Am thinking about how to add smoke to an O scale plastistruc refinery smoke stack. Was told Mth makes best smoke units that might fit into this limited space area. Have no part numbers to persue ordering, does anyone have experience with accomplishing this? How about Faller building smoke units, long straight unit that might slip into the base of the smoke stack? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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I did install a smoke unit into a tinplate power house. A generic small Lionel unit works OK.
Be aware that you need to have a means to refill the smoke unit with fluid, so the stack must come off or something...
Also FYI, there can be a problem with "draft" when the unit first turns on. Sometimes, depending upon temperature, the smoke will not go up the chimney unless you blow through if first to start the air movement. I did put a small computer CPU cooling fan under the smoke unit which helps, but it is still an issue.
https://vimeo.com/139508758?from=outro-local
Thanks for your feedback. Neat looking backdrop with your smoke unit! Am told MTH unit must be fan driven because of the draft issue. MTH has a smoke unit in their brewery buildings that works well, but it is quite large, probably won't fit in smaller smoke stack, unless you pipe it somehow. Still struggling looking for a solution.
Maybe an MTH HO smoke unit? Also, maybe one of the smoke units from a caboose? Seems like I have read that some folks have used these for something like this, but memory ain't what it used to be?
Wonder if you could mount a smoke unit (fan driven) below the table and push smoke thru hole up into the refinery smoke stack? Have been looking at how smoke units work, and seems that one could fill the bowl and wick thru another hole with tubing near the base of the smoke stack? Alternating the fan speed would produce changes in the volume of smoke traveling up the stack? Would be like chuffing of the steam engines. Could build some electronics to alternate the speed of the fan motor to achieve realistic operation. Thoughts?
Wonder if you could mount a smoke unit (fan driven) below the table and push smoke thru hole up into the refinery smoke stack?
- If this gives you space to mount an off-the-shelf smoke unit, the few extra inches of tubing will not be a problem.
Have been looking at how smoke units work, and seems that one could fill the bowl and wick thru another hole with tubing near the base of the smoke stack?
- As long as you remember to cap the fill-tube.
Alternating the fan speed would produce changes in the volume of smoke traveling up the stack?
- If by volume you mean the density then yes. As you increase the fan speed the thickness of the smoke will appear to decrease as the same number of smoke particles now flows by faster so less light reflects to your eye. The number of smoke particles is a function of heater power which will be, say, 5-10 Watts. I suspect you will be doing some experimenting to adjust heater power with appropriate fan speed.
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