OUR STUFF
Home PageForums
Search
PUBLISHED ITEMS
The LibrarySubmission Guide
GET TO KNOW US
About UsThe Team
Site User Manual
The Lounge
Contact
Site Map
Thermonuclear Tealight
Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.
Tealights
The humble tealight. Even in this dizzying age of LEDs, ray guns and silver things, the tealight still holds a valid place in the inventory of the outdoor enthusiast. A typical tealight is small, weighs about 15 grams, and will last for at least 6 hours. They also cost very little, with some supermarkets and certain Swedish furniture-peddlers being happy to sell you a bag of 100 for about the same number of pennies.
Tealights can be put to many uses other than providing light. The wax can be smeared on a knife blade for a makeshift bit of rust protection. They can be used to help start fires. They can be scented, thus promoting aroma-induced euphoria. And they can even be poisoned, much to the dismay of mosquitoes. See? The number of alternate uses is literally endless. And at least four.
So why change something so simple and wonderful? Well, boredom, mainly. And there is room for improvement with the average tealight, as it happens. Below a certain ambient temperature (quite a bit above freezing point), the flame of the tealight cannot heat the wax at the edges enough to melt it. So the wick burns very quickly down the centre and a lot of the wax is wasted. At other times, the flame will often reduce in size from its initial glory, and start to give off much less light. This happens when the level of wax in the tealight doesn't sink fast enough, so the same part of the wick in constantly burning until it turns to charcoal and can't "wick" any more. And, in any case, tealights just aren't really that bright, are they?
The DIY Thermonuclear Tealight
Amaze, impress and endanger your friends with this home-made, over-clocked tealight. In fact, it is so good, it might even get you some new friends. It is at least 3 times brighter than the average tealight, and considerably more dangerous. Here is how to make one:STEP 1 Remove the wick from a tealight. If it looks like this (fig. 1) then you have done the right thing.
STEP 2 You should have one wick as a result of STEP 1. Carefully repeat STEP 1 two more times, and then you should have a total of three wicks. Three wicks should look similar to fig 1 above, however there should be more of them. See fig. 2 below, for some guidance on this matter:
STEP 3 Now drill, hack or gouge 3 holes through one of the remaining pieces of tealight wax. Spread them out symmetrically, and so that all three wicks can be threaded through the wax, with their metal bases not overlapping. This is quite tricky and will probably go terribly wrong as the wax breaks up (see fig. 3). If you want to try to make a good job of it, then warm the wax first so it becomes much less brittle, and carefully use a drill bit. It doesn't matter if it all breaks up, however, because that can be dealt with later...
Warning: Do not be fooled by the last picture above. I thought I had at last discovered the alchemist's Holy Grail of converting candle wax into Kendal Mint Cake, but a quick taste-check proved very disappointing indeed.
STEP 4 Feed the wicks through the new holes, and stuff the whole lot back in the nice metal dish of the tealight (fig. 4). If the wax did break up, then it will hold together well once it has been placed in the metal dish.
STEP 5 Before heading off into the wilderness to impress and alarm your friends, it is a good idea to light all 3 wicks and let them burn for a few minutes. That lets the wax melt and any cracks or gaps will be filled and it should all hold together nicely (fig. 5).
The DIY Thermonuclear Tealight in Use
An operational Thermonuclear Tealight is a fearful yet wonderful sight to behold. To give you a quick taster, here is what to expect:- It will be at least 3 times brighter, generally much more, since the wax is used up so quickly that fresh lengths of wick are constantly exposed to the flame.
- It will last about 2 hours.
- It will quickly get so hot that all the wax becomes clear liquid, and the
wicks will only stay upright because of their metal bases (fig. 6).
Fig 6: Very hot clear wax.
- Touching the metal dish for less than half a second results in a blister. This item is taking quite a while to type up.
- Anything supporting the tealight underneath will probably melt.
- The rate of smoke produced will lead to unpleasantness in a confined space.
- It becomes quite important not to spill or splash the wax. It is hot.
- After about 40 minutes of runtime, you will realise you have in fact created a cooker
(fig. 7).
Fig 7: Extremely hot clear wax.
- Attempts to cook or boil water with it will be successful, but will result in pans with very messy bottoms that are hard to clean.
- Failing to take appropriate precautions around an operational Thermonuclear Tealight could also result in very messy bottoms that are hard to clean.
For a truly enlightening experience, why not discuss this piffle in our forums. Well? Why not?
If you can't be bothered to enter the forums, then shame on you! But you can still leave a comment below. Please try to avoid the profane ramblings of a madman. That's our job.
If you can't be bothered to enter the forums, then shame on you! But you can still leave a comment below. Please try to avoid the profane ramblings of a madman. That's our job.
Your Comments
On 23 May 2007, Lee said:Thank you, you've just brightened my day, but the wife is not pleased as I came on here to researh basha's and have subsequently been here for ages and missed my lunch, the dog however is quite pleased. re: Jon's comment ^ Why on earth would you add adrop
On 2 July 2006, Jon said:
this looks like a great idea! however i warn you that if the actual wax sets on fire, do not get water in it!!! It will explode like a chip pan!! when i set some wax on fire and then added a drip of water the flames shot up about 6 foot high!!!!! So watch
© Copyright 2007 Outdoor Idiots.com (Steal our stuff and a puppy gets it!)
This site is best viewed at a resolution of 1024*768, and with your eyes.