[SML] Sal Ammoniac smoke

[sdwheaton]

Most commonly used as heaters in poultry barns to keep young chick's warm and to keep water dishes from freezing.  In a rural area visit an AG store, they probably still sell them.
Sal Ammoniac was used as a flux back in the days before Bondo, when dents and rust holes in autobody panels were filled with lead.  After sanding and cleaning, you would heat the panel with a torch, then rub a block of Sal Ammoniac over the area to be leaded, the Sal Ammoniac would coat the steel, then as you heated it to lead melting temperatures the Sal Ammoniac would break down to acid and chemically clean and etch the steel so the lead would stick.  Then the lead was filed and sanded smooth and painted.
Stuart


Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device-------- Original message --------From: Stephen Rees via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> Date: 5/4/2018  12:54 PM  (GMT+01:00) To: jdunfee12 at yahoo.com, Stagecraft Mailing List <stagecraft at theatrical.net> Cc: Stephen Rees <Stephen.Rees at fredonia.edu> Subject: Re: [SML] Sal Ammoniac smoke 
The heater cones were (are?) a ceramic cone with a medium-screw base wound with nichrome heater wire that was screwed into a base within a metal reflector and used as a very early space heater.  Usually had a medium-gauge welded decorative wire cage over the face of them. Scary from an operational standpoint let alone the fumes given off by the sal ammoniac.  Another example of a device used for something other than its original purpose. Steve
Stephen E. ReesProfessor Emeritus of TheatreCCE-CC Master Gardener Volunteer
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On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 11:30 PM, jdunfee12--- via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
Since childhood, I have read about using Sal Ammoniac in a Heating Cone to make theatrical smoke.  However, I have never seen this done, nor even seen what such a heating cone looks like.  A search for a "heating cone" shows up some cone-shaped systems which you use to heat a bearing (I am guessing to expand it a bit, to put onto a shaft).  Is that the sort of "heating cone" used for smoke?
A search on Youtube also turned up nothing except how to clean your soldering iron.   I also searched "ammonium chloride", since that seems to be the same stuff. But, again without success.
Anyone know of a site that shows a picture, or ideally a video of such a contraption in operation?
-Joe
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