[SML] DMX silk flame units

[Jon Ares]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 12:36 PM, James Alderson via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> If you end up building one (not hard), I’ve made a couple and I have pretty good luck using squirrel-cage fans for the silks. Squirrel-cage fans blow air in a straight line, so there is no vortex to tangle the strands. I built one for a fireplace using a “surplused” fan from an old Xerox machine, and another for a 12” planter pot using a new fan unit from Granger. The larger the throat of the fan, the bigger the fire can be and the quieter the effect will be. Forcing air through a small outlet makes for more wind noise. Silk strips worked, but the last one I made by sewing a tube of pure china silk, (no synthetics, they don’t float well). The tube was whip-stitch in an oval to a grating of hardware-cloth mounted above the fan, with flame shapes cut into the top edge the tube. The result was a sort of ragged wind-sock. Air blew up the center of the silk tube. Looked great, and it inflated ever time with absolutely no tangling. No trial-and-error was required.


Great hints!  Going in my keeper file....

-- 
Jon Ares
www.arescreative.com
http://backstagethreads.com