Construction

The Amazing Fog Machine we originally made was a wooden box with thermal reduction shields, a.k.a. aluminum metal plating, to reduce the risk of the box catching fire.  It became apparent midway through building it that the machine needed additional protection. The following problems became evident: 1. There would be electrical equipment in the same area as the fog juice, which is, remember, mostly water, which will conduct electricity.  I don't think this one requires further explanation. 2. The iron soleplate, which had no thermostat, would have no way to know when to stop getting hot.  It would therefore get hotter and hotter until it melted the circuitry and burned down the box.

There were solutions to these problems.  Not always obvious solutions, but solutions nonetheless.  Covering the wires with metal as much as possible helped to keep water out, but we were in agreement that this precaution alone was not enough.  Covering the transformer with a lot of electrical tape also helped that stay safe from water.  We did not feel that protecting the fan was necessary because: 1. It was at a higher elevation than the liquid fog juice should ever be, and 2. We couldn't do much to protect the fan without restricting its mobility.

Beta Version of the Amazing Fog Machine. Alpha Version (not pictured) was this one minus the aluminum plating.

The third, and, in my opinion, most important precaution we decided to take was using a block of wood to elevate the entire Amazing Fog Machine at an angle and adding a drainage hole to drain any fog juice that didn't evaporate.  The wiring was at the highest elevation in the box so that any unevaporated fog juice would not endanger the circuitry.  That, we thought, combined with the metal wire protection and the electrical tape, would prevent our science project from turning into an electrical fire.

This saw was an indispensable tool for creating the fog machine.

After these new developments, there was only one problem left that needed solving: how to keep the bottle up without holding it in place.  Although tape was considered, it was in the end decided that in the interest of aesthetic appeal, a more elegant solution was needed.  Four small rectangular pieces of wood were placed so that the bottle could be inverted and placed on top of it and would not fall (The hole for the fog juice to get out of was on the cap).  This worked, but unfortunately, since the bottle was not actually attached, we could not have our original intention of "switching off" the Amazing Fog Machine by opening the lid to stop the bottle from pouring.  Oh well, at least the machine was now, finally completed, and ready for a (shudder) trial run.

The Amazing Fog Machine is shown here, finished.  I apologize for the fact that the top image is sideways; there is little I can do about it.

Return to the Main Amazing Fog Machine page.