In a previous project I found a free tv and turned it into a giant solar scorcher. This
shoots out a deadly beam of sunlight, that’s hot enough to abuse food, melt metal and burn
things you probably shouldn’t.
Today seemed like a good day to play with my Solar Scorcher. I positioned my frame and
found the focal point, then added some concrete tiles as a base for my projects. Ok, I've
got power, and I'll test it out with this piece of wood and when the light makes contact
I've got instant fire. The sunlight at this spot is around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, enough
to melt this spot of concrete into a glowing orange liquid. I'm curious to see what I can
do with all this heat so I've filled a glass bottle with water and I'll punch a hole in
the cap. It's incredible to see that the instant I focus my lens on the bottle, it starts smoking.
Just a few moments later this water is so hot it's boiling, and I'm a little nervous
the bottle might blow. Yep, there it goes. The glass pieces are melting and that's cool,
but now I want to try this on some food. I'll get some hot dogs, and when they hit the beam
they really do get hot. This might be a little well done for my taste, and I'm still hungry
so let's try an egg. The egg is actually working very well. It's so reflective it doesn't burn
as fast, and even my wife is interested. A little salt and pepper and it's tempting to
try a bite. Ok, so I wasn't actually expecting to eat this, but it looks safe enough, and
even my kids are anxious to try. Surprisingly, it's pretty good. Alright, let's see what
else this will do. I'll try burning a penny, and, wow, it melted. How about a stack of
pennies? Yep, they're nothing but liquid metal now, and I'm thinking that slag in the mixture
must be what's left of the copper coating. It's only taking about 4 seconds to melt these,
and melting metal is really great, but now I want to see something burst. I wonder what
would happen to this egg? It's spewing some kind of debris and smoking like crazy. I hear
some little pops and it's even forming some interesting growths. huh, Look at that. But
no explosion. How about if I put a pop top on this bottle of water and let the pressure
build up? Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. Let's do that again. The lid is back on, and
pressure is building. Awesome! Alright, the sun is setting and I've re-adjusted my A-frame.
I'm just wondering if this would ignite gasoline. It does. Hopefully it goes without saying
that this is very dangerous and you shouldn't try this at home. Well, I'm convinced there's
an insane amount of power behind these lenses. If you'd like to see where I got this one,
take a look at my video on how I hacked it out of an old TV. This one boiled water in
less than a minute, welded a nickel to concrete, and instantly torched any piece of wood in
it's way. Well that was fun, but I'm still hungry so I'll put everything away and go
get some real home cooking. That's it for now. If you liked this project, perhaps you’ll
like some of my others. Check them out at thekingofrandom.com