Garden Railway Forum

Just been experimenting with a smoke unit for the boiler house, following the excellent guidance on Dave Bodnar's website - http://trainelectronics.com/Animation_Smoke/



URL - https://youtu.be/qeKCpGfyUlE

Many thanks to Gregh for alerting me to this info.

Not quite there yet - it's a balance between getting a good amount of smoke and making sure it's projected upwards. This video is unlisted as it's onlyexperimental so far - will post a public one when I'm satisfied with the outcome.

Rik

Fantastic looking building and I love the smoke looks great

Many years ago I experimented with a Seuthe smoke unit. I found that glycerine worked quite well but did tend to leave an oily residue on everything the smoke landed on. The trouble is that synthetic smoke particles tend to be heavy and settle quickly, rather than going up and away, and I see signs of that in your video. I'll be interested to see how you overcome that.

Think you've surpassed yourself there Rik. The buildings were crackers before painting but painted they are something else! Top notch.

Just been catching up with threads since our house move is now coming to an end, (Just the Garage to finish sorting) and your build is one of exceptional talent indeed Rik…there is no way I could get close to what you have done. The bricks are all inline and perfect from where I am, I feel has though my little efforts on my rolling stock builds are not that good now…..

BRILLIANT Boiler house and Water Tower Rik, please show more of your builds and one day I may have a go at doing one myself.

For inside the Boiler house Rik, maybe a Boiler Door half open and a small red or yellow LED for a glow might work.

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 6:19 am Many years ago I experimented with a Seuthe smoke unit. I found that glycerine worked quite well but did tend to leave an oily residue on everything the smoke landed on. The trouble is that synthetic smoke particles tend to be heavy and settle quickly, rather than going up and away, and I see signs of that in your video. I'll be interested to see how you overcome that.

Hi Philip
Yes, I'm using glycerine as well (which I believe is the basis for e-cig 'juice'). In the final clip you'll see I've managed to project the smoke upwards, by lengthening the output tube. However, if the tube is longer, the glyerine condenses in the tube, so I'm trying to find the optimum length for the tube.

More info about the approach on Dave Bodnar's video.


Rik

Put a fan in the boiler house to blow it upwards?

You would only need a little PC CPU fan...

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:11 am However, if the tube is longer, the glyerine condenses in the tube, so I'm trying to find the optimum length for the tube.

The 'smoke' generated by Suethe units, etc. is actually small droplets of liquid suspended in air (an aerosol), rather than solid particles like smoke, so any surfaces it touches will end up wetted with whatever is used for the working fluid.

The fog machines used for special effects on stage and screen have an internal heating tank and use a small fan to blow the resulting aerosol out of the exhaust. Here in Oz, Jaycar sell a small 400w unit for under $100. From memory they use a glycol/water solution as a working fluid.

Regards,
Graeme

The unit I've built, following Dave Bodnar's guidance, includes a small air pump to simulate the sucking of an e-cig, except that it's arranged to blow over the heating element. Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Jul 06, 2018 3:14 pm The unit I've built, following Dave Bodnar's guidance, includes a small air pump to simulate the sucking of an e-cig, except that it's arranged to blow over the heating element.
IMG_7965-labelled-small.jpg

Rik

Genius

Now blogged the construction of the boiler house - in case anyone else fancies a go at making a foamboard building. Hopefully you can avoid some of my mistakes.
https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2018/0 ... e-for.html

Rik

Excellent write up Rik.

FYI, you've got a slight typo in the very first para. - the link to your Water Mill construction blog is in the wrong place. Hope you don't mind me mentioning it?

philipy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 11:04 am FYI, you've got a slight typo in the very first para. - the link to your Water Mill construction blog is in the wrong place. Hope you don't mind me mentioning it?

Not at all, Philip. Glad you spotted it. Even though I check, something always seems to slip through.
Rik

Nice write up Rik, I'm so torn between scribing or plasticard bricks for my next build...will have some corrugated either way

bazzer42 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 29, 2018 9:44 am Nice write up Rik, I'm so torn between scribing or plasticard bricks for my next build...will have some corrugated either way

Scribing is much easier than plasticard bricks, IMO.