 Here is how we made a low-cost outdoor combination fog chiller
and witches' cauldron. For years we had a large plastic witches' cauldron that we
used as a set piece in our yard. In 2001, we put
the smoke machine inside it, and the smoke
rose straight up. In 2003 I started
this project (after researching smoke chillers from the very
useful do-it-yourself page of
a Fog Chiller website - sadly gone now)
by modifying it with a drill, making
a small cluster of holes in the side. Then I drilled a series of drainage holes in the bottom
of the cauldron. A flexible length of dryer hose ($5 at Home Depot) was duct-taped
to the hole cluster on the side. The cauldron was set up, and filled with ice (13 bags for $1 apiece at
K-Mart). The other side of the dryer hose was duct-taped to the output
of our smoke machine. Mid-way along the dryer hose I made a small hole in the bottom just in case
some melt water made it into the hose. This let some smoke leak out, but not too much. Here is the system in operation. The smoke bubbles up uniformly through the
ice, curls over the edge of the
cauldron, and runs along the ground. If there is no breeze it lingers for quite awhile and finds all the
low spots in the yard. Later in the evening we moved the cauldron further away from the smoke
machine (the dryer hose was flexible to 12 feet) and spray-painted the dryer hose black. Here is the 2004 Upgrade.I wanted to have a red light shining up through the ice, so I decided to install one in the bottom of the cauldron. First, I put a cutting wheel on my Dremel tool... 
...and cut a square hole in the side of the cauldron...
...big enough to hold the base of a plastic cage drop light ($6 at Home Depot) armed with a red light bulb ($2 at Shop-Rite).
Then I got a large plastic food container ($1 at The Dollar Store) big enough to cover the drop light, and used the Dremel tool to cut a notch in the corner.
Here is the completed setup. The plastic container keeps the ice from shorting out the drop light.
A daylight shot on halloween day of the ice chilling function in action.
At night, a demonstration of the warm red glow achieved by the red light. Because of the exposure it is brighter than it looks, I think I want to use a stronger light next time.
Here is a long exposure of the cauldron in action.Here are our halloween pictures: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 |