

I would go with plan B Higg. That looks like it will work best. You may need to move the flame base up closer to the top of the container. BTW- your plan rendering is very nice, you should have spent less time on the drawing and more time testing the flame.
My experience with faux flames is that every fan and every container and every pattern I designed for the flame silk, worked differently. I had to experiment and tweek every one. I did find that an LED string with at least 5 LEDs aimed onto the silk worked really well every time. The best color combo was - 3 yellow, 1 red, and 1 flickering blue. I also used an all green fire for my medusa.


----------

