Fiberoptics, candles and refineries

[FJ and G]

In the distant future, I'd like to try my hand at an oil refinery. I gazed upon one this weekend passing thru Harrisburg PA in the twilight hours. There were zillions of lights to behold.

Rather than affix a zillion grains of wheat; the thought occurred to me that fiberoptics would be a possibility, as the lights are kinda small. The FO would need to be threaded thru the various pipings and stuff before it is put together. There would be some curves to the FO but hopefully no kinking.

As anyone ever experimented with FO & if so, what are your experiences?

Also (different topic), for the burnoff flame, I was thinking of lighting a candle enclosed in the stack (made of brass like a candleholder). It might either impress visitors or burn the house down; or both.


Dave Vergun

[Anonymous]

Burning down the house would not impress the visitors, I think... [;)]

I don't really have a suggestion for a "scale" flame, except to say I saw an old article on how to create a flickering campfire. While it was a bit involved, it relied mostly on the angle of viewing to a reflective surface. Given that said surface was easily camouflaged by the edge of the fire, a pot-holder, and assorted ground cover, I am not sure it would work for your application...

Andrew

[Javern]

at Hobby Lobby i've seen mini fiber optic trees/lamps that are inexpensive. a light source and hundreds of fiber strands for a couple bucks.

Accurate Lighting makes simulated camp scenes with fires, I've seen them on the Walthers website and not dealt with them in person so I'm not sure if that fire could be transformed into a burn off like you asked about. If so it would be safer than a candle [:D]

[cwclark]

i think you ought to do the real thing with the "flares" as we call them here in the Houston area (heart of the oil refinery country)...all you'll need is a small pump, some tubing, a jug of crude oil a long piece of pipe, a space heater (to heat the oil,,,crude won't burn until it's heated to about 300 degrees) and a lighter..(you'll also need a bit of steam to extingui***he flare if it gets out of control)...I don't know if it will work but it's worth a try ...the real one's work that way...oh..by the way..take out a big insurance policy on the house before you start...i'm just joking...seriously..instead of trying to create a Flare, i've seen a lot of modeler's glue cotton to the stacks to simulate steam because they do extingui***he flares with steam and steam run's thru the stacks more often than the flare is actually burning off the crude oil...the crude is burned off only when there is a major problem with the plant process..usually when the "cracker unit" malfunctions...Chuck