Fog Machine

[Koali]

Not an art piece... Yet. For now, I'm looking for advice.

If I were to, say, make a replica of the Boiler Room outfit, then I'd want to have steam puffing out of the boiler.

To do that, I'd need a small, battery-powered smoke machine/fogger that uses plain ol' tap water.

Does such a thing even exist?

[BlackenedPies]

The cheapest option is a machine that uses fog juice. Fog juice is a mix of water and simple compounds like oil- it's safe but use ventilation. How small does it need to be? Is it in the background or part of the costume?

A bread loaf sized machine can cost $50 online. Smaller hand-sized ones are more expensive if you want quality. Or you can be creative and make your own with a candle and fog juice.
http://lifehacker.com/5854472/make-a-fog-machine-for-your-party-for-5

[Koali]

It's for the costume. In-game, it doesn't puff steam, but that's probably to save processing power for those 20 flares an ally just launched...

I guess I might have to bite the bullet and use fog fluid, but...

Maybe I can rig up something involving an ultrasonic transducer like you'd find in a terrarium fogger.

[BlackenedPies]

Fog fluid gives more volume and appearance which will stand out in a picture. Commercial ultrasonic transducers are a slow steady release that might not be concentrated or visible enough.

If money isn't an issue you can buy a good machine. If you want cheap I'd go with fog juice and a bottle. Atomize and release.

[Koali]

Rather than thick clouds of steam (which the word "puffing" implies, sorry about that), I'm actually looking for something like the Genteel Smoke effect from TF2, albeit a bit of a bigger stream.

[BlackenedPies]

Which can be achieved by changing the amount of juice and size of the vent. The benefit of fog juice is that it's more visible at any volume. It's easy to use and cheap.

[Koali]

Ah, excellent!

I'll go look up automated atomizers (like essential oil diffusers) and see if fog juice works in them.

[Kamoba]

I'm not sure how good a tinkerer you are, but I saw one guy at a steampunk convention with a top hat which had a puffing pipe, chatting to him for a bit, he'd made it himself and the inside of the pipe was part of a E-cigarette and a tiny battery powered fan, the fan blew pressure on one end of the E-cig inside the pipe and this in turn blew the "smoke" out of the butt of the e-cig, he said he used 2 e-cigs a day on the costume if he wanted it smoking all day.
Potential alternative, if you're able to tinker such yourself?

If not then what Pies suggested.

[Richard LeMoon]

Dry ice and water drips?

Or one of the crazy vape things instead of the e-cigs.

[BlackenedPies]

The problem with dry ice is that it's a cold vapor and doesn't act like steam. It's a great effect and cheap but it might not fit.

Activation is the distinguish factor between an ecig and vape. In general, ecigs are activated by air pressure (sucking/blowing) and vapes by a button/switch. The simplest option is a vape because you don't need to rig pressure and there's a large variety of options.

If you wanna go cheap you can heat up a piece of metal and put it in contact with fog juice. Voila steam!

[Koali]

Thing is, though it's for innocent purposes, I don't exactly wanna buy an ecig or a vape.

Might raise suspicion and foil my plans for world domination.

[ShadedExalt]

Ask someone of legal age to do it for you, and save it until the very last second so you can show them the boiler.

[BlackenedPies]

Make your own. You need 3 things: heat, container, fog juice. It'll be fun and others will appreciate your creativity.
Or you can stimulate the retail/ecommerce sector.

If you don't wanna buy an ecig or vape you can always use a water pipe.

[Koali]

I AIN'T PUTTING A BONG IN A !@#$% COSPLAY STEAM BOILER

But yes, I will consider making my own device.