Here are some pics. of a home made smoke unit installed in my LVTP-7 Amtrack. Many thanks to DanL for his help!

Hello GreenAmphibian,I am very interested in your design,and would like your help in constructing a similar unit for my 1/6 scale TIGER VI TANK.Would you be willing to share your design? Does the round chamber contain the heating element and the oil? How much oil does the chamber require? Please advise me of your decision concerning my request, Thank-you Blake

I had help with mine also. If you check back in the scale boat threads you will see one on home made smoke units by Ken nj. There is most of the instructions from DanL in that thread. I used a small fan and made the plenum to fit my application. It works great!

Saxondog, The smoke fluid can be purchased from K-mart or Wally World by the gallon around Holloween for the smoke makers they sell.
I would by happy to help you all I can, for what that is worth.

that looks really nice. Do you happen to know of a place who makes a unit to fit the 1/16 scale tanks? I'd like to add one that actually works. lol

Hello GrennAmphibian,and Yellowshaker,Thank's for offering to help,that is one of the best contributions a person can make.Yellowshaker their is a post on RCTANKWARFARE about fan powered smoker,it is a modification of the stock smoker.Gereen Amphibian what is the scale of your LVTP-7? If you could provide the size of the fan you used I could scale the other parts from the fans dimensions.But my main interest is the heating element,and my reference about the oil was to describe how to get colored smoke,and food coloring to the oil and the smoke is colored. http://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/forum...ker#p9890smoke

The fan I used is 12v and 1 1/8" square, my LVTP-7 is in 1/16 scale. I will check out that ref. for colored smoke. The stuff I am using is coming out gray. Black would be much better.

The reference is a modification post on smokers,the colored smoke Idea I got on a boating forum some time ago.But it does seem to work.

What type of heating element are you using? Blake

Hi Blake,

I'm using Ni-Chrome wire wound into a coil as per the drawings by DanL in Dock Talk.

Thank-you

there are chemicals that burn to give different colored smoke, but they are not compatible with this glycol fogger unit. Using oil, or even cheap glycol solutions with impuruties will gunk up the wick very fast and make the unit near worthless for smoke output.
Don't use auto antifreeze either - dangerous additives and it will also gunk up the unit badly.
An oil burner smoke unit can be made from the LVPT7 smoker, but the heating element and wick system need to be changed. The unit would operate at higher temp and would be dirtier - leaving oil residue all over the model after a while.
Black smoke is hard to get - probably impossible from a fogger type unit. Food coloring definitely doesn't work. Superfine arbon dust dosesn't work either (but makes a super mess)

Hello DANL,What would you suggest to use in the smoker pictured below.these are the standard H/L PROPORTIONAL SMOKERS and they are bad about burnig the heat element frequently.As far as the colored smoke,all I can say is it does leave a residue in the oil tank,but the smoke is a medium to dark gray.But These units at best don't last.Your idea's would be appreciated.Blake

Here is a link to some guy,s working together to develop a better unit for the R/C TANKS.I thought it would be helpful to this discussion.Saxhttp://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5806555/mpage_2/key_/tm.htm

S Dog-
I'm not familiar with commercial smokers. The one in your picture looks like it has a sealed unit. I can't tell if its fixable or not.
If it's busted, do you want to send one to me and I'll see if its fixable. If I have to break it open to see what's wrong, I may not be able to fix it. Let me know. Might be wortha try.

I have heard that commercial units burn out. I use heavier nichrome wire and an anti-oxidation grease at the crimp joint. Haven't had a burn out yet.
Maybe your units could be re-wired with haevier wire, but I'd have to match the wattage of the original.

If you decide to send one, let me know the voltage you operate at.