Aha, you thought this was going to be a link to that site where they built the solar death ray, didn't you. But I fooled you!

See, what I'm currently doing is building my own. I mean, how cool is it to be able to cook stuff just from the heat of the sun. But painstakingly angling and gluing hundreds of little mirrors seemed like quite a tedious task. So I chose a simpler route: take a satellite dish, strip the paint off, and polish to a mirror finish.

Two days into the project, and I'm wishing I just used mirrors.

After acquiring the satellite dish from someone's back yard in a nearby town, the first step was to get rid of the paint. No problem, should sand right off with a sanding wheel attached to a power drill. Well, let me tell you, whatever the hell that type of paint it, it's goddamned TOUGH. I finally got all the paint off tonight, and proceeded to the next level of sandpaper. Which, naturally, is taking even longer because I have to get rid of all the scratches from the first level.

Anyways it's not much to look at right now, but despite being only roughly sanded it already focusses the sunlight enough to very noticeably warm your hand up when you place it near the LNB antenna thingy.

"In progress" pics coming tomorrow, hopefully.

They're doing just that on Mythbusters right now... coincidence?

do you have plenty of different grains of sandpaper so you can keep going smaller to get a lovely sheen?

sounds cool though, in a hot type way.

Did you steal somebody's satellite dish?

[QUOTE=Mr. Stafford]do you have plenty of different grains of sandpaper so you can keep going smaller to get a lovely sheen?
[/QUOTE]

Yep, my dad has up to 600 grit, and then there's the polishing wheel thingy.



Naw, I asked them nicely for it and they gave it to me.

Tried coating it with a metallic paint?

2nd option: Thin AL foil. Not the cooking stuff but thin sheets that you can apply to dish.

3rd option: "How to make a mirror in 14 days"

Stop yer yappin' and post some pics!

Kyle, you should get a huge high voltage and high amp capacitor bank and build an electric mousetrap that will effectively turn the mouse into a smoking pile of ash

Now that would kick ***

Okay here it is so far:

Oh boy, you made a mirror to look at your ugly face with...

Bravo

You can roast me anyday with your solar death ray any day, baby.


I seriously want pics of cooking bacon on it just so I can show them to me new "Vegetarian" friend.

Needs more microwaves.

YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS

I smell a plot to take over the world.

I don't think one single mirror will work. I think thats the point of having a couple hundred small mirrors.

I'd be laughing if it wasn't capable of being made.

http://www.solardeathray.com/ (come on you knew there had to be one)




Note: look at the stuff they've used it on.

Think of how many bugs you could fry with that!

You didnt even read the post did you?

Yeah I did. I know he wants to build his own, but I thought he was kidding. I didn't think they actually existed. However now i'm going to buy a brand new solar death ray t-shrit!

[QUOTE=Commander 598]I don't think one single mirror will work. I think thats the point of having a couple hundred small mirrors.[/QUOTE]
The point of the small mirrors is that you can allign them so they all shine on the same spot, a dish will do the same thing at its focal point.

I have a partway built hundreds of small mirror type death ray in my garage. Its pretty warm. But hotgluing the little mirrors on right is TEDIOUS.

wouldn't a magnifying glass or fresnel lens do the same thing, albiet a lot more slowly?

You'd have to place them between the sun and your target .'/

You know, I have an old satellite dish back home. My parents switched from Dish Network to DirectTv, and they have the old dish in the shed. I should try this as well when I go home.

It looks like you got all the paint off, but if not go to a local AutoZone and buy a can of Aircraft Surface Remover. Its like $9 for a can and you basically rub it all over your paint, let it sit and bubble for 10 minutes, hose it off, and watch your paint float away in chunks. Super easy. Dont get it on your skin or any other plant or animal you dont want to kill.

What kind of metal is it? Figure that out then go to an auto parts store, or hardware store or something like that and get some polishing compound for that metal. Then sand with the polish with 600 grit, and keep going up till you get to 2000 grit. Then polish with a rag and you should have a finish that is damn near mirror. It will take hours, maybe days, so stick with it and be satisfied in the end. Do it by hand, drills or dremels may give you blemishes.

The problem is you wont end up with a solar death ray, it will be more like a solar death point.

Warning:

As I recall you need a ****load of mirrors to actually do something with it. Might as well just use a magnifying glass.

A true parabolic mirror will do the trick nicely. The problem is that it's not configurable. Actually I wonder if you could use those ferrofluids or something to make an adjustable one.

Hmm, if only there was a way to build a really powerful light that was focused on a single point. It would make the perfect death ray...

...oh wait.

kyle once you are done grinding the dish you should mount a magnifying glass at the focal point for EXTRA DESTRUCTIVE FOCUSING POWER.

LOL. That would be cool, but the guy who invented the "original" solar death ray, said that a magnifying glass really didn't do anythign when attached to the device. It might work, would be worth checking out.

Bummer, because that was going to be my advice, try to either focus it more or turn it into a beam.

Why didn't you just spray paint that bad boy with reflective paint? I think the gold paint works better then the silver paint...

Build a staff weapon, its easier.

Collimated Plasmic bolt, 400 kV capacitor, mini-nuclear reactor.

Easy stuff!

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

A magnifying glass in the focal point will just scatter the death rays into non-lethal directions.

UPDATE: The focal point is now hot enough that you can't hold your hand there for more than a couple of seconds. I'm about a quarter done sanding at the 120 grit level. It takes a long time to get rid of the scratches from the first layer of sanding.

Or just wrap copper wire around a metal staff, wrap plastic wrap around it and hook it up to the mains right ruthy?

No not really. A concave lens will scatter them, yes. Use a convex lens for EXTRA RAY OF DEATH.

actually, it was aluminium foil, wrapped around a florescant lamp, connected to the mains.

god i was a stupid kid. i was inches away from death.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

How are you going to store it anywhere?

I'll put one of those stickers on it that says "STORE AWAY FROM DIRECT SUNLIGHT".

I was thinking convex would scatter them.