Solar Powered Flying Noodles - The Best DIY Science Experiment

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In this video I learn how to make a giant version of my favorite science toy, and also learn a little bit about solar weather balloons.
Thanks to WKPS 1 and Danny Bowman of Bovine Aerospace for allowing the use of their footage.
WKPS 1: / @wkps
Danny Bowman: / @dannybowmanbovineaero...
bovineaerospace.wordpress.com/
Below are links to the various items used in this project. These are affiliate links (I may be compensated if you make a purchase):
Ebay affiliate links:
0.31 mil painter's plastic: ebay.us/imelbV
Glue Tape: ebay.us/d7ZcZv
Pine Fatwood: ebay.us/NHYXu2
2 Gallon Bucket: ebay.us/dmVJe1
Flying Solar Balloon Pre-Made Toy: ebay.us/hi9IrS
Amazon affiliate page with all items:
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[@widdma]

Finally a KZbin with actual tubes!

[@harpazo5486]

Yes, but technically it's a himtube 😅

[@LarsLarsen77]

The internet is a series of tubes.

[@Isaac-47517]

A youtube tuber!

[@victora.bartolome6018]

@@LarsLarsen77 randomly remembered that meme the other day, realized how long its been, and then realized how old I am. ;__;

[@whatelseison8970]

"The internet is not a big truck. It's not something you can just DUMP something on! It's a series of tubes!" -Sen. Ted Stevens (Discovered the internet.)

[@riuphane]

When watching you try to heat seal it, you were putting the iron directly on the plastic. Normally when trying to do something like this i would have parchment paper or another protective later between the iron and the plastic, which helps control the temperature better and prevent some of the holes/tares generated by the direct contract and melting of the material. Would you consider trying some of the melting process that way and see if it helps?

[@filfil9902]

Industrial bag sealers use something that seems to be fiberglass cloth

[@richarddaken6770]

The best stuff that won't stick to the plastic.... Teflon fabric between the plastic and hot iron

[@tridsonline]

👍🏻 The parchment approach definitely works for merging layers of HDPE shopping bags together.

[@Demonhawk14]

It might also be worthwhile to get one of the irons used for sealing monokote to RC airplanes. They are much smaller so likely easier to work with and you can also get little socks for them that prevent them from directly heating the plastic and melting it.

[@Pauuanthakali]

Soldering iron for controlled temperature & pen precision would be of easier use than ironing press for heat sealing seams. lighter fire works too w/ a little practice.

[@jimbtv]

Back in the early 60's, as a young boy, I made a hot air balloon out of tissue paper. I cut the gores as instructed, glued them together, put a wire rim around the bottom and slung a wax-covered string ball underneath. My dad thought this was the coolest thing ever and was as excited as I when I lit the ball and let it go. Man did that thing climb fast. It was at that point that my dad figured out this could also be a flaming weapon if the was ball ignited the tissue paper, then fell on someone's house. In a panic he chased the balloon, running on foot, for about 3 miles until the ball burned out and the balloon settled into a tree. It was great fun on many levels and a big relief for my dad when it finally settled to earth. Some of us choose to live dangerously! 😀

[@christianterrill3503]

Thanks for sharing your story!

[@garywheeler7039]

I did a clothes cleaner's bag and some straws and birthday candles right after a rain. Worked well and was reasonably safe as well.

[@ACME_Kinetics]

I made a few of these in the late 90s or so, I bet I still have the compact VHS tape of one going up (and up) in flames over the sports field of the school across the street. Less plastic waste, more fire hazard, good times.

[@rachaelmarks2]

I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about, but (if it had a basket) what if you fill the basket with water, so that if it crashes or when it lands on something, assuming it’ll land the way I’m thinking, it’ll plop the cotton into the water? Or is it not strong enough to carry a basket that heavy? I don’t know lol. Either way, very fun story!

[@jimbtv]

@@rachaelmarks2 I see a career in aerospace in your future! If you were hoping to extinguish the wax ball then maybe...just maybe. The real problem was setting the tissue paper on fire. The likelihood of carrying enough water to extinguish that fire would be out of the question. It's the old lift vs payload problem 😁

[@justanotter425]

You asked how anyone makes good heatseals on thin balloon films and said you read all your comments. I have a significant amount of experience in custom balloon manufacturing so here are a couple things I've picked up: Each film is different, but heat sealing parameters are heat, dwell time, and pressure. All three factors play together so you can imagine the graph of good heat sealing to exist as curves and areas rather than single perfect points. Within those good seal spaces, you can prioritize factors like "Get it done fast." and "Don't overcook it, I can touch up areas that need more while it's in the jig and I can't screw this up." Heat: an iron like you're using is just fine for many applications and will work for what you're doing. Through testing, calibrate the temperature starting low and going higher in increments, giving the iron time (a few minutes) to stabilize between adjustments. Overshooting at first is fine as you're bounding your temperature setpoint and narrowing it down. Final calibration comes up from cool to tacky to full fusion. Dwell Time - How long you keep the heat one a given area Heat transfers to your film at a particular rate for the tool you're using and your material layup(kapton safety release layers). I have made many a balloon counting off verbally on in my head as I work. It doesn't have to be perfect so long as you're in the ballpark and using the right technique for your material. Pressure - Give 'er until it fuses Pretty self-explanatory, but important nonetheless. Pressure can be applied during or immediately after the application of heat. A roller like an Everhard silicone roller or equivalent hard rubber hand roller is excellent for thicker films. Firmly sliding the heel of your iron across your joint is great for thinner films. Test Swatches: Cut yourself a stack of 3" wide strips and play with the above parameters for your film until you're happy with the result. Just pull the strips apart with your hands for low pressure balloons. After a dozen or so tests, you'll start to get the feel for it, then move on to making longer continuous seals. Once you're happy with your seal, then move onto the balloon. Keep notes, you'll want them next time when you need to remind yourself what to do. Lap Joint - Just how you have it where the film makes a circle and is overlapped at the ends: Tape it all down as you're already doing it, but place your heat seal between kapton (can use PTFE, but I like kapton a whole lot better since you can cook it a lot more without it offgassing) sheets. The PE balloon film won't stick and you'll be applying heat and pressure from the iron without the sliding force tearing at the heat softened film. Make your seal nicely and you can get away with a real skinny sealed patch. Seal failure will happen at the edge of the seal so an extra wide seal only gives you more mass. 1/8" to 1/2" is usually plenty (film depending). More isn't a problem if it's convenient and reliable. Too skinny and it's going to tear easily due to force concentrations. Peel Joint - _||_ Where the || is your heatseal and the _ is the inflated surface Quick and easy, good for long continuous seals with a minimum of mess. You can do large articles by unrolling them on one side and rolling them back up on the other side. Heat seal under tension to minimize shrinkage. Can use the hand iron with this technique, but I miss having an AIE Impulse Autosealer around (American International Electric - Automatic Heat Sealer) with the pedal actuation and knobs to set heat and dwell time. I'd often wind up modifying the jaws with kapton film to help get smoother seals as the PTFE impregnated cloth them come with has some texture that thinner films don't play nicely with. Set up your film overhanging the table with the sealer on a rolley cart. Bliss when you're doing a lot of sealing and don't have some kind of fancy reel to reel system set up. The AIE sealer is expensive, but very worth it. There are a few models, but that's a matter of preference. The core technology is excellent. Watch out for hot spots at the very ends of the sealing bar, I solved this with some dacron tape over the ends until it stopped trying to heat seal or punch holes in my film there. I'd rather lose a half inch of sealing distance than fail a whole balloon. These machines can do lap joints, but only if you can fit the rolled up film between the jaws of the sealer. Feeding the sealer onto the work piece from the end lets you fit a bigger roll. Bonus: Buffalo Felt Products makes some excellent offerings. One of my favourite layups for doing hand heatsealing with an iron is to use a hard felt backing layer so there are no sharp edges being exposed to the balloon film. Sand and/or deburr your work surfaces to minimize the occurrence of pinholing. Iron Kapton film (2-3mil is a good medium where 1 is too flimsy and 5 is thiccc and can give the seal an inconsistent edge) Film Layer 1 Film Layer 2 Kapton film or tape of any thickness 1/8" SAE F-1 Pressed Felt from Buffalo Felt Work table or plank I hope you find my notes helpful. If you haven't noticed from the writeup, I can talk for weeks about balloons and am happy to do so. Shoot me a DM if you like. Cheers! PS. The adhesive tape you're looking for is called Seamstick basting tape. Get it from any sailmaker and you'll have a good time. 3M makes the best stuff and you can special order it in uncut rolls.(mind the fumes) It's an aggressive acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive on either side of a nylon film(iirc) reinforcing layer so the double sided tape won't tear or stretch like the roll-on adhesive you found. That's 3M Seamstick tape. It will peel off of PE fairly easily, but it holds great in a shear load (lap joint). Grab a skinny 1/4" roll for starters and you might not go back to another kind of double sided tape again. Roll your joints hard with a rubber or silicone hand roller and leave them overnight for best strength.

[@justanotter425]

Ack, formatting got me on the peel joint. It's a T shaped joint where the heat seal is on the upright portion of the T.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Thanks for the great info!

[@NoName-zn1sb]

" Roll your joints hard..." heh heh

[@joshuaalexander3618]

Started watching this with my 8 year old next to me and we were both hooked. We were interrupted and had to take a break, but he begged to go back. Your videos are always fun and educational, and my son and I appreciate how you walk through the steps of your research and discovery!

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Thanks for the kind comment!

[@microwave221]

In another instance of every answer being useful in a completely different context, the revelation that glue tape sorta sticks to polyethylene was the thing l needed to know to save the bellows in a concertina that isn't worth putting new parts into. The cheap leatherish material is full of pinhole air leaks, and l discovered that a free produce bag from the store almost works perfectly to line the interior, working flawlessly in compression, but needs to be adhered somehow to the inside to stop from falling away when the instrument is drawn. The glue tape will also be easier to apply than the contact adhesive that l had made only middling progress with so far

[@SolarWebsite]

11:54 "... I'll tie them to an Anker..." The sponsorship goes deep in this video 😉

[@PopLadd]

Incredible development in the WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM-FLAILING TUBE MEN industry

[@NandR]

Now with much less fan noise!

[@TheSwaroopB]

SUSTAINABLE WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM-FLAILING TUBE MEN FTW

[@twocvbloke]

Gathering heat like that is basically how greenhouses and polytunnels work, even in winter they can be quite warm as long as they're properly enclosed, though thankfully they don't take off to go and bother planes when the sun comes out... :D

[@schwuzi]

Our driving silo (don't know the English name, in German it's called 'Fahrsilo') is covered by 2 different types of plastic foils. The white upper layer is 150 microns thick and the transparent foil underneath it is only 40 microns. So you could look into silage foils. They are cheap and come in really huge lengts and widths. We use a 7x50m foil for our silo. But they go up to 15m+ in width. You could build a really big balloon with them. Edit: I did some googling and the thinner foil I'm referring to is called underlay foil/film.

[@zyeborm]

So.... How much does your silo weigh and have you considered lighting a small fire in it for science? 😂

[@turun_ambartanen]

@@zyeborm I think what they are referring to is not what you would call a Silo in the US (i.e. NOT a big round building). A Silo in German is a place to store livestock feed. It is a rectangular concrete slab with walls a few meters high on three sides. The open side is used to access the Silo with the farm equipment. The feed is covered with a plastic foil in order to prevent rain to get in. I have no idea the foil is so thin, though! I'll link a few images in the next comment, but youtube likes to delete comments with links in them, so if you can't find it that is why.

[@zyeborm]

@@turun_ambartanen aww that's a shame lol We call the big round buildings silos in British English too. (Australian)

[@herseem]

I greatly appreciate your gentle, non-flashy, get-to-the-point factual delivery.

[@HeyChickens]

When my dad sprays polyurethane foam on roofs, we often use plastic sheeting like this to protect walls and sidewalks and such. We try to reuse the plastic if we can, but I have always noticed that the first bit of overspray comes right off like butter, but after that it progressively gets harder and harder to remove. So I think they put some sort of very fine powder on the plastic to keep it from sticking together, or else maybe it's some sort of residue from manufacturing. But once you get that powder off, things do stick to it much better.

[@alden1132]

You could use a short length of stove pipe to make a "chimney" over the bucket of fire, to help channel the hot air and allow some distance between the fire and balloon. It woukd also help you harvest soot.

[@treelineresearch3387]

First idea I had for the sealing/joining problem was a tool with a heated roller, and it turns out they exist for exactly this sort of purpose. "Constant Heat Roller Sealer" is the search powerword. May save a little bit of weight over adhesives but the downside is they seem to be niche enough tools that they're fairly expensive.

[@P_RO_]

Having read a couple of books about dirigibles and blimps, I already knew that there would be considerable lift available from the sunlight. The old airships were silver-colored to reflect sunlight and make them more controllable, but they still preferred to launch in the mornings to take advantage of the "superheat" as they called it. Hot-air balloon pilots take advantage of it too, thus saving fuel. And thousands of feet of altitude change occurred with the cross-Atlantic and round-the-world balloon flights between daylight and dark because of the sun's heat on the envelope. I'm not sure how environment-friendly or heavy it is, but burning styrofoam produces a lot of black soot in the smoke. That might be an easy way to darken the plastic and add lift. Glad you found a glue that worked well on the PE which is notoriously hard to glue well.

[@grn1]

I would strongly suggest against burning Styrofoam, especially if was first soaked in gasoline. :)

[@petercollin5670]

I have flown with hot air balloonists before. I learned that the tiniest amount of drizzle will make them scrub a flight because dampness on the "envelope" (the balloon part of the balloon) will draw heat away from the air contained. Also, they like flying on cold days, takes way less fuel to achieve lift.

[@boomfiziks]

My students normally use black plastic. Yet, we also had success with a transparent plastic (from dry cleaner bags). Inside of the balloon, we hung a sheet of black plastic. It acted like a greenhouse. Sun light passed through the clear plastic, hit the black plastic on the inside of the balloon, heated up the black plastic (infrared), which heated up the air inside of the balloon, but also the IR is trapped inside the clear plastic like a greenhouse. The traditional shaped solar balloons (that look like normal hot air balloons) , we also found that you don’t always have to seal the bottom. You can add a little bit of weight to keep the opening on the bottom and just have it fly with the mouth of the balloon open. One of the guys in my solar balloon discussion group, he put a tracker on his solar balloon. We tracked it throughout the day. It took off in northern Minnesota (or Michigan…I can’t remember) and landed in Georgia.

[@MrNameloc]

I worked at a... Pet food bag factory... The woven plastic (thick, strong material) is extruded to the film (thin sheet of plastic with the graphics). They'd splice together both woven rolls & film rolls the same way. 2" double sided tape.

[@microwave221]

I used to work for a company that built large lighting balloons for use on film sets, and l can assure you that square or rectangular balloons not only fly just fine, but can be easier to control in wind by having an attachment point in each corner. Ours were lifted by helium but were made of much heavier material, and still had more than enough lift to carry the bulbs and cables themselves. You could have an incredible surface to volume ratio by linking six 12' sheets together

[@phizc]

3:12 For us metric folks, 0.31 mils (thousands of an inch) is around 7.9 micrometers. For comparison a human strand of hair is said to be around 50-100 micrometers.

[@tvrv9774]

This is one of those... we should go... BIG... REALLY BIG on ... like go to the salt flats and do a 300 ft long one for youtube type thing... Also, I wonder why this isn't an advertising thing in sunny non-windy areas instead of helium? Tied off correctly and built correctly i could imagine these being able to stay up all day long and draw attention. There might even be a way to boost the heating effect electronically with simple circuitry and super thin heating wires in the "bottom". Thanks again for another great video.

[@Oliviiiful]

You might want to try 3M 300LSE tape roll. It is used on older iphone to stick the glass to the frame. It wont come off.

[@ZanHecht]

It's significantly more expensive than the glue tape, which is less than $0.05/ft in bulk.

[@gabewrsewell]

seconding the spiral idea, i think all you’ll need to do is get the first fold down by calculating the angle you’ll need. like imagine folding one corner of a piece of paper to the other corner it shares a face with, and then adding an offset in the perpendicular direction to determine the slope of the spiral, making a check-mark shape to start out with. once the one corner is adhered to the opposite side, you’ll just have to continue the seam until you run out of sheet, everything should stay on track as long as you keep the amount of overlap the same between the two layers you’re adhering. i’d love to see how big you can go with this! i also like how the more efficient a hot air balloon shape is, the less efficient a solar powered balloon shape is, and vice versa, because the solar powered balloons rely on more surface area to be heated more i would think. i’d like to see where the balance lies between those two means of getting lift!

[@ahaveland]

Nice fun project! Have to add that air containing water vapor is less dense than dry air. This, and the Coriolis effect is why hurricanes work! H₂O = 18 g/mol Air = 29 g/mol ( N₂ = 28 g/mol, O₂ = 32 g/mol ), CO₂ = 44 g/mol A mole of any gas has close to the same volume of other gases at a given temperature, so the least dense gas is the one with the lowest molecular mass. However, if the water vapor rains out, then that might spoil the fun as it takes volume away.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Condensation has been my problem in the past with other balloons. That makes them heavy fast

[@ahaveland]

@@Nighthawkinlight Adding silica gel or calcium chloride won't help either, as they won't remove the mass! 😞 Need a fuel that creates exhaust products that remain gaseous and are less than < 29 g/mol. Options are limited! Or maybe something clever with hydrophobic coating and guttering to collect and dispose of the water? At least a solar hot air balloon shouldn't suffer from this.

[@Pystro]

While we're talking about molecular weights: NH3 and CH4 would also be lighter than air and would make for cheaper lifting gases than helium or hydrogen. Carbon monoxide would technically be just lighter than air (28g/mol). It would be less unsafe than the above alternatives, but harder to generate. Another interesting substance would be Methanol (CH3-OH, not to be confused with ethanol). At 34g/mol it would be close to air, but with the advantage over water that it evaporates at slightly more useful temperatures. It's vapor pressure is 35kPa at 40°C and 55kPa at 50°C. This means that a balloon that is under-filled by 35%-55% (depending on temperature), but has liquid methanol added into it should be able to compensate for small leaks (if I remember my thermodynamics correctly). One downside is that you have to make sure that your foil material doesn't dissolve in alcohol. A second downside is that with such thin plastic foil, you really can't afford any over-pressurization, and being off by 0.2 bar on your pressure estimate (10°C on your temperature estimate) could easily pop the balloon. A better way to compensate for leaks would probably be to just blow ambient air into the balloon. But given that a typical PC fan would likely pose a danger of over-pressurizing the balloon, I don't really know the most weight-efficient way to move that air.

[@ahaveland]

@@Pystro well thought out comment! I think I'd be tempted to go for max performance with hydrogen and ban smoking!

[@zyeborm]

​@@ahavelandcalcium carbide reacts with water to make acetylene. Not sure on the weights but it's exciting at least

[@matthewellisor5835]

When I made these ~15 years ago I used the cheapest clear tape that I could get and a tetrahedral form. Had the younglings entertained for hours! I also included, because I live near a major airport, an aluminum foil retro reflector to provide a very large RCS in case of tether failure. Another good idea is to have the phone numbers for ATC at the ready.

[@eugenetswong]

As I read your comment, an unrelated thought: we could use these techniques to make "parachutes"; big circles of plastic for groups to hold together and do fun activities with.

[@matthewellisor5835]

@@eugenetswong I like it. Since weight is very little issue, some much thicker sheets, maybe alternate gores clear and black and duct tape is back on the table for manufacturing and repairing.

[@eugenetswong]

@@matthewellisor5835Thanks for collaborating on this idea. I never considered it for repairing and manufacturing. Also, in another context, I had considered 1 -ply plastic in multi-ply sheets. The plastic layer could be ironed on to something, while the iron touches the paper/metal layer, or something like that.

[@matthewellisor5835]

@@eugenetswong if I'm understanding, you mean utilizing strips to heat seam two adjacent pieces. If that's so, remember that many of these PE sheets will have axially-oriented polymers so consider rotating 90°. But, if available to you, "retired" (usually meaning that the lines are cut so no one tries to jump with it) or "surplus" parachutes are available in the USA for ~$150 for some of the cargo models (typically you can find 24-30 foot nominal diameter) and ~$250 for a T-10 (usually B and C variants) which is 35 feet in diameter. It's probably only a few times the cost of the PE sheeting and tape and much more durable. If instead it's meant to involve the students in the design, construction and testing then the durability might be no concern where the need is only to last through a few days.

[@eugenetswong]

@@matthewellisor5835Thanks for that parachute info. In my recent comment, I wasn't talking about that at all, but your info does help. I wonder if parachutes can be turned into bags. Because of how consistent they are in shape, compared to shopping bags, it should be easier to upcycle them, with economy of scale. Also, my last comment was an effort to find a sensible way to reuse double ply wrappers, like candy wrappers, or soup cubes. I just couldn't find a way to express it until now. The plastic ply could be ironed on, and the paper ply could prevent sticking to the iron.

[@StubbyPhillips]

Phrases like "twice as thin" are like mental speedbumps to me. "Half as thick" is, for me, a smoother ride. Am I just weird?

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Makes sense

[@soranuareane]

You are not weird; I do the same thing. "Twice as slow", "half as thin", etc all take me a moment to process.

[@Splarkszter]

Ha. I can feel that and it's FUN!

[@rickoshea8138]

Half as thin makes sense, if the value proposition is thinness, rather than thickness. The confusion can be prevented by stating that one plastic film is 0.002" thick, and the other 0.001" - for example.

[@lettersnstuff]

Steve mould has a pretty old bit from Festival of the Spoken Nerd (I think) about the air outside an airplane being 6 times colder than the air inside your freezer, and talks about how absurd a statement that is

[@dr_fish]

I have an obscure background in producing flexitanks (in MI btw). The film is much thicker, usually 125-300 micron, but it comes in tubes that are 13' wide with 1000' or more per roll. Sadly, we never made one more than 40' long and the ones we flew for fun (thanks to having copious amounts of helium around for leak testing) were much smaller. For welding, look into PTFE tape or maybe a cheap poly bag sealer from U-Line.

[@crackedemerald4930]

You should put one of those hook spring scales to the anchor tether to see how unheavy it is!

[@jessetheunending9357]

I believe the word you're looking for is "buoyant" and lift

[@Merrsharr]

@@jessetheunending9357 but unheavy is more fun

[@NoName-zn1sb]

@@Merrsharr half as unfunny

[@johnd545]

I am also interested in lift.

[@Vindolin]

Hey I bought that thing as a "Solar-Zeppelin" gimmick in the German Yps Magazine in the 80s!

[@bobsscienceshack8694]

I remember this one, crashed mine in a tree :(

[@Vindolin]

Mine never made it to the maiden flight :( After filling it with a hair dryer, my cat completely freaked out when he saw the huge black snake and tried to jump over it to escape the room. It landed on it with its claws outstretched. I tried to fix it with half a roll of duct tape but that made it too heavy to fly.

[@PaulRichardson_Canada]

Me also

[@DasIllu]

Yeah, same here. Long, black bag of plastic. I was lucky it was kinda sunny that day. I wonder, with things like Yps dried up, all the Kosmos stuff dumbed down, will Kids these days have alternative to learn in the same way we did?

[@MrJJandJim]

@@DasIllu likely not, as handing them a phone or tablet is far easier and requires no supervision*. *if you don't care what they find, even on YT Kids. There's horrid stuff despite being advertised "kid-friendly". It hurts to see the little ones glued to a phone before they can barely think. At least make it a puzzle or audiobook or something remotely engaging and not just a random crap video from cocomelon or whatever it's called.

[@aukword6255]

The vapour trail during the deflation phase shows clearly how relatively hot and wet the lifting gas actually is compared to the environment.

[@TheTechAdmin]

14:45 I get such a big smile when I hear how happy/giddy he gets!

[@killingtimeitself]

another tidbit for heat sealilng the plastic, im guessing the surface area isnt helping, perhaps try using just the very tip of the iron, so that way you have significantly less shrinkage and have a defined heat seal area. Also depending on the temperature a soldering iron might be useful, you can get soldering irons that you can set the temperature on. Though depending on the iron, and it's accuracy that may be a little bit too fiddly. Though it comes with added benefit of being highly controlled.

[@andrewharmon9839]

ATG tape (used in picture framing) may be a lower cost adhesive solution (and comes in much longer rolls!).

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Good tip!

[@theCodyReeder]

8:55 oh I'll have to try that tape! I used painters' tape when I tried to make these and I never could get them to work.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

It works great! I think it's hard with normal tape to match the stretchiness of the plastic. Although once the balloon is made I think the reinforcement on the giant Indonesian balloons are often fiberglass tape. Looks like it to me anyway

[@DrTurtleBee]

You need a "pressing cloth" between the iron and the plastic. It will keep it from sticking to the iron as it melts but also won't attach to the "cloth" as it cools back down rapidly. Parchment paper usually works. Or at least it does with grocery bags. I'm not saying it won't still wrinkle/distort/burn through, but with a little practice, it works.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Thanks for the tip! I think a better iron that's more consistent with its heat would also work better.

[@bill_and_amanda]

We always used wax paper

[@disjustice]

They make craft irons that are calibrated for ironing on PVC cutouts to T-shirts. That might work for this.

[@PandorasFolly]

You came up with this right on time. I had the idea of solar air heater based on a solar baloon. I was looking to make as big a collector as possible for as cheap as possible. Your psa adhesive suggestion is definitely something Ill be using. Thanks!

[@Nighthawkinlight]

I thought of that too! A tube shaped solar balloon would be a great way to get a lot of surface area very cheap to heat a lot of air.

[@PandorasFolly]

@@Nighthawkinlight the two designs I've been playing with is big bags attached to foam or other board kind of like traditional solar air heaters but crossed with a bouncy house. Second is 2/3 bags nested inside each other and all connected at the "bottom". Possitive pressure is applied to the Innermost bag and the air flow through it away from the "bottom" and flows out perforations at the "top". Air then returns from top to the bottom between the 1st and second bag. Optional third bag is a much larger clear bag that acts as an insulation barrier while allowing light through.

[@RALLIR]

Look out for a fairly viral plastic seamer for snck and sandwich bags might not work on this thin plastic but I bet it would be worth a try as it would be much quicker and more durable if it does work

[@PandorasFolly]

@@RALLIR i will do that! The plastic im considering probably wont be quite this thin. Where i live we have some substantial winds so it needs to be a little tough

[@NonEuclideanTacoCannon]

I think I remember these being sold in the back of Popular Science magazine back in the day.

[@treelineresearch3387]

Yep, I remember those, think it was one of Edmund Scientific's ads. Loved browsing their catalog when I was a kid.

[@yoyofargo]

With a little practice, parchment paper and a soldering iron work great to heat seal. I've made a few air ram sled kites out of painter's plastic.

[@MrCecil_KD9WUS]

When ironing plastic use a layer of parchment between the plastic and the iron.

[@ValhallaIronworks]

That's awesome! I'd love to see it hooked up to a digital fishing scale or something to gauge the lift force

[@garreteatherly3159]

Try to put a sheet of parchment paper between your iron and the plastic. This stops the melted plastic from sticking to the iron and being dragged around. The plastic will stick to the parchment until it cools off and lets go.

[@Leonardokite]

Your one statement says it all..... "That is awesome"! Thanks for the fun video Ben 👍🤗😃

[@benmcreynolds8581]

It really shows the importance impact of even the Slightest differences in a given environment. Temperature, density, pressure etc. Etc.

[@rawdez_]

for ironing use kitchen foil and overlap ends together so only edge of an iron comes onto plastic.

[@TestSpaceMonkey]

Flying noodle aside, just coming up with reliable methods to craft stuff out of giant plastic sheets has lots of kid entertainment value. I'm thinking stuff like inflatable "space" habitats and mini green houses with heavier gauge sheets. Obviously you'd have to keep an eye out so they don't asphyxiate each other but that's often par for the course anyway.

[@robinbennett5994]

I did that when our kids were small, just spread out a painter's sheet, and inflated it with a fan heater. I started just using the fan, but it was a cold day so once it was half inflated I turned on the heater. I hadn't expected it to act like a hot air balloon but there was enough buoyancy to support the top of a dome when the bottom was open.

[@TexMexJoe]

Try some parchment paper between the iron and plastic sheet. I'm always fascinated on how to weld plastics.

[@redcastlefan]

Its not just the cool and scientific ideas but your enthusiasm about them, I swear some people out there love science but their videos lack any real spirit behind them and feel like a chore to watch. But with you I have fun by proxy.

[@alden1132]

It's interesting to note it functions as a sail as well as a balloon...

[@Splarkszter]

Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, LOVE your content. It's always a 10/10 quality. I always learn something new and it's just awesome, i can't imagine all the work and research that goes into your videos. Thank you so much for doing what you do! You are truly an inspiration.

[@Nevir202]

if you carefully taped it in a spiral, (think of the spiral of a toilet paper roll) you could make an essentially arbitrarily sized cylinder, by making the spiral tighter or looser

[@Nighthawkinlight]

That is a fantastic idea! I imagine it might be difficult to keep track of how the spiral is progressing if you have to fold it up as it's made, but there might be a clever way to do it.

[@Nevir202]

@@Nighthawkinlight I think all you'd need to do is decide the diameter you want, then convert it to circumference. (Spiraling circumference wouldn't be the same as circular, but close enough for this.) Pull that much off the roll, double the start over to that point and start taping. If you look at the start, you could then calculate the rough length by just counting the number of loops you have completed, multiplied by the plastic sheet width.

[@tracybowling1156]

This might be fun for kids, but it's got to be fun for adults, too! As you demonstrated for us. I'm fascinated by the heated air and the reheating of the air as long as the sun shines. This was a great video! 👍🏻 Oh, I hope you and your 🐦 had a great Valentine's Day!

[@octavigoose]

For another option with the heat sealing, I have had succeess by hitting a piece of metal with a torch and then touching the metal to the plastic. The temperature control obviously isn't the best but with a little patience you can get a nice thin seam and avoid overheating.

[@yash_kambli]

Could u make solar powered absorption cooling system? I found it very fascinating over a traditional compressor based cooling system since it uses a heat as a source.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Could be done with an ammonia refrigerator or thermoacoustic driven. I might do that eventually

[@yash_kambli]

@@Nighthawkinlight yeah plz try

[@startedtech]

Instructions unclear, the ramen noodles in my cabinet started floating away

[@us3rG]

Must've over done them

[@7-ten]

Cooked it too long. 🤦‍♂️

[@Jrskeetpro]

Ah explosive raining rubbers…. My dream event 😂

[@SMOBY44]

The propulsion after you released the untethered end was fascinating. The soot from the smoke looked like jet exhaust.

[@fjh89]

Yooooooo I remember @Kipkay covering this back in his metacafe days!!! What a blast of nostalgia!

[@robertbrown633]

Very glad to see the joy this brings you, though it could use a public service announcement about plastic waste. Carry on, good Sir.

[@Ihtiandr13]

There's another way i used as a kid 40 years ago. Instead of overlapping plastic in a 'circle', you 'sandwich' it like a folded piece of paper and melt the 2 edges together with a lighter or a candle. I used 2 metal rulers and sandwich plastic in between. A few mm of plastic edges were sticking out to melt with fire into solid seam. And the rulers were keeping the rest safe grom the fire.

[@JanTonovski]

I think this concept is really cool if the balloons are tetherd, because if the balloons fly away, all of the plastic ends up in the enviroment.

[@manleonardo]

Love your videos... Are always so interesting

[@jimhouse9961]

I love this channel!

[@LeannaRuthJensen]

This channel appeals to the inner child in me that still wonders how things work and what would happen if you could make a really big balloon😉

[@ch1pnd413]

I would love to see more videos of you talking about really really interesting science education toys and other similar stuff.

[@dziban303]

Ted Cruz taking time out of his busy schedule to post on youtube

[@chrisdonovan8795]

Lol Oh, noooo.

[@jamescollier3]

haha

[@seatyourself7082]

Is it not even better in winter? Cause the air temperature difference? Great video, youre truly one of the best youtubers to ever do it!

[@rickharriss]

Take your plastic and fold in half over the length (you can do this in sections. Sandwich the open edge between 2 metal bars as long as you can get. Leave 1 or 2 mm of open side of the sheet sticking out of the bars and heat this - a naked flame will work, or a hot iron. The plastic will fuse together and melt back to the metal bars leaving a welded seam. Or you can try putting aluminum foil over the plastic before you iron, this might work with baking parchment as well. iron over the top hot enough to melt the plastic together. The foil prevents sticking to the iron and spreads the heat. prittstick may work and be strong enough.

[@TannerTownsend]

New viewer here. Awesome video! Watched the whole thing! Captivating delivery style.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Thanks for the kind comment and thanks for watching!

[@spookydonkey2195]

Great solution with the tape, surprisingly strong and quick to build!

[@Isaac-47517]

Tyvm. Glad to see the light and airy vuds as well!

[@freshoutofcrabs]

When you're done with your solar balloon projects with the kids, you could then turn the leftover plastic into an educational demo (and fun project) on how to recycle HDPE into other objects. Because it melts at a relatively low temperature and gives off very few fumes when doing so, it's a great project for kids (as long as they're old enough to understand the importance of protective equipment like gloves). Using parchment as a protective layer between your heating element (your iron or even a panini press) and the plastic, you can fuse multiple layers of plastic together and then use the resulting "fabric" to make all kinds of reusable things.

[@justinbanks2380]

New Nighthawkinlight video gets posted. Sets Teams status to busy and promptly drops everything to watch

[@justinbanks2380]

@@Xact-ToeBlades I mean, was being humorous. It's my lunch break anyway. But point taken

[@susanyoung6579]

work < play

[@utahwaxwing]

so cool how something with such simple construction can be so big and floating

[@trynadyna9662]

Man your channel is always a delight, and hearing you giggle out in a snowy field with your massive homemade solar balloons really made my day. I think it’s a great reminder that there is a lot of joy to be had in the simple things in life. I also enjoy the more academic material you put out which is a reminder that there’s also a ton of joy to be had in the things that AREN’T so simple! Thank you as always for continuing to make these videos. You’re a big inspiration in a lot of ways.

[@BeckJoseR]

Always love your little projects, just as much as the big ones. Another great educational toy to play with the kids

[@Guytron95]

Dude, I was having a rough morning, a coding project hasn't gone well today so I took a few minutes before heading outside to work in the orchard to watch this and it absolutely lightened my mood, put a smile on my face and many fun ideas in my head. Never stop doing this! I wish I had money I could share so you could do more but at least you can enjoy my warm regard :) Also: see if you can get an iron with a teflon coating and overlap the edges flatly so your tube is like a tear drop shape instead of a circle. I've worked with welding thin films before and both of those helped.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Thank you for your very kind comment! That was nice for my own mood today.

[@christhebirb]

That is so cool, I missed the fun DIY science toys!

[@juliebauman3998]

Homeschool mom here.....we may try this!

[@YossiSirote]

Loved it. I’m going to do this with my grandchildren.

[@robinwilkins6434]

my dad and I really enjoyed watching this and all your other science vids

[@PirateJohnson]

5:43 Probably with a large piece of WaxPaper doubled under the iron.

[@RedGarner]

Thank you. Very enjoyable. Always appreciate your work.

[@IamCrass]

Awesome! Hope to see the bigger one this summer.

[@DamagedF0X]

What a fun newdle.

[@armusx]

You're back LETS GOOOO!!!!

[@pavelmedbery3055]

This would be such a good idea for a festival. I can imagine a bunch of these lined up along two sides of a stage just waving in the wand as a band wailed on staged and the crowd goes crazy from the music as well as the amazing visual dynamic of 30 or so giant black columns wavering in the hot afternoon sun.

[@JosephCoco]

Your scientific curiosity and practical engineering are inspiring. I love your projects.

[@lewismassie]

This was super awesome. Now I'm just imagining a huge vertical floating tube high up in the atmosphere with a little solar powered payload

[@mr.t3237]

you could easily sprinkle a little carbon powder or printer powder inside before joining the edges to get more darkness. So awesome.

[@Briaaanz]

I used to make tissue paper balloons and did some launches for school kids at a local science center. The one time it caught fire it went up like the Hindenburg. The kids of course loved it. I was always surprised it didn't happen more often. I've thought about your solar powered balloons, but was too lazy to try. Glad you did the project!

[@Impatient_Ape]

If you tie separate lengths of quilting thread to each end of the tube, you can anchor the other ends some distance apart, and then you can have a solar "kite".

[@AaronAlso]

Now tie 6 or 8 of them together end to end and make your weather balloon. You could do some really cool things with this if it could carry a small LoRa device.

[@MARKE911]

Definitely enjoy your videos. Thank you for all your time spent.

[@Sam-ey1nn]

Now that you can make long dancing balloons you’re ready to open a used car lot!

[@TheFrangalista]

I have used baking parchment paper as a protective layer between the iron and the plastic when making sheets from plastic grocery bags. It does let the heat through to get the plastic hot enough to fuse but it's difficult to get into the tearing that you described.

[@ramennight]

That looks like a blast, and easy enough I could pull it off.

[@msmith2961]

Reminds me of when a colleague filled a waste bag with helium and put aluminium tape strips on before launching it. He thought it was funny to annoy the local ATC. He was only laughing until the boss got the phone call from the airport saying 'you realise we can track where it came from, right..??'.😂

[@hfyaer]

No. I don't realize. How did they do to track it back? Is the name of the company on the waste bag? Do they have satelites pointed on you?

[@msmith2961]

Same way as they track any aircraft coming and going to an airport 🤷 (It's called radar)

[@RandyCampbell-fk3pf]

Chip bag sealers work great for seaming plastic. Cost around $5.

[@danielemur]

Fun project! I’ll have to give this a try with my nieces!

[@aldabro243]

There is this thing called an impulse sealer which is used to seal plastic bags. I have an FS-400 and out of curiosity I quickly tried it out with painters plastic and it worked basically the same as with thicker plastics. I used setting 3. I don't know the material of my painters plastic, but it is 0.01mm thin. When using the impulse sealer, keep in mind to stay pressed down for a few seconds, so that the material has time to cool down. The seam will probably be a little bit weaker than your version, but you save on glue weight.

[@aldabro243]

And one more thing in regards to the impulse sealer and long seals. You can use aluminium foil to define the length of the line very exactly. Put some on both sides of the heat strip and you have some wiggle room for the plastic that should not be sealed in this pass. The aluminium diverts the heat well enough. Be careful to not short out any parts of the heat strip if there are holes in your teflon strip.