Its been a long struggle to get him to blow flame just right.

Jon S got the combination of valves, pressure, and piping just right last night.

I've not been involved in this particular project until last night.

The Makers Faire was the 1st demo of this new Survival Research Laboratories machine.

It caused a bit of trouble for all of us during the demo.

Called Mr. Satan, which is currently mounted on a very fast moving vehicle, the Bomb Loader.

It did a decent job of lighting up the cardboard ball. Yet did not blow out flame as Mark envisioned it.

But now its 20 times better with a blower and double valve system to feed the mouth and eyes

High Quality youtube:
www.youtube.com/v/GltPsFXZDKM

Low Quality youtube:
www.youtube.com/v/msMtHotxpAk


As you can see Jon S. got all the elements together tonight.

He directed me on drilling and tapping a couple of short pipe segments, then he welded the puppy together with the new fittings and valve he put together fresh.

I wired up and hooked up the 110 blower and the propane connection. Minor and incremental work but every part counts. Especially on doing it right.

Karen M. did a bunch of work earlier in the eve.

You can't even count how many hours have been put into Mr. Satan Head by so many.

From Mark Pauline doing all the CNC cutting on the head (30 plus hours? In the process breaking several bits and having to restart the CNC cut.

To those that welded the box together, to the original propane ignition system, to the 3d scan of the original wooden carved mask.

Many hands can make great work that really delights.

I really enjoy working with Jon, and my work let him focus on the dual propane fittings and connection.

A place where you really don't want a leak. Believe me, as I was on the one on the valve handle and new segment on the first test.

Thats the way I like a SRL project to work.

I love it where I can make solid contribution and can point at a machines segment, joint, weld, grind, or electrical connection, or whatever and say "I made that. "

For "safety" and fire prevention, we tracked down a sheet of steel to put between the face and the SRL cargo door, a fiberglass thing that would not be happy with 400 plus degrees of burning propane blowing at it. That was easier then moving the machine. Later we rotated the heavy and hot head 90 degrees to the orientation as you see in the video.

We connected the 20 gallon propane tank via tube to Mr. Satans, plugged in the blower, and Jon leaned over Mr Satans Head mouth with a portable propane torch.

This isn't a job for a lighter or a match.

I stood behind, nervously handling the rear propane valve ( there are two).

At Jons direction I turned the valve partially open.

I could not see on the other side of Mr. Satan what was happening exactly.

Thoughts and fears of leaking valves, bad clamps, explosions, shrapnel, lack of health insurance, and more racing in my head.

Mr. Satan suddenly ignited.

With a passion to breathe and blow the house down.

This is a very bad wolf. Very bad.

The whine of the blower kinda eerie and irritating.

The way machines are suppose to sound when they operate in the SRL playground.

Worked really well.

As Jon said later, it doesn't always work that way.

After 15 minutes the Mr. Satan steel outline was a glowing red, allowing a new trick.

We could restart the propane flames with just the internal heat.

You turn off the propane.

Wait a few seconds, or more.

Then turn the flow back on.

Bang!

An explosion of flames spurts out of the eyes, nose, mouth, and bottom vents. Sparks racing ahead.

Mr. Satan can really wail out a really loud and very startling popping noise.

The stochastic pops had Mark and I jumping like startled deer as Jon would turn off the propane, let it sit for a few seconds then turn the valves back on.

You never knew when he would turn the valve back on.

Or how big the explosion would be.

The explosions had the Chinese lanterns at the entrance swaying back and forth in its unnatural breeze.

Even the platform of the Bomb Loader moving back a bit. Which is a big and heavy machine. Kinda freaky when you think about it.

Mark broke out his camera ( it is a rare sight seeing him do the documentation thing) and took some amazing shots.

We played for an hour or so, me documenting, Mark and Jon lighting various things on fire, trying out combinations of the valves and ignition techniques.

I threw in the occasional suggestion as it occurred to me, but their expositions and experience from previous machines really gave them a significantly larger envelope to know and define improvements. So much for me to learn. Which I love.

Just the three of us enthralled in the passion of pyro and a new machine.

Finally at 1 am we shut down Mr. Satans and closed the shop.

So we left him in the dark to simmer and cool down from a glowing red from his first night up delighting his fans.

A fulfilling 8 hour slot at the shop.