Glowing Dustbin

[soundesk]

Hi GuysI've been asked to come up with a dustbin that glows at the bottom.Like you see in films with homeless standing around with smoke xcoming out the opening at the top.If anyone could help that would be cool.

Thanks All

Dave

[the kid]

2/4/6 birdies in the bottom on a chase, with a smoke machine puffing on occasion, add a fan if you want to help get the smoke lifting a bit more.

[bigclive]

A brazier like the commercially available garden type?

 

brazier image page

[PuppetLight]

As said previously I would have 5 birdies inside the bin (which im sure you can get from a local DIY store at fairly low cost, then batter up and remove segments). 4 of the birdies should be on a chase sequence with 1 and 3 on, and 2 and 4 off then vice versa, the 5th birdie should be constantly flickering and pointing up out of the bin at an angle to create the sense of the heat rising, so when the smoke machine is place inside, as the smoke rises it seems to get cooler and cooler as the intesity of the light gets less and less. It would advise a teracotta gel or a mix of orange and red gels on the birdies to give the best possible result. Hope this is helpful.

[timtheenchanteruk]

rather than the constant flickering, a fluorescent starter inline with your 5th will give a random flicker,

[soundesk]

Thanks guys for all your help. I'm sure I can muster something up.

Dave

[Jivemaster]

The Brazier of old films should be 50gallon drum with holes pierced with a pick axe near the bottom and the drum glows dull red when the fire inside is hot enough, yes flames smoke and sparks can come from the open top.

[jonic222]

I had to do this for RENT. We used a few (I think it was around 6) bayonet fitting 40W lamps pretty much just sitting in the bin with a few gels just sitting on top of them. We used about 3 different colours of gels. To make it so that there was just a single cable going to the system so that it was neater and could be moved on/offstage more easily we ran hard power into the bin, and had a jester in the bin, set so that the programmed chase would begin when the power was switched on, along with an alphapack to provide the dimming. We found that it worked better without smoke, and placed some rubbish (mostly balled up paper) on top of it all which broke up the light nicely and had a really nice glow to it.

[Whiskers]

Tim is right Starters for pseudo flame random I would use about 5 best are 125W non electronic ones just interrupt the live in each one and go to about 100 w of mains tungsten lamps GLS or R80 reflector or even 40W firelight, be artistic with red orang and yellow. avoid birdies and GU10 they are to slow for a realistic flicker. The bases of the starters can be unwilling to solder, I use 30A connecting strip and secure the lot in a sturdy die cast box. You may fine tune the flicker with a regular dimmer, beware the flicker can be electrically noisy

 

A false "top" layer of large thick chunks of broken glass helps, if you want the coals visible

 

The other favourite, old shredded black tat in 25mm strips blown around by a fan with some static lamps behind , experiment but do not forget to earth the bin / brazier / drum

[david.elsbury]

Dunno about the uk but last time I made one I just got starter holders from my electrical wholesalers, worked a treat and no need to mess around with 30amp connector blocks.

 

David (in nz )