homemade wave machines

[wayne miller]

Ok so im at it again, and learning new things! Has anyone had any experience with this? The above picture shows my old / first vessel ( that was to long ) well I found a good deal on cast acrylic so I got a closer to original spec piece. Well I was really surprised when I got done with my new one ( the smaller of the two ) and set it on the base and turned it on and it didn't make waves worth a crap. I also got my hands on a older / needs repair square wave and got it repaired and filled it and guess what it didn't make waves either! Now I realize the original waves used silicon oil but is that really that different than mineral oil? Does mineral oil weigh / or is that much more dense? Also I'm seeing that the long wave works great because its long, and if I hold any of the other waves by hand and move them they make waves fine ( because there moving faster than the bases are moving them ) Please tell your story's or share knowledge I cant be the first person to have ever attempted this.

[☆VixenGypsy☆]

Silicone weighs more than mineral. But the colors are amazing, keep at it Wayne, you'll be a pro in no time!

[wayne miller]

I just don't know what to think, in all my experiments I have duplicated the original vessels at least a few times with the only exception being the oil. I have to believe the silicon oil have less friction or has a way different viscosity or something that allows the water to ripple / make waves with way less motion than it takes with mineral oil.

[Jester00]

There are dirt cheap China-made wave machines available on line and in the same kind of store that sells the knock off lava lamps.
I had one and it made waves great. Maybe crack one of those open and see what they're using.
If anything, it's a vessel that you can use in a project or experiment.

Jester

[wayne miller]

Yeah I thought of that but even at 10 dollars at a time plus shipping for just a few oz. of fluid it can get costly quick. I bought four 18 inch by 2 inch tubes this last go around too so I have lots of vessels, just need to find the right mix of fluids.

[Tony]

I found a place here in Melbourne Australia that sells silicon oil, but I have to colour (excuse the Australian spelling of some words) it myself as silicon oil is clear. I spoke to the oil supplier and they said that food dye should work fine? As for making the bodies, I have no idea about where to start.

[wayne miller]

Food color will dye the water the oil floats. If you want two colors use candle wax dye to color the oil. As for the tube try to find a place that sells cast acrylic tubing.

[Pierre Brazeau]

If any way possible maybe employing a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of both liquids and then searching avenues to help compare or match other specific gravities of various liquids from companies that sell all kinds of chemicals, many of these companies list the numerous details of the products they sell, from specific gravities to latent heat, atomic structure, weight,etc.etc. Some details of those lists include also solubility with other components, knowing specific gravities of different dye would also help. I guess what I'm trying to say is why not reverse engineer so to speak or use the tools we apply to come up with solutions for the  same situation with our distraction ; Lava lamps, just a crazy thought. There's a link on this site to companies that do exactly what you're looking for chemicals and heaps of them, I'll check my favorites links to let you know, found it one.

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/liquids-densities-d_743.html. Hope this helps.