I’m participating in Fun-a-Day, a daily art challenge through the month of January, committed to do a daily post here detailing some Big Art Idea or project that looms somewhere out in my future.
I love things on fire.
To be clear, I am not a pyromaniac. I just like to see things burn, preferably with giant flames, roaring heat waves, and dramatic billowing smoke.
So when it came time to replace the toaster, I had some ideas about the toaster I could build.
Refining the pneumatic chamber idea after a little research on air cannons, I got something that looked (at least on paper) like it might work.
Note the timing control graph at the top (HSI stands for Hot Surface Igniters). Basically, the timing would look like this:
- Piston is pushed down and bread is loaded.
- Timer/controller is started.
- Chamber is pressurized.
- HSIs are on.
- Propane is on and ignites.
- Brief delay while bread toasts.
- Valve opens ejecting toast (preferable trailing flames and smoke).
There are a few safety issues around not blowing people up with exploding propane nor blowing people up with an exploding compressed air cannon. But meh, that can be figured out with minimal casualties, I’m sure.
I think the trickiest part is creating a foolproof toast launching mechanism that is stable, dependable, and durable. Perhaps this could be the first step, since creating a working bread launcher would rapidly determine the needs of the propulsion.
Flames, air cannons, and toast: What’s not to like?
