Halloween - Dry ice costume? Any advice?

[nxt117]

As part of my costume, I want dry ice fog to come out of my pants legs (and maybe shirt cuffs).

I was thinking of a hidden bladder/container on my lower leg, and tubing running out my legs and up through my body to my arms.

Couple of questions:

1. What does the bladder need to be made of? hard plastic? water bottle?

I assume I need hose that is wide enough to keep the pressure below bursting.

2. Any suggestions for heating the water in the bladder so the effect will last? How about handwarmers in a plastic bag?

3. Think I need a fan to push the fog out? The expansion of the gas should provide a significant push.

4. Any concerns about the temperature of the fog around my hands? (my feet will have socks and shoes, so should be protected).

5. How insulated must the bladder be to protect my legs? Any suggestions on insulation (to prevent condesation freeze, etc.)

Dry ice seems like the economical way to go - fog fluid requires significant heat.

Thanks for any thoughts, advice, interesting tricks.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

I seriously doubt your feet will be proteced by socks. Maybe for a few minutes.. then frostbite. I would use styrofoam containers of some kind.

 

[OrByte]

GOD KEEP THE DRY ICE AWAY FROM YOUR NETHER REGIONS!!


sounds like your taking a risk there buddy. good luck.

:Q

 

[bonk102]

i would seriously reconsider this idea if i wer eyou

 

[Viper GTS]

I would think of some other way to do it, prolonged contact with dry ice is a good way to give yourself some nasty frostbite.

Viper GTS

 

[Mutilator]

Anybody else getting this mental image of a little kid running up and kicking his smoking leg (trying to put the fire out ) only to have his leg shatter?

 

[amnesiac]

It's not practical for more than a few minutes.
The dry ice will freeze over and stop smoking after that.
You need a heat source hot enough to keep that from happening.
Plus, if you embed it beneath your clothes, you'll only be able to hold a couple large plastic baggies' worth, which won't really produce that much smoke at all.

 

[MichaelD]

Half a dozen or so Bean&Cheese Burritos from TacoHell washed down w/a quart of cranberry juice will produce a much more natural, convincing and SCARY fog from inside your pants.

Dry Ice strapped to your body = very bad idea. You could get frostbite so severe that they have to debride (sp?) your skin. I.E. literally chop out the dead tissue leaving open, bleeding, oozing and infection-prone wounds.

Just go as a clown or something...much safer.

 

[Harvey]

I agree with most others. It's a very bad idea. For safety, you would need some serious thermal insulation. Also, although CO2 isn't toxic, you could be walking around in a CO2 fog and run a bit short of oxygen.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: OrByte
GOD KEEP THE DRY ICE AWAY FROM YOUR NETHER REGIONS!!


sounds like your taking a risk there buddy. good luck.

:Q

LOL whats being Dutch have to do with any of this? (ie Why do you care about the netherlands?)

 

[Geekbabe]

Are you nutz? do you want to have any nutz after Halloween?:Q

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Half a dozen or so Bean&Cheese Burritos from TacoHell washed down w/a quart of cranberry juice will produce a much more natural, convincing and SCARY fog from inside your pants.

Dry Ice strapped to your body = very bad idea. You could get frostbite so severe that they have to debride (sp?) your skin. I.E. literally chop out the dead tissue leaving open, bleeding, oozing and infection-prone wounds.

Just go as a clown or something...much safer.

Being a clown is not safer! I hate clowns! I have a baseball bat ready for the first one I see!

 

[amnesiac]

Now that I reread the post correctly, here are the problems:

1. What does the bladder need to be made of? hard plastic? water bottle?
I assume I need hose that is wide enough to keep the pressure below bursting.
A hot water bottle could work, as could any insulated bag. However, you need a *significant* amount of dry ice to create enough fog to be noticeable.

2. Any suggestions for heating the water in the bladder so the effect will last? How about handwarmers in a plastic bag?
the handwarmers would have to be hot enough to melt ice rapidly to prevent it from freezing over the dry ice. That could get dangerous.

3. Think I need a fan to push the fog out? The expansion of the gas should provide a significant push.
Problem? The amount of fog isn't enough to really flow out on its own to any noticeable degree, but if you used a fan it would just rapidly dissipate it.
You need a LOT of fog coming out to make a good effect.

4. Any concerns about the temperature of the fog around my hands? (my feet will have socks and shoes, so should be protected).
The fog is already evaporated CO2 and not cold enough to worry about.

5. How insulated must the bladder be to protect my legs? Any suggestions on insulation (to prevent condesation freeze, etc.)
One or two layers of insulated material should be adequate, but like I keep saying, you're going to need to carry a LOT more dry ice on you than would be practical.

Dry ice seems like the economical way to go - fog fluid requires significant heat.
...so does dry ice. Both require enough heat to worry about burning yourself.


I've built several haunted houses, worked at Knott's scary farm, and did tech/special FX for a theater troupe. I have plenty of experience with dry ice.
If you want a cool fog effect for a large area, the best thing to do is to take a fog machine, attach dryer hose to the front, and route it to a box filled with dry ice. The box will cool the fog down enough to where it will stay on the ground isntead of dissipating into the air.

 

[codehack2]

Originally posted by: nxt117
As part of my costume, I want dry ice fog to come out of my pants legs

Good Lord Man, be careful. I personally wouldn't have this stuff anywhere near me, let alone hanging from a water bottle next to the "ole coin purse".

 

[JohnCU]

Get one of those cheap fog machines they sell at Walmart for Halloween and strap it to your back or something. Fog powah.

Or you could continously ignite smoke bombs and drop them down your pants, but I take no responsibility if you burn yourself.

 

[nxt117]

Thanks for all the "positive" advice - did and it worked great. I had the dry ice in a container surrounded by handwarmers. The container was strapped to the small of my back and covered by part of my costume. I used extra fishtank air tubing to snake the smoke around (the smoke is not cold, as someone pointed out).

Sorry guys, but it worked great. It lasted about 10-15 min at a time with a kind of mist eminating from various parts of my body - I was not looking to have smoke pour out from me. It was at a house party so occasionally I would throw some fresh ice and water in and replaced the handwarmers once.

Do you guys refuse to use mp3 players around your body because the batteries could contain acid? Do you refuse to do any work to your computers because electricty is dangerous?

It just took a little thinking and a minimal amount of construction and I had a cool effect that cost about $10 and was perfectly safe. Just because something "can" be dangerous does not mean that it has to be if handled correctly. It was a short-lived but unique effect.

 

[MaxDepth]

Can we say "shrinkage?"

"but honey, it's small because of the dry ice."




:Q

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: MichaelD


Dry Ice strapped to your body = very bad idea. You could get frostbite so severe that they have to debride (sp?) your skin. I.E. literally chop out the dead tissue leaving open, bleeding, oozing and infection-prone wounds.

well when you put it that way...