RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Here's an update on my attempt to make a more realistic smoke unit for H.L. tanks ....
So far I managed to get " blue smoke" and a unit able to produce a puff a smoke when needed ...
Now that the mechanical part is solved ; I still need to design the electronic to control it ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELx3JKhxrnQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkCcCGmvyyo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Excellent Normond, what fuel are you using? And the coloring how are you creating the blue smoke? I have tried several methods and fuels but always the same result of contaminating the wick, causing it to harden and restricting the absorbent ability of the kevlar wick material.

cheers Blake

Like you I tried a lot of mixes without success ...
I finally decided to go for the real thing without mixing ...
I'm using outboard motor oil for 2 strokes engines ...
It's ink blue and liquid enough to work with the wick ...
Of course the major inconvenient is the smell ....If you ever spilled motor oil on a hot car engine while adding ; you know what I mean ...
On the positive side ; besides the color ; it does't produce any liquid residue at all and last at least 4 times longer than the fog juice I was using before ....
I'm running some intensive tests with it and time will tell if it's a good idea or not ....

I've been trying to upload a pic of the oil without success ...The file was too big ...
Let's try again ....

Great idea

Excellent smoke effect. What smoker unit are you using. I gave up on the heng long will try to get the smoker that RC command produce as recommended by Blake. Will get one to try when funds available.
Well done.

Hi Norm, their are synthetic 2-stroke racing oils that may burn cleaner with less odor, another option maybe KLOTZ a two stroke fuel additive.

best regards Blake

Thanks for the tip Blake ....There must be a lot of automotive products on the market that would do a good job ...You know me , I'm not afraid to experiment ....
One of the interesting side effect of this oil is the absence of liquid residue clogging small diameter pipes ....
Come to think of it ;It shouldn't be a surprise since most of those additives are designed to burn as clean as possible due to environmental restrictions ....
I believe it would work well with any smoker design using a resistor as heater element , although it's too early to assess the long term effects on the kevlar wicks ...
I plan to run my unit as often that I can for the next couple weeks and then take a look at the heater element ...
I'll keep you guys posted ....

mmmmmmmmm CASTROL R

You do know that You can buy 2 stroke oil that smells like strawberries when burned