Skip to content

Flame Effects

Fire Staff

We, the Guild of Prometheus and I, led a class this past Sunday showing people how to build accumulator based flame effects. The students had a choice of building a small, stationary poofer or a fire staff. This was the first time we as a group taught a class. Individually, we've all been playing with fire in one form or another for many years. Overall the class was a success but it was a bit painful in some parts. Still, a fun day was had by all and everyone went home with their newly built, dangerous fire art.

fire staff and mike

Pipe Dimensions

od sch 40 wall sch 40 id sch 40 # /ft engagement sch 80 wall sch 80 id sch 80 # /ft engagement
1/4" 0.540 0.088 0.364 0.40" 0.42 0.119 0.302 0.54"
3/8" 0.675 0.091 0.493 0.126 0.437 0.74
1/2" 0.840 0.109 0.622 0.55" 0.147 0.546 1.09 0.55"
3/4" 1.050 0.113 0.824 0.154 0.742 1.47
1" 1.315 0.133 1.049 0.179 0.957 2.17

Elektra

I helped bring to life Elektra the Dragon art car. I designed and built the flame effects system allowing her to breathe.

Elektra Breathing Fire

Elektra Performance

Wings Unfurled

LPG Cylinder Sizes

On a regular basis, I'm building flame effects that are fueled with propane. Invariably for the larger effects, I'm scrambling around looking for specifications and details on propane cylinders to just how long an effect will run given a certain amount of fuel, or how long before this effect freezed the cylinder, or what are the basic dimensions to know how to build the mounting mechanism(s) for the cylinders. So here's the first table showing basic dimensions and weights associated with propane cylinders. For the curious, the 20# cylinder is what you would typically next to a BBQ.

Propane weight 4.24 / gallon.

cylinder gallons # empty # full width height orient vendor model
100# 23.6 68 170 14.5" 48" vert
40# 9.4 29 70 12.5" 29" vert
30# 7.1 24 54 12.5" 24" vert
20# 4.7 18 38 12.5" 18" vert
n/a 12.2 49 100 12" 28" horiz Flame King YSN122a
n/a 20.3 78 163 16" 27" horiz Flame King YSN203
n/a 29.3 97 220 15" 48" horiz Flame King YSN293
n/a 16.4 81 150 14" 40" horiz Manchester 6828
n/a 11.3 69 116 12" 32" horiz Manchester 6817