# Dry Ice effect without Dry Ice



## techietim (Dec 29, 2013)

Hi All,

Need your ideas on how we can produce a certain effect without using dry ice itself (as it's too expensive for the amount we would need).

The effect that I want to achieve is a kind of "potion" effect pouring out of some test tubes - as it is a laboratory theme. Hopefully that makes sense. (Like a Witches cauldron!)

I have seen things on the Internet about making dry ice yourself, so if it's cheap and fairly easy I guess that could be an idea! Anyone tried this?

Thanks for your help!


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## BillConnerFASTC (Dec 29, 2013)

I did make dry ice for small effects like you seem to need. You need what I recall is calls a dry ice generator. I borrowed on from the physics department. Then you need a tank of CO2 which s not too expensive and available where they refill fire extinguishers. Much safe than chemicals.


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## lwinters630 (Dec 29, 2013)

vinegar and baking soda. Otherwise find a dry ice supplier or some ice cream stores and ask them if they have a small piece that broke off of something.


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## Joshualangman (Dec 29, 2013)

Two ideas:

1. Ultrasonic foggers: http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html

2. A/B Smoke: http://www.rogergeorge.com/special-effects/expendables/a-b-smoke

Also, many ice cream shops will sell you dry ice cheap. They use it for storing ice cream.


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## techietim (Dec 30, 2013)

lwinters630 said:


> vinegar and baking soda. Otherwise find a dry ice supplier or some ice cream stores and ask them if they have a small piece that broke off of something.



Wouldn't vinegar and baking soda potentially spill out the top and make a mess? Idea is to keep mess to a minimum!
Yes, the ice cream store is an idea, but we don't really have those in the UK!


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## techietim (Dec 30, 2013)

Joshualangman said:


> Two ideas:
> 
> 1. Ultrasonic foggers: http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html
> 
> ...



As I said to lwinters360, we don't really have ice cream shops here (not near me anyway!) and A/B smoke looks quite expensive but is a possibility.

I had an idea of putting a bit of regular fog fluid into the tube and adding hot water? (I'll perhaps try it...)


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## techietim (Dec 30, 2013)

Adding water diluted the fluid too much as I guessed..


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## epimetheus (Dec 30, 2013)

Dry ice is that expensive across the pond? It's only about a buck a pound here, less if you buy in large quantities. My church just purchased 400lbs. for the run of our Christmas show and I think the bill was less than $300 including the insulated storage tote and delivery. On a side note, we're moving to cryo-fog next year...


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## Amiers (Dec 30, 2013)

You could use the water and glycerin trick but that involves a heat source.


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## techietim (Dec 30, 2013)

epimetheus said:


> Dry ice is that expensive across the pond? It's only about a buck a pound here, less if you buy in large quantities. My church just purchased 400lbs. for the run of our Christmas show and I think the bill was less than $300 including the insulated storage tote and delivery. On a side note, we're moving to cryo-fog next year...



The largest box my local suppliers do is 80kg (~176lbs) which is £145 ($250) - so yes it's *far *more expensive over here.
For what we're doing the budget is pretty low too and its not essential to the show!


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## BillConnerFASTC (Dec 30, 2013)

Talk to a physics department at a school - very easy - and just right sized "pucks" for a cauldron or smaller pot or vessel. 

Try googling dry ice machine. Lots of help. I found one college science department that sells it for twenty cents per pound to anyone, just six cents to the enrolled students - a subsidized price they point out. Found an attachment to make it for $170 - bet it can be had for less. CO2 seems to sell for around a dollar a pound. Fire extinguisher refills, beverage, paint ball, other places.

Our show ran for two weeks so I made a puck every afternoon before rehearsal or the show. Easy peasy and very inexpensive.


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## techietim (Jan 2, 2014)

BillConnerASTC said:


> Talk to a physics department at a school - very easy - and just right sized "pucks" for a cauldron or smaller pot or vessel.
> 
> Try googling dry ice machine. Lots of help. I found one college science department that sells it for twenty cents per pound to anyone, just six cents to the enrolled students - a subsidized price they point out. Found an attachment to make it for $170 - bet it can be had for less. CO2 seems to sell for around a dollar a pound. Fire extinguisher refills, beverage, paint ball, other places.
> 
> Our show ran for two weeks so I made a puck every afternoon before rehearsal or the show. Easy peasy and very inexpensive.



Thanks, I'll have a look around locally - it may be possible to do that.


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## venuetech (Jan 3, 2014)

You might check with a local chemist (?) as some drugs are shipped with dry ice to keep them cool. 


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## RickR (Jan 3, 2014)

Our local grocery stores sell dry ice!

Also any fog that gets cooled will do the ground covering fog trick. Do you need that or just some general smoke/fog? 

One small group here likes CO2 fire extinguishers for a short puff or two in a show. It can get expensive for a lot, but is cheap and easy for very small amounts.


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## zmb (Jan 3, 2014)

If the test tubes are sitting in a rack the whole time, could you plumb some tubes to deliver fog from a fog machine? The fog machine is reusable minus the cost of fluid, and can deliver random spurts.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Jan 4, 2014)

If there a burner under the test tubes, just toss in some sal ammoniac - the old fashioned and probably not authority approved - but I lived at least another 40+ years. (I hope you understand that you should not use sal ammoniac for stage effects in these times. and post is otherwise tongue in cheek.)


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## gafftaper (Jan 6, 2014)

What about doing something with a fountain/pond water atomizing fogger (sometimes called an ultrasonic fogger)? Here's a one on Amazon for $5.  They don't make a spectacular amount of fog, and they sort of bubble up a bit, but it could work.

Also I'm confused about how much dry ice you think you will need. If all you are doing is test tubes you will only need a tiny bit for each tube. The real danger to me is that the water will quickly finish it's fog effect and then freeze up.


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## techietim (Jan 13, 2014)

venuetech said:


> You might check with a local chemist (?) as some drugs are shipped with dry ice to keep them cool.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk



Oh, good thought, apparently one of the co-organisers has a friend in a physics department but might be worth an ask as the venue is just down the road from a couple of chemists.


RickR said:


> Our local grocery stores sell dry ice!
> 
> Also any fog that gets cooled will do the ground covering fog trick. Do you need that or just some general smoke/fog?
> 
> One small group here likes CO2 fire extinguishers for a short puff or two in a show. It can get expensive for a lot, but is cheap and easy for very small amounts.



I wish we had that luxury here in the UK! Thanks for the CO2 idea but we wouldn't need that much.


zmb said:


> If the test tubes are sitting in a rack the whole time, could you plumb some tubes to deliver fog from a fog machine? The fog machine is reusable minus the cost of fluid, and can deliver random spurts.



That is a brilliant idea!! I'll look into that, presumbably something over the foggers nozzle to get it into the piping up to the test tubes.


BillConnerASTC said:


> If there a burner under the test tubes, just toss in some sal ammoniac - the old fashioned and probably not authority approved - but I lived at least another 40+ years. (I hope you understand that you should not use sal ammoniac for stage effects in these times. and post is otherwise tongue in cheek.)



Haha! It's around kids, so I think I'll play it safe! 


gafftaper said:


> What about doing something with a fountain/pond water atomizing fogger (sometimes called an ultrasonic fogger)? Here's a one on Amazon for $5.  They don't make a spectacular amount of fog, and they sort of bubble up a bit, but it could work.
> 
> Also I'm confused about how much dry ice you think you will need. If all you are doing is test tubes you will only need a tiny bit for each tube. The real danger to me is that the water will quickly finish it's fog effect and then freeze up.



+1 for the link gafftaper! I'll look into the possibility of using something like that - I think we've decided that dry ice might not be the best idea...(as you say)


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## zmb (Jan 13, 2014)

Grocery store seafood and meat counters may or may not receive foodstuff shipped with dry ice. See if your local stores get it on a regular basis and want someone to take it off their hands.

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## techietim (Jan 13, 2014)

zmb said:


> Grocery store seafood and meat counters may or may not receive foodstuff shipped with dry ice. See if your local stores get it on a regular basis and want someone to take it off their hands.
> 
> Sent from my RM-893_nam_tmous_201 using Tapatalk



Good shout!


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