Smoke Oil for Seuthe etc Smoke Generators.

Proff Kyzer (John Dimitrievich) posted the below message on DCC4Everyone Yahoo group on 27 Apr 08.

"Smoke Oil", IE the stuff you use in Seuthe smoke generators, is generally note the kind of stuff you want to "mix yourself", unless you have some serious expertise in industrial chemistry, and some fluid/mechanic experience.

"Seuthe Oil" is a pure, ultra thin mineral oil, which Seuthe also sell as their "track and mech cleaning fluid"!?!?!? This is basically guaranteed not to clog, bum up, or otherwise trash their generators.

I tend to buy it in 250Ml bottles, @ AUD$25 or so. Now, this may sound excessive, but:

1- I use my smoke gens on "show layouts" which do maybe 9 - 12 days of "hardcore operation" per year

2- I deliberately use my gens at just above ½ rated voltage for a number of reasons, which has the by-product of not burning excessive amounts of oil

Ergo,a 250Ml bottle should last me around 3 - 4 YEARS of operation.

The Seuthe Oil cracks with a slightly white fume, and only leaves residue on any surface within about 2" of the end of the smoke gen. (If it dissipates in free space, there is NO risk of "Oily Residue" covering the entire model scene!).

Some modelers use Baby Oil, which is far cheaper than Seuthe Oil/litre. However, even Baby Oil is thicker than genuine Seuthe Oil, and I have personally had to unclog and repair Seuthe gens which have been "Heat/Cold/Heat/Cold" cycled with Baby Oil, (Clogging, restriction of the oil pathway, and in extreme cases, burnout failure of the gen are all known symtoms).

What IS interesting is that the "average" Johnson & Johnson baby Oil burns thru a gen with a thicker, oily-ier definite Black pawl of smoke, which can be demonstrated to travel even after "visibly dissipating", and deposit it's residue on the scene up to 2' under the right conditions.

As to adding other "additives" to smoke fluid, I can only take the official line "Don't Do That", The act of heating and "cracking" various chemicals into "visible smoke" can release any number of nasty chemical variants in the process. (Refer to my comments above RE Industrial Chemistry!).

Please note that Seuthe smoke gens are DIFFERENT to stage, theatre, and "Rock N Roll" show smoke gens, which use GYCOL as their "fogger fluid". GLYCOL is a known nasty chemical, is highly toxic when ingested, and is tightly regulated in it's supply to most valid industrial applications. (Here in Aust, I have to sign a Stat Dec saying I will only use the juice in my JEM fogger whenever I buy more than 1 container of "Fog Juice"!!!).