Giant Weather Predicting Storm Globe!!!
Introduction: Giant Weather Predicting Storm Globe!!!
In the right environment with enough temperature variation Storm Glasses provide and impressive crystal formation show that looks like fog or snow! Changes in temperature impact the how the storm glass fluid forms fog and snow like crystals out of camphor that is in suspension. The rate that the temperature changes and the amount of solvent impacts what sort of crystals that are formed changing how the storm glass looks.
All of this work on storm glasses got me thinking and eventually searching for what the largest storm glass I could find and I was very disappointed. The largest storm glass I have seen is a tear drop shape that is only 10 inches tall and 4 inches in diameter that is probably only a few hundred milliliters or maybe the 750mL version that NightHawkInLight made in one of his videos. Why is there no larger option out there? How large am I talking? There are no 7000mL options out there and so the only way I knew how to get something 10 times bigger is to make it myself.
Since we are talking about snowflake-like (Read that unique) ideas one of the many thoughts that I had was that they look an awful lot like a snow globe but way cooler it it has its own active weather system. What if you made a snow globe out of a storm glass?!?! This seems like a super awesome fusion creating an active snow globe that changes based on its environment and it snows on the scene without ever moving!
I immediately set to making this giant storm glass that I could place a winter scene inside of to make it look like a huge snow globe. To do this properly I need over a gallon of storm glass mixture. This meant I needed to find out just how to make a storm glass as effectively as possible so that I could afford to scale it up. My research for finding a more cost effective mixture is in a different intstructable where I go through all sorts of recipes including how I made a $2 storm glass. 440
Check it out!
Through this process I tested many recipes which I have not found anywhere else on the internet to come up with a solution that let me make this giant storm glass with the highest level of confidence that it would work great! All told I made with giant weather predicting snow globe for right under $100!!!
So since you are here now and you likely have no place to go then let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
FTC Disclaimer: I earn a percentage of the sales through the affiliate links provided through Amazon. If you click on the link it helps fund future projects but bear in mind it might not be the best price for these materials.
Supplies
Materials
* 530 grams of Camphor
* 7 Liters 40% or 50% Ethanol (Vodka either 80 or 100 proof and this comes out to four 1.75L handles)
* 2 Gallon Glass Jar
* 3D Printed Cottage or Ceramic Ornament Cottage
* 200 grams of Potassium Nitrate
* 200 grams of Ammonium Chloride
* 3" of Alien Tape
+ I tried everything: Duct Tape, Double-sided Duck Tape, Command Strips. None of them worked but this stuff worked perfect at keeping the battery connected to the lid.
* Battery Powered Fairy Lights
+ Warm White
+ Multi-Colored with Remote!!!
Tools
* Sous Vide
* Large Stock Pot
* 3D Printer
* 3D Printer Filament
Step 1: How Do They Work?
I have another Instructable that goes in depth into how storm glasses work and how I settled on the ethanol based recipe that I am using since it is different from what I have typically seen.
I am wanting to stay on point so if you have questions about how I came up with the recipe please check out my other instructable here: https://www.instructables.com/2-Storm-Glass-Guide/
I will give a quick explanation.
The camphor is dissolved into the liquid which is an solvent made from alcohol and water. When the temperature of the liquid changes the saturation of the liquid changes. As the temperature gets colder the liquid is able to hold less and less dissolved material to the point where the liquid starts to release the camphor which forms crystals as it comes out of the liquid. Check out hte solubility graph in the pictures where when the temperature of the solvent drops below a key point it can no longer hold as much material in solution or it can not keep the material dissolved. The result is that the material starts to do something called precipitate out just like how rain is call precipitation in that it is coming out of the air and forming the rain. The storm glass does the same thing only it is the camphor that is in solution in the alcohol and as it precipitates out it forms crystals that can look like fog or small snow flakes or even large beautiful crystals. 440