don't use a welding helmet that has auto darkening sometimes it won't darken, same for looking at the sun.
I was wondering about melting down some of my mistakes from my failed blacksmiths attempt.
I don't believe you could get enough heat for working steel unless you had several large lenses and front surface mirrors to redirect the heat to one spot. Solar powered forge would be neat.. Sure would cut down on my propane usage.
you sometimes see large ones on ebay, most are the 8X10 size that I am playing with now. I would be interested in some of the bigger ones if you find a source.
Thanks Blitz.
I have one of these. They are fairly nice........... http://www.greenpowerscience.com/FRESNELSHOP/45INCHSPOT.html
I finally managed to get one the other day and decided to try it out just holding the 50in floppy screen (no frame yet) I was able to start grass fires in 30 seconds wood fires in 45 seconds and boil a cup of water in under 2 min and all this was between the clouds covering the sun.
I am thinking this might be a little interesting to cook with considering we are used to the heat coming up from the bottom and this way it will be from the top just my 2 cents I will have to try it and see what happens...
I am thinking this might be a little interesting to cook with considering we are used to the heat coming up from the bottom and this way it will be from the top just my 2 cents I will have to try it and see what happens...
I've thought about several ways to get the heat to the bottom of the cooking pot. One way is to use an aluminum plate with the pot sitting on it and focus the solar heat on one end of it. another way would be to use a rotisserie to turn the pot and keep hot spots from forming in one area. Lots of room to experiment here. Keep us posted if you do anything different.
I have thought about heating bricks with the solar panel and then moving the bricks out to cook on as long as you had lets say 2 sets of 3 bricks one to cook on and one to heat while the other is cooking but I don't know if the second set would heat up fast enough...... I may have to get some bacon and eggs out to try
I cooked with mine this morning, just a scrabbled egg but it was fast and easy. Let the sun heat the pan for like 2 minutes then crack an egg, it will be cooked from both sides and its as fast as the stove. My lens is for sale in the classifieds here if anyone is interested.
Similar threads
