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Creating a cold but steaming pan of water


dougalzeb

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Hi,

I have recently been asked if there is a way to make a pan of water appear hot by the presence of steam comiong from it. It is then thrown over someone as if to scald them so obviosly the water must be non toxic and cold. Dry ice doesn't look right and it is not possible to pipe anything to the pan or hide anything else inside as it is thrown across stage soon after it is emptied. The effect in question is required for tomorrow nights performance so due to the time I have been allowed to find something I have said we will have to do without but would be interested just to find out if anyone has any ideas anyway. Cheers.

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My first thought was to try swapping the pan between a steaming hot and a warm pan, however that frightens me in-case the swap didn't happen and someone chucked the hot one!

 

Having a pan of boiling water somehow below a pan of cold water so the steam came up past the cold one would be better. The cold would slowly get warm but would still not be hot by the time it was thrown.

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The effect in question is required for tomorrow nights performance so due to the time I have been allowed to find something I have said we will have to do without but would be interested just to find out if anyone has any ideas anyway.

Personally, I can think of no solution that would be safe/quick/easy, certainly not in the next day! I suggest you go back and report it's not feasible - trying to rig effects in ridiculously short timescales can be a recipe for disaster.

How come this wasn't considered to be a need WAY before this, and factored into the design stage of the production programme?

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What you really want is a titchy-tiny smoke machine mounted in the pan of cold water. Then it can smoke like steam right up to the moment you chuck the (warm) water round the person.
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how about a double pan, a smaller one with water in, inside a larger one, then possibility of using a smoke pellet or similar, dont know if it would look right but its an idea.

 

OR if a large enough space could be put between the pans, there are cans of aerosol smoke around, a local fire alarm tester should be able to help, the some sort of remote trigger for the aerosol

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what about putting, ummm coke and menthol in together, or some other non harmful reaction to create the steam/smoking effect (In water) and then chuck that over the actor. e.g use a pottassium + water combination or something less violent
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good grief....

Quite. No point going straight for potassium before you've exhausted the possibilities of concentrated acids and caustic soda. :D

 

How about one of those ultrasonic (piezoelectric) fog generator thingys?

Here's a link I found in another thread.

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what about putting, ummm coke and menthol in together, or some other non harmful reaction to create the steam/smoking effect (In water) and then chuck that over the actor. e.g use a pottassium + water combination or something less violent

 

 

Post of the year! :( :o

 

I had a little unit that I bought from a garden centre once... like a 2 cm cylinder, which did some magic with ionisation to preduce a mist that hung on and fell over the size of a pan/container. You placed it in the water, and could easily glue it so it wouldn't fly out.

 

It ran off 240v, into a transformer, although I can't remember the outputs from that ... maybe doable with a battery though...

 

Safest way I can think of. Although potassium... :D

 

Edit: I was so shocked by the potassium post, I didn't realise I posted exactly the same as the person above! But yes, thats what I was thinking of. Although don't put your finger near the water, you can get a small shock.

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howabout http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...215&T=29168

 

Mini-Fogger Mist Generator Information:

• Add atmospheric cool mist effect to water features

• No heat or chemicals used

• Humidifies the air

• Built-in safety features - water level sensor, overload protection

• High frequency ceramic membrane vibrates water into dense mist

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