Noc_Turnal
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 31, 2001
- Messages
- 44
After reading with interest the thread a few posts below regarding the bulberator, the number of people interested in making their own, and the number of questions C_N is trying to answer, I felt inclined to say a few words myself, being the one who actually designed and made the thing. C_N and myself, like many of you, started out our bulb experiences with the hammer, nail and balloon. BAD IDEA! Not only do you lose most of your gas before you can jam the balloon on, the chance of freezing half your face off as you pierce the hole too much with the nail is very real, and very painful!!
A few people have commented that the device is an impressive piece of engineering, which is not far from the truth. I am actually studying to be an engineer, so any misconceptions that anyone can just knock together one are a bit far-fetched. I don't want to stop anyone from trying - on the contrary - it's just that some of the tools and principles I used wouldn't be things that not everyone has access or expertise in using. I originally planned to make just a cracker, and do single hits into a balloon which could then be sucked back by the person wanting the hit. But as I stood in front of all the gas fittings and valves and T pieces, I thought "Why not make the ultimate bulberator, that you can charge up with 10 or so hits, and then sit back and have hit after hit after hit without having to come out of bulb world just to crack another bulb?" And so the bulberator was born.
The "dodgy drawing" drawn by C_N does indicate quite accurately the mechanics of piercing the bulb with the nail inside the 90 degree bend, and a few people have said "how do I know how far the nail should go into the L-bend?" Again, this was something I thought about carefully. I won't go into great detail examining every little aspect of the whole design because you probably arn't that interested and I really don't want to write anymore than I have too, but to illustrate the point, I'll examine the "nail" problem to illustrate that it's not the simplest thing to make!
The bulb slides into the 90 degree bend (I think C_N calls it an L-bend)in a perfectly sized sleeve which you buy at hardware house. The fact that it is perfectly sized is important, but the sleeve is readily availale and it's almost uncanny how well it suits the bulberator. The sleeve is threaded at both ends. One end screws into the 90 degree bend, the other end takes the cap. The cap is a essentially like a three centimeter high nut in that it's threaded on the inside, but one end is closed over (its a cap!). This cap screws onto the end of the sleeve, and by "screwing it on" you get enough force to pierce the bulb. The cap basically clamps the bulb against the nail, and if you screw it a bit more, the nail pierces the bulb and hey presto, nitrous!
The threaded cap is sufficiently big enough to screw onto the cap about 15 full turns. When I put the nail into place, I drilled the hole with a milling machine (something most don't have) and slid the nail to about where I thought it should go. I then put in a bulb, and screwed on the cap all the way on, which pushed the nail up a bit to make from for the bulb. I then backed the cap off about three full turns, and tapped the nail back down inside the sleeve till it just touched the top of the bulb. This is where the nail has to go. Why? When you screw on the cap, you want the maximum amount of cap to be screwed onto the sleeve to make a really good seal between the sleeve and the cap so no gas escapes (none does!) but also, you don't want to be pysically able to screw the cap on much more than is required to pierce the bulb, because the nail might get jammed inside the bulb if you screw it in too far.
With the nail in the right spot, it was glued in place with super glue, allowed to cure, and then hammered over flat against the 90 degree bend (as shown in C_N's super drawing!) and then wrapped up with string, which is sealed with more super glue. The nail needs to be sealed AND held in place. Only such strong bindings will hold the nail in place. Originally it was just glued in place, but after cracking a few bulbs, it came loose. The string has lasted the past 8 months!
A few others want to know if the bulberator gets cold. It does. After a session of about 50 bulbs, the whole 90 degree bend is frozen over. If you didn't have anything to hold onto, you'd freeze your hand off. Our bulberator has a valve to stop nitrous from getting out of the balloon as you reload another bulb. You'll notice it has a plastic coated handle that doesn't get cold. We hold onto that when we're cracking bulbs so our hands don't freeze. Again, little things which are important! At Kryal we put 250 bulbs through this thing, and while the whole bulberator was frozen over, we could still keep cracking the bulbs without losing skin.
So in conclusion (damn this sounds like a report for uni), the bulberator is something which you can make yourself if you have the right tools, but as already stated by someone, the thing isn't foolproof. It's quite easy to forget to open the valve before cracking the bulb (especially if you're in bulb world), and the chance of freezing half your face off by incorrectly using the bulberator is very real, and very painful!!
Good bulbing.
PS. Any more questions, reply below and I'll be happy to answer. We (C_N and I) will probably be at Sunny with the bulberator so anyone who missed it can check it out then.
Later.
A few people have commented that the device is an impressive piece of engineering, which is not far from the truth. I am actually studying to be an engineer, so any misconceptions that anyone can just knock together one are a bit far-fetched. I don't want to stop anyone from trying - on the contrary - it's just that some of the tools and principles I used wouldn't be things that not everyone has access or expertise in using. I originally planned to make just a cracker, and do single hits into a balloon which could then be sucked back by the person wanting the hit. But as I stood in front of all the gas fittings and valves and T pieces, I thought "Why not make the ultimate bulberator, that you can charge up with 10 or so hits, and then sit back and have hit after hit after hit without having to come out of bulb world just to crack another bulb?" And so the bulberator was born.
The "dodgy drawing" drawn by C_N does indicate quite accurately the mechanics of piercing the bulb with the nail inside the 90 degree bend, and a few people have said "how do I know how far the nail should go into the L-bend?" Again, this was something I thought about carefully. I won't go into great detail examining every little aspect of the whole design because you probably arn't that interested and I really don't want to write anymore than I have too, but to illustrate the point, I'll examine the "nail" problem to illustrate that it's not the simplest thing to make!
The bulb slides into the 90 degree bend (I think C_N calls it an L-bend)in a perfectly sized sleeve which you buy at hardware house. The fact that it is perfectly sized is important, but the sleeve is readily availale and it's almost uncanny how well it suits the bulberator. The sleeve is threaded at both ends. One end screws into the 90 degree bend, the other end takes the cap. The cap is a essentially like a three centimeter high nut in that it's threaded on the inside, but one end is closed over (its a cap!). This cap screws onto the end of the sleeve, and by "screwing it on" you get enough force to pierce the bulb. The cap basically clamps the bulb against the nail, and if you screw it a bit more, the nail pierces the bulb and hey presto, nitrous!
The threaded cap is sufficiently big enough to screw onto the cap about 15 full turns. When I put the nail into place, I drilled the hole with a milling machine (something most don't have) and slid the nail to about where I thought it should go. I then put in a bulb, and screwed on the cap all the way on, which pushed the nail up a bit to make from for the bulb. I then backed the cap off about three full turns, and tapped the nail back down inside the sleeve till it just touched the top of the bulb. This is where the nail has to go. Why? When you screw on the cap, you want the maximum amount of cap to be screwed onto the sleeve to make a really good seal between the sleeve and the cap so no gas escapes (none does!) but also, you don't want to be pysically able to screw the cap on much more than is required to pierce the bulb, because the nail might get jammed inside the bulb if you screw it in too far.
With the nail in the right spot, it was glued in place with super glue, allowed to cure, and then hammered over flat against the 90 degree bend (as shown in C_N's super drawing!) and then wrapped up with string, which is sealed with more super glue. The nail needs to be sealed AND held in place. Only such strong bindings will hold the nail in place. Originally it was just glued in place, but after cracking a few bulbs, it came loose. The string has lasted the past 8 months!
A few others want to know if the bulberator gets cold. It does. After a session of about 50 bulbs, the whole 90 degree bend is frozen over. If you didn't have anything to hold onto, you'd freeze your hand off. Our bulberator has a valve to stop nitrous from getting out of the balloon as you reload another bulb. You'll notice it has a plastic coated handle that doesn't get cold. We hold onto that when we're cracking bulbs so our hands don't freeze. Again, little things which are important! At Kryal we put 250 bulbs through this thing, and while the whole bulberator was frozen over, we could still keep cracking the bulbs without losing skin.
So in conclusion (damn this sounds like a report for uni), the bulberator is something which you can make yourself if you have the right tools, but as already stated by someone, the thing isn't foolproof. It's quite easy to forget to open the valve before cracking the bulb (especially if you're in bulb world), and the chance of freezing half your face off by incorrectly using the bulberator is very real, and very painful!!
Good bulbing.
PS. Any more questions, reply below and I'll be happy to answer. We (C_N and I) will probably be at Sunny with the bulberator so anyone who missed it can check it out then.
Later.
Last edited by a moderator:
