DIY - How to build The Amazing Steam Candle | zedomax.com - The DIY, HOW TO, Hacks, Gadgets, and Tech Blog/Search Engine!

Here’s a cool steam candle you can make!

How to make a cool rotating steam engine using only a candle
and a thin tube. VERY easy to do and fun to watch! Runs for
hours! This is my personal favorite for Christmas decoration more…

How to Survive the Recession!

Tags: Amazing, Candle-Light, christmas, Consumer, Cool, DoItYourself!, Dyo, Educational, Entertainment, Funny, Gadgets, HOWTO, metacafe, physics, Steam-Engine, trick, Video, Zedomax

This entry was posted by max on Thursday, December 28th, 2006 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Consumer, Cool, Educational, Entertainment, Funny, Gadgets, Video, digg.

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philip

This tradition is actually Norwegian! HEIA NORGE!!!

Spamulese

That was a lot of work for a very Boooooooooooooring effect.
"Wow! a spinning candle! it only took me an hour to make and only cost me 5 dollars for nearly a minute of fun!" you could have spent that time reading, wroting, taking a walk, talking with friends, or listening to music. But nope, you spent it bending metal, and getting blisters on your fingers for something about as interesting as flipping a coin.

deester

spamulese i almost agree but the only activity that would be more fun and a better use of time would be the (wroting) now that looks fun !!! well you could add learning to spell
to the list and i will be on your side all the way .

Jeremy

This is so stupid. Wow. I want that time of my life back.. I was expecting grandeur and I got.. not-grandeur. I can't even think. This was horrid.

Please, please, remove yourself from the StumbleUpon. Opt out of it or something.. no, I'll just try to block you. Thank you for wasting my life.

Daz

Well I think it's great! Could you imagibe 20 of these in an ornamental pond, with some type of shadow grill stick to the copper? Hmm...

arglvark

I can't believe I wasted 4 minutes of my life watching this.

stang06

This is AWESOME!!!

Andy

I think it's great - how does it work?

futz

That's a variation of a pop-pop boat:
http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/pop-pop/

Nói

Congratulations, all you negative people out there for wasting another minute or two on posting a useless comment.

You should spend some time learning to respect what other poeple do, what doesent suit your own intrest.
And no shitface comments on my spelling, becouse I dont care.

skiitswitch

The people who do not enjoy this simply have no idea how it works. Scientists will rule the world!!!

Nate

I will make thousands of these, with copper casing and magnetic water wells and power the world or at least my house :)

Jaidex

For all who "regret" watching this or spending the time on this, I have two things to say. First off, the person who recorded the video did it for you, when you obviously don't deserve the favor. Second, if you can explain why this works, then perhaps it wasn't necessary to see, but if you can't (or even if you have to think about it much), then maybe you've spent far too much of your life saying "this is stupid" when what you mean is "I'm content to be stupid". There is a very valuable physics lesson here, and most children still have the mental agility to be awestruck by it - just because you have lost this valuable trait, don't blame the poster. Even Einstein had to admit that there are people who have (sadly) lost their awe for life.

Thank you to the original poster and the creator of the film. Some people appreciate the effort.

Jai Mayers (yes, my real name).

Risonhighmer

I don't know why all of you are saying this sucks, sure it's only interesting for a minute or two, but at least it's interesting.

Thanks for the cool little tutorial :)

Robyn

Cute!

D

Make several and solder a stamped metal figure on each, ballet dancer, angel, reindeer and sleigh, etc. Put them in the front yard in a bird bath or such on Christmas.

Banned Stuff

Wow, Love the Trick gotta try this today itself ;)

lucser

Hi,
I'm amazed. This is a very simple thing so there are few possibilities:
1 you know how it works and what is needed to do this thing so if you decide to do it you know what to expect so no reason to complain.
2. you don't know how it's working but from the video you figured out how it will look (and sorry it is no need to have university degree to see from video how it will look) so it is your choice to decide if it worth or not.
3. if you are so stupid that after looking the video you didn't understand what to expect than, sorry again, you are so stupid that you must to be grateful that somebody nake you to use a small part of your neurons to do it.
As a conclusion I really don't see any reason to complain.
For those that make it but think that is no fun or practical result use your imagination and you can obtain something really nice. For instance if you will put a cover with some nice cutouts on top?

Daemon

What intrigues me is the possibility of scaling this up to make it usable to run a dynamo to generate power. The benefit of steam power without the danger of a fouled boiler safety valve.

Mark Kinsler

Well done. I was wondering how a pop-pop boat would work with a tube as thin as that. It's probably a good idea to anneal any tubing used with this project, and I suspect that your brass tube might have been fairly optimal. You can find such tubing in a hobby shop; it's used by model-airplane builders. The trick of having it spin and float is simply great, and now I will have to make one. The video was well-produced; my own efforts were utter disasters, so I can appreciate yours.

The theory of operation, however, is not so straightforward. What seems to happen is that water is partially flashed into steam by the candle flame and forced out of the tube ends. Then the steam that remains in the tube below the waterline condenses, thus drawing more water up into the tube. However, there may be secondary effects that pull the water in farther than this explanation would indicate; one problem with it is that the heat from the candle is constant, but the bubbles of steam are not.

Google 'pop-pop boats' and you'll find several boats based on this principle, and there are some explanations.

M Kinsler http://www.mkinsler.com

Elvengrace

I think that's a cool little candle.Easy to make,and I love the light effects.I have images in my head as to what all could be done to it,to make more light effects.
People that dis this video are the ones that have nothing to do but look for things to critisize people,over anything.Those that dont/cant see the simple beauty of that simple but neat lil candle must lead boring lives.I'm gonna make a few,because I can,and I love candles of all kinds anyway. Thanks for the video/instructions.I have a party for family soon,and the deck will look cool with several of those,and make for good conversation.Sometimes,the simplest things can be the coolest things! : )

Bio

Cool! Now I have to make two of them, but bend the tubes in the same direction. Then I have to make a little boat and put one steamthingie on each side and make it go forward. So next time I take a bath in my tub, I will have my own litte steamboat!

Emrah

Cool stuff... I knew such steam engines were used with little boats, but I didn't know about this one. Some little mirrors could make it even more interesting I think :)

Izl

looks convincing actually

girrrrrrr2

i think that theis was ment to be able to teach younger kids...

Great for kids

Thanks to the OP.

Those people who complained about this obviously failed physics 101 or would get tongue tied trying to explain the physics behind it.

Steam power drove the industrial world and is still used today in power production.

I've wanted to build a simple steam engine to show my young kids so that they can lean the principals behind it but never got around to it as most designs require too much in the way of materials etc but this simple candle steam engine is exactly what I'm after.

Thanks to the OP for making this video, my kids will appreciate it greatly as I do.

And to the whingers, you just join the long line of losers that criticise but do nothing for the benefit of others in this world - self centered high maintenance people no doubt who still has mummy wipe their bums because they think the world revolves around them - I know what's wasted space in this world and it's not this video that's for sure!

Petunia

I tried constructing this steam candle and ran into nothing but trouble. The candle continually flipped, even after multiple attempts to bend the tubing to stabilize it. Do you have any helpful hints for more streamlined construction?

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