Just because you can doesn't mean you should... #makerfail

Wow, the hazards of hacking together a solar oven…

7 Likes

Had exactly that happen to me. My brother found a 20 inch parabolic mirror in scrap. He knew I was interested in solar observation and all sorts of solar projection. Put the mirror in the backseat on a cloudy day. Sun came out…

10 Likes

Wait, this is a thing?! What was the end result? Car/people/etc OK?

2 Likes

Whoa! Not good! :neutral_face:

1 Like

Yeah, same thing happened with a decorative glass sphere on my friends back porch. Burned half the porch before we got it out.

2 Likes

Just be glad you are not This architect:
https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/london-skyscraper-can-melt-cars-set-buildings-fire-8C11069092

9 Likes

8" round burn hole in the backseat ceiling. Fixed it. Nicknamed the car patches.

8 Likes

Previously:

6 Likes

That’s a pretty major “oops!”

2 Likes

When I was in high school my boss’ dad, a mechanical engineering professor, tried to get me to apply where he taught. Part of the personal tour he gave me included the “death ray.” It was an oval/circle made up of ?? small mirrors (either hexagonal or octagonal) with a total diameter of four to five feet. The focus point had a very thick metal plate with a relatively large and melty hole in it. The coolest thing on an otherwise not very exciting tour.

4 Likes

For a moment I thought you were going to say it was the Death Star and you were Luke! :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I had a colleague drive to Santa Fe with molds for making a bronze cast at the foundry there. They had the model wrapped in bubble wrap. They started smelling something and pulled over. The carpet in the back of the jeep was smoldering away.

3 Likes

One of the down sides of poorly designed solar power stations with acres of mirrors pointing at a central tower boiling water also roasting the occasional bird choosing the wrong flight path.

Even when not focused it can be a problem as there was an all glass mirror church down the street from where I used to live that folk living at that end of the street would get the sun coming up on both sides of the house.

3 Likes

Coming in late, but I think this is one that everybody needs to learn, and the only problem is that too many people learn it at the wrong scale. I was a kid when the Amateur Scientist article on making paraboloids came out, and I thought I’d make a parabolic mic. Cloudy day, pointed only slightly south, but the mic housing still sagged all over the place.

And 40+ years later I still remember to be careful about that.

1 Like