[Jonathan Crawford] is ready and willing to fire things up with his flaming trombone. A couple of years back his band teacher was going through the storage room triaging instruments. This trombone suffered from a bad case of red rot and would never function well again so [Jonathan] was able to get his hands on it and get to work.
He started by sanding down the instrument and painting it with high-temperature spray paint. Flexible copper tubing intended for an ice maker was used to relocate the propane outlet inside the bell of the instrument. A barbecue igniter, controlled with the player’s left thumb, lights the flame.
The torch that [Jonathan] is using would only allow a small amount of gaseous propane to come out the nozzle. He ended up drilling out the aperture, and using a short piece of vinyl tubing to bridge the gap between the nozzle and the supplementary copper tubing. At full blast this allows liquid propane to escape so be warned.
You can see him demonstrating this indoors in the video after the break. He mentioned to us that the first time he tried this out he set off the smoke detector. You’ve got to be careful when playing with fire, whether it’s a musical instrument, or a wearable flamethrower. So, you know, don’t try this at home.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPOKGzEe4sg]
Yeah, right. Don’t try this at home. That’s just what he did. This is accident waiting to happen. I would at least do it in a garage to limit the damage.
This could be the beginning of the greatest ska band ever.
OMFG. Living room? Are you retarded?
@HackJack
let me guess. You also incessantly complain about arduinos.
Wow..
I can only imagine his next featured Hack A Day project.
“Facial Reconstruction using Saran Wrap and Sugru”
I am impressed by this idea. My only flaming project involved the Fire Department and the Police Chief. Who’d have thought?
Very cool! (Insert TF2 Pyro mumbles here)….
That sort of thing is perfectly safe if done properly and I doubt he did that in the living room as a first experiment.
Life isn’t safe.
It’s totally insane, I LOVE IT!!!
life isnt safe but its pretty retarded, like having a flame thrower in your living room
anyway, as a former trombone player, HELL YEA
So.. whats wrong with testing outside? I can’t think of one reason I would light a fire in a house other than a fireplace. Great idea until your house burns down and you end up killing one of your neighbors when the flames leap next door.
Make the flame size react to the sound level and I’ll put that device on top of my wish list!
yeah, I was disappointed that the flames didn’t differ with the sound, but I guess that’s to be expected if you think about it. I guess you’d have to have an active solution: control the gas rate with a solenoid valve with the actuation controlled by the slide position or something.
“Kill it with fire” (c)
Couldn’t ya just see this in the Rose Parade?
I’m putting my vote next to b15 & Gene. Would be greatest trombone instrument ever.
“Inferno” by David Shaffer
This one time, at band camp…
I did the same hack and used it to trim my toenails
If you did this with a Tuba it would be a weapon of mass destruction (don’t tell the Germans!)
While the visual is pretty sweet, the entire idea is a tad bit on the WTF side. And the whole “let’s do this in my living room” is absolutely retarded beyond belief.
Coolest way to contribute to global warming since muscle cars!
“worst case” scenario (ie. house burns down).
he could ‘in-theory’, depending on the local
prosecutor/jurisdictional laws – be charged
with:
(a). arson
(b). reckless endangerment
(c). criminal mischief
the insurance company could also decline to
provide coverage for damages (again would
depend on the contractual language of the
specific policy and state insurance regs).
if i was the adjuster, i would not approve
a settlement. on your own buddy ! you
burned your house down. we’re not paying
you one red cent.
overall, echo other comments here. very,
very bad idea.
OMG ! looking at video again.
truly a $#^@ total dumbazz – notice the
DRAPES near the flames ! unbelievable !
if he does burn his house down, no insurance
company would offer a settlement. since the
policy language usually excludes “deliberate”
acts of arson by policy holder or named
insured’s.
David Silverman (Producer of the Simpson’s Movie) has been playing a flaming Tuba for a while now.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4393995267364283884#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4GB9sE4ZuA
A bit of a stretch to call this a flame thrower isn’t? With no air/fuel mixture it’s like setting a propane leak on fire. Nah at full blast no liquid propane will nit escape. Tip the assembly down far enough in the front liquid propane will escape regardless of the valve setting. In the event liquid propane would escape no big deal, as the flame most likely will extinguish itself soon enough.
Neat idea. I don’t see much of a use for it, but I’m sure he does. Maybe Less Than Jake could use this idea in a concert or something.
If this dude wants to play a flameboner in his living room, he is free to do so, provided he can deal with the firefighters and the insurance company.
Jim
Where is the property of flame amplification brought to play on it. That would be hot. Cool.
He’d get extra bonus points for rearranging that wall hanging to say “fail”
I really don’t see failure here.
Sure it could be refined, but I’m not seeing it not perform it’s intended purpose.
Probably good for some hot Jazz on a cool summer evening…or vice-versa for that matter.
Hey, there’s a fiver in it for ya if you can do “Caravan”.
(The Juan Tizol one, not the Van Morrison one, although I’d accept either if well played.)
It’s a wonder he didn’t set the damned ceiling on fire.
arson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dumbest hacker i have ever seen!!
This hack is way cool, way to go trombone guy!
Who cares if he’s indoors, it’s his house, his flaming trombone, he probably knows what it’s capable of,
GODS!…
Don’t have a hissy fit people.
No one mention that 76 Trombones was from the musical the music man. I think this dude needs to dress up like a wicked Harold Hill for Halloween. :P
Commenters never cease to amaze me with whether its jumping to wild conclusions with no knowledge or even research into the subject at hand. I could see how you would jump to the whole fire bad conclusion, Jonathan is obviously a young guy playing with fire… but wait perhaps he is a student that found an interesting way to tie in valid concepts of his field of study into a hobby is that so horrible or is that a good part of what this site is about?
On the more technical end of things… without sustained contact of a flame on a surface, or an accelerant on a surface, or an explosion the most likely scenario is he gets some soot on his ceiling and will have to clean and paint over it. The liquid propane disclaimer obviously came about from testing and seems easily enough avoided. So FLAME ON HAD peanut gallery and you too Jonathan! I look forward to any tweaks you make on the project and perhaps a little backstory on yourself or the project that might squelch these negative nancys.
Was he playing Stravinsky’s “Firebird ” by any chance?