Making a Powerful Lego Heater Fan: Will It Melt?
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- Опубликовано: 12 янв 2024
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So is it possible to make a powerful heater using Lego, that doesn’t also melt the Lego? It’s winter here in Ireland, and cold, so in this video, we’ll experiment with generating heat, and trying to protect our Lego from melting.
Nichrome wire is a type of wire that has a very high resistance. When we pass significant current through it, it generates large amounts of heat. This is what is often used in toasters and heater elements. Let’s see if we can build a heater fan using Lego and nichrome wire! 
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hey opera gx can do that too!!! now i dont have to pay for surf shark
Be careful, pretty sure plastic fumes are surprisingly toxic
your demonstration of what happens when you turn the fan off and let the elements heat up actually demonstrates why you should never block the back of a hairdryer.
Very true, I never fully appreciated that until now!
Any hairdryer made in the last probably 39 years will have a thermal cutout and the same with electric heaters.
@@HA05GER You still should never block the back of hairdryers and heaters
@@Thetankracer I never said you should but anything bought from a reputable supplier will have safety .
@@HA05GER You sweet summer child... The safety features don't always work...
The wire sags because it expands as it heats up! This principle was used for the Sunbeam radiant control toaster.
Technology Connections made a great video on it iirc
Ah of course, that makes total sense, thanks! I guess that's why heater elements are usually coils, so they can absorb some of the loss of tension when they expand
TECHNOLOGY CONNECTIONS VIEWER
@@neonphoenix8951 SPOTTED IN THE WILD. HAIL ALEC
I thought it was because it was melting
One thing to keep in mind: infrared thermometers do not work accurately on shiny surfaces.
I just learned that earlier today 😅 Thanks for the heads up!
you should add a light sensor that detects when the motor is spinning and shuts off the heater if the motor stops unexpectedly (like if something is caught in it)
That's actually a fantastic idea, cheers for the suggestion ⭐
These videos are so enjoyable to watch! :) keep making them
Aw thanks a lot man, appreciate it 😁 Love your videos too - big fan
Hi
Ah, my Arch nemesis, the Heater Fan! Our battle will be legendary!
😂
A ceramic heater would be good because it has a positive temperature coefficient, meaning its resistance raises as it heats, so it literally cannot get above a certain temperature
In fact, this principle is already used in many space heaters
That's pretty clever!
use some sheets of thick black paper to measure the heat, shiny surfaces are hard to measure with laser thermometers or infrared cameras.
That's a really good idea, thanks for the suggestion, will see if I can find some!
Adding a heatsink might have been able to help radiate the heat from the 12v heating element in the beginning of the video.
That was actually what I was thinking early on, but I noticed after a short while, that 12 module was only drawing about 20 watts, so I would have needed a whole load of them and a massive heat sink. Nichrome just made more sense for a large output
Would you happen to be able to use those steel parts to make a turbine that can handle hotter gases than air?
Hmmmm that's an interesting idea... I guess it might be possible. Next mission then is how to generate pressurised steam for something like this
@@JamiesBrickJams the only thing I can think of is a capillary steam generator or a modified coke can into a boiler using candles as a heat source, if you add in a secondary heating coil made of thin copper tubing, you could theoretically make superheated steam, if you do plan on doing this, you might consider making a de-airator to minimize rust, should be simple as pulling a partial vacuum in a sealed vessel
its always a good day when Jamie uploads
Wow really appreciate that, thanks for the comment 😁🙏
what you have created is, at its core, similar to what a central heating air handler does, and demonstrated why it's very important to include multiple redundant limit switches to prevent dead blower motors (or bad capacitors) from inadvertently setting your house on fire
You've hit on the design of a good space heater. The amount of heat that a heater puts into a room is entirely dependent on the wattage. By increasing the air speed, you put out a lot of warm air instead of a little hot air - and heat the whole room instead of the spot right in front of the heater.
Thanks! And yes, heat should be correlated only to wattage. I think as a desktop personal heater this strikes a reasonable balance between air speed and keeping it aimed in a fairly small arc (vaguely person-shaped)
Even if it was at the spot right on the heater wouldn't it spread to the other areas of the room eventually?
thats not how infrared thermometers work. the detection area is conical shaped. at a small distance you can already not measure the temperature of small things. it will take the average of surrounding temperature and the temperature of the part over the whole detection area, the object you are trying to measure needs to fill up the entire detection area (which size depends on how far you are from the object). you can also not measure bare metal since its very reflective in infrared and you will mostly just measure the ambient temperature again. youll need to stick some capton tape on bare metal to be able to measure it. the laser is just a guide. its not actually measuring at just the laser dot. emissivity is also a thing
Damn that's really interesting, thanks for the heads up! Clearly I've got to learn how to use this thing better. Or just invest in a thermal camera. The main point I was trying to get across was really just 'hot, hotter, hottest', so it still served its purpose. Thanks a lot for the explanation though - that'll help the accuracy of my next videos! 😁
@@JamiesBrickJams happy to help :) thermal cameras are really fun! love seeing things from a different perspective. Also have some of the same issues though since its essentially the same as an infrared thermometer but it has thousands of them to make the image.
We need a video showcasing your lego collection!
That'd be the most embarrassingly messy video - it's already taken over my small apartment 😅
Whats really cool is if you measure the voltage at different points along the heating element you can get different voltages. (commonly known as a voltage divider) infact this is often used to power the fan motor in hair driers/fan heaters and other things so avoid the need for a transformer.
thats really cool I have wanted some of those mettel parts for so long, evey video you make me want to mess with what ever was in the video.
Aw thanks, I'm glad some of these videos can give folks like you ideas - best of luck with your own experiments!
Great idea, need this thing in my house on my desk right now ❄
Tis the season alright! 🥶
7:15 the death spring
🔥
Love seeing a video right when it comes out
I'm glad it was timed right 😉
I enjoyed that, James! Good job!
Thanks Martin, hope you and the family are well!
8:30 *Gets a wire hotter than most baking temps close to the upper limit of an oven* "Wow thats hot, I cant even put my hand above it" well yeah because its at baking temp. Either way interesting video, keep up the good work.
Next you should make a lego AC! that actually blows good cold air
this was awesome i have all kinds of useful gadgets that I built for my room and I use them all the time every single day. can you do more experiments with pneumatic engines and power generation making a generator with magnets and magnet wire please? I find those creations to be the coolest things ever
That's awesome, I'm impressed you actually use all of your gadgets and inventions. There's nothing more satisfying that a genuinely useful gadget that you made for yourself. And absolutely, I love generators - I have plenty more experiments coming that revolve around generators! Especially air powered ones
@@JamiesBrickJams oh man I'm so hyped to see all your future projects! and so happy to hear you've got more of pneumatic generators coming I cant wait to see em, keep it up you're making awesome videos that are top tier quality that are so fun to watch, I'm gonna build all sorts of stuff like this once I get money for a ton of off brand technic parts
Glad to see folks like you get a kick out of these contraptions 😁 Have fun building your own!
Make a Lego wind tunnel with some experiments!! love the vid btw
Hmm cool idea!
As long as you don't exceed ~70-80 °C (158-176°F), the Lego should be fine. Since Lego is made from ABS which starts to soften at around 105°C (221°F), and melts between 190 to 260°C (374 to 500°F).
True, I've been realising boiling water is just on the verge of causing it to deform
Next video: I made a working Lego jet engine!
😂 Maybe in time...
I wonder why this channel does not have 100k you are really good at making interesting videos with legos.
Well appreciate your support on the road to 100k 😁🙏
The next most logical step is a Lego marshmallow toaster
Not gonna lie, I considered that for a brief moment while making this!
6:54 wow that is glowing *bright orange*
based on the colour of the wire it could mean that the wire itself is reaching 1000C!
I wish I knew what temp that wire was reaching!
back in canada, theres not much snow left, but it would be cool if you could make the fan powered with an air engine!
Haha that would be cool. It's definitely possible to make a good air powered fan using a pneumatic engine. You'd need to store a lot of air though to run it for a while! Might experiment with seeing how long a small single cylinder engine can run for though on a few bottles. Neat idea, cheers 💡
damn only 215 comments for such great video?!
Just subbed! More builds with the metal technic parts please!
Thanks for joining 😁 And I'm sure I'll have plenty more uses for them in future projects
I spy...
...With my clean windshield...
...A fire hazard! **Grabs fire extinguisher**
You should try making this but only have it run on Lego battery boxes only
Haha fun idea! It wouldn't run very long as this thing was consuming nearly 300 watts. But cool concept 👌
7:59 i was amazed at how orange the nichrome got also, 0:14 Can you please tell me the link for that heating rectangle thing to i am interested in electrical stuff or anything that has to deal with electricity.
and also 8:18 if you want to know where it said max on your heat gun and next to it was 244 that is 471.2!, Degrees Fahrenheit
if you positioned the element lower, so the fan blows the hot air without cooling the coils, would it be more effective?
I suspect it's all about the same.. Heat is provided purely by watts of power. Where you blow will only impact how the air is spread around
This is really cool, nice video
Hopefully it's hot! And thanks 😁
Instruction unclear, house burned down
That'll keep you warm 🔥
How did you get the blades
4:44 Surf shark pry’s eyes, I am so scared for my life!
You could have connected the source current INSIDE of the risers so that they wouldn't be exposed to hot nicrome wire.
Where do you get the resources for this.
Never regretted subscribing
Aw that's a hell of a compliment, I appreciate it!
My father also uses those chompy alligator clips
Very underrated channel
Appreciate it a lot! 🙏
Hey! Awesome video! I was just wondering, do you have dc?
Is DC discord? If so, I'm afraid not yet. Though I've been thinking of setting one up
@@JamiesBrickJams Would be very nice! I would personally like to show you some stuff
If u would put the heater behind the fan, it would actually just suck the hot air to the blades and push it towards you, with ur design it blows cold air to the heater and reduces the temps on the coils, so ye
WHERE DO YOU GET THE RUBBER NIPPLE THINGIES. HOW DID YOU GET THOSE. I NEED THAT
8:22 made me code brown. Do you know how close you were to electrocution..... 🤢
I'm afraid I don't actually remember which set those rubber thingies came in. I think one of the motorised sets with the tracks - the rubber pieces help it stick to the ground. And don't worry about electrocution - the voltage and current is way too low for that. Getting burned is the only real risk here
I literally just turned on my fan space heater and then this video was released.
Ayyy nailed the timing 🙌
My intrusive thoughts want me to touch the funni glow wire
You and me both 😉 But I saw what it did with the marshmallow ...
Your thermometer doesn't show "correct" (they are correct, but for different emissivity) temperatures because you have wrong emissivity setting. Your thermometer has emissivity set to ε = 0.95, which is too high. Aluminium (which is the material of the heating module casing, I guess) has ε = 0.1 - 0.2 and stainless steel has ε = 0.35. Nichrome has about 0.87, which is why you are getting more accurate readings, but I guarantee you, that the steel bolt didn't have 33 °C. But it was pretty cool and interesting video nonetheless, keep them coming.
You're totally right, I've just been learning today that I was misinterpreting how I was using this thing. Thanks for sharing, this is very helpful!
ngl those filters for surfshark sound alot like ublock origin
Where can I buy this multimeter?
It's actually a great multimeter! It's the Kaiweets km601 and I just got mine on sale on Amazon
From the title i thought this was gonna be about HEAT shells (High Explosive Anti Tank)
Now there's an ambitious Lego project 😉
It could work much better if you put the heater in the back of the fan
Remember: if you melt plastic do it in a very well ventilated area. The fumes are very bad for you
especially legos since they are made of abs
@@virtualtools_3021 they've been doing their sit ups!
Hawaiian people would love this
😂
Run the motor off the same power as the heater or at least have a board with a MOSFET to kill the heater voltage when the fan voltage isn't detected. But then you're leaving Lego so the light sensor in the other comment is a better "for fun" idea
That's still a really good idea for safety, cheers for the suggestion!
love it
Appreciate it 😁🙏
Why didnt you buy a few of those heating elements and put heatsinks on them? Wouldn't that be a lot safer?
It might have been safer, but those modules only draw about 20 watts, so I'd need about 15 of them and a really massive heat sink. Not totally undoable, but certainly not an efficient way of generating heat
When the ribbon microphone?
Haven't forgotten - will still try to get it to work properly! Just been experimenting with a few other things in the meantime 😉
Ok
make an atomatick marsmellow toaster that toast them perfectly
Haha that's not a half bad idea! I love a good toasted marshmallow
Hey, your last vid (on chilling drinks) has comments disabled. I suspect this is a mistake somewhere as you did ask for comments in it. Just wanted to warn you in case you don't know.
Oof thanks for that, I must have disabled them by accident. Appreciate the heads up!
I’m actually trying to do the same thing like you did but with a battery that I can also take anywhere with me it’s supposed to be like a little heater because we’re gonna be going on a camping trip and I need to be prepared so I’m building a backpack that is a little work bench and it’s actually going pretty good but the problem with it it needs a heater because when we go on a camping trip I will need to bring a tent and it’s gonna be really cold so I need to find a way to build a little heater box inside the backpack I do have a bunch of aluminum cans laying around in my room. I thought they were conductive but when I saw your video about using his legal with the special legal parts, and he said aluminum that reminds me of a aluminum can but I just need your help. Trying to find a way to find a battery that’s powerful nothing easy to charge so I can make a heater. I do have a radio that I can connect by using it as battery but I don’t wanna break it. I want to find a power source on an able to charge the radio while supplying power to the whole back that I’m creating so wish me luck.
I admire your thinking outside the box here! And I really like the idea in general - I was thinking of making a little portable heater myself. However, if you're going camping, I'll make a recommendation. If you want to run a small heater like this, it's drawing around 300 watts. So if you want to run this for an hour, you'd need a bank of around 60 5000mah LiPo batteries, which would likely cost you several thousand, and would weigh a ton. Or you could bring about 6 lead car batteries, which would similarly weigh a ton. And this would only run the heater for an hour. You're better off just bringing a bag of coal and some firelighters 😉
List on batteries just like dispose of the energy without any problems I could try building a circuitboard that can make the energy from the lithium ion batteries to make it way more powerful so when I do that, it might be able to be longer or just die straight like that I don’t know
There’s gonna be a built-in fireplace inside the backpack I am like really good at starting fire because I’m a pyromaniac so I’m gonna make a blueprint and build a schematic of for the fireplace and the building and try finding a tin can so I can use it for the fireplace frame then I’ll try finding some pop cans for theexhaust so I can go out of the backpack
yesssssss
Add some sort of heat sink 0:46 0:49 0:47 0:49
I think that you might get away with using plastic instead of steel because the fan will cool the wires down.
I don't think the fan will be able to cool the wire down that much 😂 Lego deforms around 90 degrees, and that wire is several hundred degrees - even when the fan is blowing on it
Now make a collag cooling fan
Air conditioner
Bro you just made a lightbulb
Pretty much 😉 I'd love to experiment more with making a lightbulb, but that's an experiment for another day
The video is very interesting but a bit dangerous
2:49 HAHA, Rubber...
Unbelievable how he's just goofing around and accidentally makes something really useful
Haha that's how most of my experiments go 😁 And thanks!
new sub plus a complement i wish i looked like you
Aw well thanks for joining!
Nice
Thanks 😊
electroboom of lego
That's high praise, I love electroboom!
Советую вам приобрести тепловизор для более точного отслеживания температурных зон. Если совершить правильный выбор в приобретении, то вы не пожалеете.
I'd really love a thermal imager - Can't afford one right now, but it's on the list!
You just made a lightbulb
Ha pretty much! I'm quite interested to see how it'd perform in a vacuum, like a bulb
Can you make a electric motor with lego?
Sure can ... But unless I can think of a use case for a very powerful motor, I'm not sure it makes much sense other than a demonstration, as it's then easier to just use a regular Lego motor. But I'll probably experiment with a motor in the near future 😉
pfft cute
The house burner 9000
™️
I'm a pretty powerful Lego fan myself.
Hell yeah 👊
😁
7:08 you make light
Sure did 😄
Any chance the apartment no longer smells like burnt fake lego? 😉 I hope your landlord isnt watching this video 😄
The apartment smells great, I just shifted the smelly experiments to your room for the weekend! Enjoy 😉
That is hot, that is really really hot!@@JamiesBrickJams
😂
E aqui no brasil um calor do carai😂😅
Haha you probably just need the fan part of this build 😉
5 ohms is not a lot its alot only for a wire
Yup, for such a short and chunky piece of wire, that seemed like a crazy high resistance to me!
Wot is that word
This video was HOT, just unbelievably HOT.
😂 Nailed it
@@JamiesBrickJams I just had to :)
There is no comments on your previous video
Thanks for the heads up there, I must have accidentally disabled them! Fixed now 😁
@@JamiesBrickJams 😁
You made a fan to heat things up? Why would you want something so weird and useless?
Are heater fans not popular where you are? They're very effective and very popular where I live. One of the best ways of directing heat where you want it
Just use an overloaded laptop battery
I guess you could use a laptop battery, but given this is drawing close to 300 watts, the battery wouldn't last long at all
Hi
Hullo
ay
Eww metric....whats the real temperature?
Reeeeally hot 🔥
Let’s hope not
Maybe just a little 😜
Bro remade the lightbulb 💀
?
10th comment+ i subbed♥♥
Awesome, cheers for joining 😁
Please get a pop filter for your microphone. Please.
he doesn't need it
You're totally right, I used a new mic for this video and it seems to have some more aggressive pops for folks using good headphones. I'll invest in a filter shortly
Thank you 😃@@JamiesBrickJams