RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi all
I have just fitted a TARR smoker which is really very good. I was searching for various smoke oil recipes rather than paying the crazy prices for ready made stuff. (One company wanted £30 for a small bottle of mega steam just because I live a bit north of Aberdeen!!!)

Anyway;

I have tried the 50/50 mix baby oil/white spirit - which seems to be working well, but does anyone know what can be added to make it a bit blacker and dirtier??

Regards
Mark

If you'd like I had offered long-ago to ship mega steam to anyone who couldn't get it, offer still stands if you'd like. It's made just a few hours south of my house so shipping to me is hardly anything. I don't add any mark-up all you do us pay me what I pay out to get it and send it to you. If this is something that you would like to do just PM me your info and I'll check how much it'll be to send it to you.

Before I started using mega steam I tried many different oils. I settled on straight Johnson's baby Oil. You can also make your own using liquid glycerin and distilled water. You're supposed to start at about 70% water and see how you like it. I'd take Terry up on his offer, if I were you. I know, I'm not you. But, like I said, since I started using mega steam I don't use anything else. I buy it in the economy sized bottles. If you run your tanks in your house a lot the Christmas Pine scent is good. It still mostly smells like smoke oil, but it is a bit better smelling than stock.

Tell ya what, I have a ton of the stock smoke oil if you want it. If you take Terry up on his offer I can send it to him and he can pass it along. I'll even take care of postage from me to Terry, because i have a couple little goodies I want to send him anyway. With flat rate boxes they don't care about weight, so it's really no problem, just let me know.

I made my own. After a bit of delving around on the net, I came up with a mix of Vegetable Glycerine / Glycerol and Propylene Glycol. It works in my Tarr Smoker, and doesn't contain anything toxic. You can add E-cig flavours to get any nice smells that you want.

That sounds pretty interesting, Wibbs. Would you be willing to share the mixing ratio you use? I'll understand if you want to keep that one a company secret, but I think a lot of guys would be interested in a little experimentation. I know I would, and I still have the supplies from when I was making my own, so a starting point would be very cool.

Just because mega steam is good stuff it doesn't mean we can't come up with something better. I wonder if you could add something to the mega steam to make it a denser smoke?

Well I have had a committee meeting, and next doors cat gave the nod, so I can reveal that it was somewhere around the 50/50 mark, though I think it may have strayed up to 70 Glycerine/30 Glycol. You can buy two small bottles on Fleabay and it will last for years.

This was a test, though the tubes were kinked so I wasn't getting a free flow.

Which "Glycol" are you using ?

Ethylene glycol is pretty nasty - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning

Propylene glycol mist may cause nose & throat irritation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene ... te_note-35

Adrian.

Lol, I guess you could drink a few glasses of industrial strength anti-freeze whilst participating in a tank battle, or even use it to stop a tank freezing up in cold weather, it's all a matter of taste.

Alternatively, one could use a few drops of vegetable grade products, which is what I used.

I may be new to this hobby, but I seem to be happy so far with straight mineral oil. How ever, I'm open to suggestions.

From Janus who makes these, he basically uses baby oil in them or mineral oil which is very, very cheap. However I find it does leave a residue behind. The e-cig mix (I used them to quit smoking 3 years ago) works as well but doesn't make quite as much smoke but it too is very cheap. But I gave all those up once I tried mega Steam no question it is the best I have ever seen even from the train side of things...

I would question that price though. Shouldn't be that much. Many have tried tricks to darken the smoke. You are just asking for trouble. First that will really leave a residue and second most of the things people have tried over the years end up gumming up the smoker...