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Build your own four-foot tall tornado

Step by step instructions for building a tornado machine can be found here: 4 feet tall tornado generator

The tornado will be about 0.9m tall (about 3 feet) when fully developed. The generator design uses a variable-speed fan, for the generator to be able to simulate the F1 - F3 range of tornado structures. At very low fan speed, the tornado will be like a rope, almost stationary positioned in the generator box. When run at high speed, the tornado will be a swirling vortex, about 130mm (5") thick, going berserk in the generator.

Costs to build this generator are about $150, mostly due to the high cost of the mist generator it uses ($100), the fan (about $25) and the power supply for the fan ($20). Most of the rest of the materials will be lying about in your workshop. You can build the generator first, without buying the mist generator, to save money. You'll not have a visible tornado vortex, but you can make this visible with smoke or soldering fumes. If the device really works and a tornado is produced, you can buy the expensive mist generator.

Here is a twister: Looks like a fun project... Posted by DaveH at March 11, 2005 10:09 PM | TrackBack