DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Last November, the last new idea I tried happened to be a fire based smoke unit. It was a common design fuelled by a lit roll of tissue (or normal) paper inside a fireproof tube. Apart from being very unsafe, that unit was also impractical for most locomotives due to how it worked and the fan being where the smokebox would be. For a long time since then, I've been wondering how and where I could easily find nichrome wire to make safer, smaller and better shaped smoke units. Even thought about taking apart my second (non working) soldering iron or buying a smaller glue gun just for the heating element. I've watched several videos that showed different sources of nichrome, and it seemed the only good one they showed that was readily available were kitchen scourers. However, I found the wire from those too brittle, easily damaged and too elastic whenever I tried to rewind it or leave two ends for wiring/connecting.



To my surprise, I've now found a weird but excellent option I never knew about even though it was there all along: non electric, coil based epilators (facial/body hair removers) of a type known as Epiroller. I cut one open to extract the coil and found it wasn't magnetic, which was my first indication it might be nichrome. My confirmation came when I threaded a wire through each side and connected them to a battery and it began to smell, even on 1.5V. I then made a receptacle for the element with cotton wool dipped in baby oil and tried it on 3V, which gave a better effect and temperature than expected. On 5V (USB), it got hot enough that it glowed like premade heating elements in several high voltage devices. I won't have to crimp the wires to it since I managed to keep them on by wrapping tightly around the leads.



After seeing the element worked fine on different voltages, I thought how it would be installed in a loco. Forming a metal boiler using tealight casings/strips didn't go well, so I tried fitting it into a big marker cap (not pictured). For reference, I looked at the smoke unit in the loco for Quazar's Pepsi train. I was (kind of) surprised the mini bottle they used was plastic and not glass, even though it wasn't heatproof and the holes were made with a soldering iron. The cap I used had ridges around the top that helped serve as a guide for the holes, but the inside was narrower near the top and sanding/melting it would've likely damaged the outside. In the shed, I found this cyan plastic cylinder that happened to be the same size but more up to the task. Like with the marker cap, the holes were made using a self drilling screw and power screwdriver with the top (smokestack) hole being enlarged with the iron. The element is held by its wires and hopefully won't touch the casing directly, though I'm still afraid it might melt. Before testing and painting black, I'd rather wait til I could find a better smoke fluid like machine oil or glycerine. Unlike Quazar's unit, the fan might be driven by one of the unpowered wheelsets to prevent the buzz or whine of an additional motor. It would also greatly reduce the smoke when the loco is not moving. I would make the smoke optional like on some Lionel locos anyway.

Best of all, I have the rest of the coil as well as more Epirollers in the event I'll need more heating elements; esp. for all of Super's ideas for buildings with smoke units. I could also undo the coils and rewind them in different sizes, or turn them into one length for something like a homemade foam cutter. Too bad I won't be able to use them to heat (tap) water due to mineral deposits that would reduce their lifespan. Very happy I won't have to look any further and have such a good way to acquire them for free.