VSFX - Very Special FX

This was the very old space heater i found. its 2 kilowatts and would probably be enough to reach just below 1000 degrees celsius i hope.

These are the two pairs of nichrome-wire. Each one are 1kW. Im a little worried that they will “burn” because the are old and got lots go corrosion on them. Time will tell. This is going to be a crude furnace. No temperature control. Just turn it on and melt some stuff before it gets to hot.

Now i need to make the furnace. Im casting it using regular concrete and LECA.  I know there are special “concrete” for this but this i hope will do. The leca i hope will add some more heat resistance as they are safe for approximately 1300 degreas celsius. The picture above is the center “plugg” of my mold. If you know something about molding you might think “how is he getting it out?”

The spirals going down the center are going to be where the nichrome-wire goes. I sealed the edges to just get a slight overhang on the mold itself. But how am i getting it out ? We'll i got a crazy plan lets se if it works!

Setting it up for molding

These tubes will give me small holes to run the nichrome wire out of the kiln. They will be easy to just pull out since they are rubber tubes with a mettal rod suport inside. First pull the metal rod then the tube can flex end will be easy to pull out.

On the outside. Some old copper bolts that will be used to connect power to the nichrome-wires

casting! I used on sac of premixed cement and added as much LECA as i could while keeping the mix workable. It got quite thick and i don't have any cement vibrator so i had to “stomp” and “throw” the mould to try and get as much air out as possible. It aint gona be pretty. But i hope functional

Opening the outer mould. Just sawed it open using a regular saw.

And now to the experimental part. To get the center mould out i heated it using a hot air gun. And when the plastic got soft and wobbly i preyed it out. Worked like a charm!

The spiral is still left. Im planing on heating the hole kiln in the kitchen oven. At 100-150 degreas celsius the plastic will be soft and easy to pull out. This i will know this christmas when i get back to my vacation house. The concrete must burn/cure before i put it in the oven!

Some stills from the short film “Kunskapens pris - balladen om den vilsne vandraren“. I made this plate and used it to track and post a working eye on the robot costume. Some 20 scenes in total. Also made some other minor effects. This is showing up now because I am cleaning my old 4TB backup drive. Better put it here and forget about it ;)

Watch the whole film on YouTube right here -> 

This was a jobb i made for Swedish UR. Very fun job. I created this large mechanical table and did the set design. 30 short episodes to encourage interest in science and physics. It was great to work with Benjamin “Beppe” Singer. 

The episodes are still viewable at ur.se