Satellite Dish + Mirrors = Light-Concentrating FUN!

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish01.shtml

Oh man. I got my hands on a satellite dish, and soon I'll have a free source of 13,000 watts of power!

Longtime readers of Cockeyed.com will probably remember that I've tried this before. Inspired by the island episode of Rough Science, I attempted to build a solar-concentrating parabola out of mirrors.

Since finding a home with a backyard, I'd been trolling Craigslist for old school (C-Band) satellite dishes, which I thought would be the easiest path to constructing an effective solar concentrator. In January, I hit pay dirt with a 12 foot diameter satellite dish being given away by a couple from Rescue, CA...

The last few pages include some demo videos showing how Bond-villain successful* this death ray is... Exemplifying quote: "I cooked the chicken as our ancestors had, wrapped to a ten-foot piece of conduit, poised above a thousand-watt solar oven."


http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish_faqs.php



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*similar to this other mad scientist's gallery of destruction