eBay Flame Machine

[BallisticFireworks]

Hi all,

Found some cheap 200W Flame machines on EBay... for $200 I can have 2 delivered to my door in Aus, realistically I will use them a couple of times a year. Is it worth getting them, what?s everyone?s experiences? I can?t justify spending up to get a big professional system, but given that I won?t be using them often I wonder if they will do the job.

Cheers,

[displayfireworks1]

It looks like they are using Butane. Not sure how Butane and/or propane is supplied in Australia. Personally I would get one that works on Propane.

[esgrillo]

I got a few of the 200w a month or so ago. They run off of cans of car starter fluid (super cheap). So far they are working fine. About a 5-6 ft flame height if you let them run for a couple of seconds. I am still working on the programming for these with my DMX software. Not sure how you plan on using these but you need to be able to control these with a DMX set up. If you already have that, I would say go for the purchase. You are getting a good price point.

[kevinwetzel]

I have 4 of these machines and they are pretty decent, off the shelf parts (except for the DMX controller) so they are easy to repair if something breaks. For the price if you follow the recommendations they can be great machines. Just to be safe I always put them 8 feet in the air (above the crowd) and have an emergency cut off switch for power that effectively turns them off if needed in the event of an issue.

I'll see if I can find some video of them when I put them on a 4 channel controller. They worked very reliably and were predictable.

[BallisticFireworks]

Thanks for the replies, what dmx controller are you using? Wondering wether to get a few and try to script them into my shows. Currently using cobra/finale but I don’t imagine it’s too hard to split the audio box channels and have time code. I figure these would look great elevated on a box truss section or something. Buying the fuel will definitley be the interesting part, don’t really want safework walking into my shot site and finding starter fluid in it

[esgrillo]

Compu Show SDE. i did use the audiobox to split off time code. You can see it here: https://vimeo.com/296131034

[pyromagic]

Just be careful where you use these units. Most have no certification and if you are using them in a public display you could end up with a mess on your hands if something goes wrong. At the very heart make sure you have a safety channel.

[Scotty Rockets]

Have 2 on order for $119. Plans are to mount on pa stands. I have a firetek system with the optional DMX on 2 modules.