Hi Everybody,
I want to buy one of these devices but I have heard that the chemical will rot your clothes.

Is there any way to stop that from happening?

Can you put a piece of material next to the
smoke exit, so the chemical will hit that instead of your costume?

Thanks for all your help,
James

I just received mine. There is a warning in there about this. It says you can deactivate this with vegetable oil. I do not know if that means clothes to or not.

I heard that if you use it indoors, the smoke is very dangerous, it will cause cancer.

Does anyone know this for certain?

I haven't seen one of these units but my guess is that the smoke is produced from the same type of liquid (an oil actually) used to produce smoke from model railroad engines. You can buy it in any hobby store that stocks model railroad supplies. The same stuff is used in "Smoke in Glass" effects. I've been told (though I have not tried it) that common baby oil or mineral oil will do the same thing, heated up it will produce a white smoke like substance.

I expect in large quantities it would ruin clothing and other surfaces since it is an oily substance, but is it cancer causing?

If gone unused the unit itself will melt away, that is how corrosive it is. The tube melts away after awhile because of the safty pin. I use velcro for easy adjustment and to combat this problem. Otherwise I would wrap the tip with felt and replace this often. Make sure the felt is just barely out of visibility and you should be fine.

If you start to see effects on your jacket, vegy oil will help a little, directly apply. If there is no metal near the tip, it should last.

As far as the actual smoke, and cancer... as long as the room is well ventilated you should be fine... you'd have to breath a lot of it to cause cancer. Do NOT do it table hopping as the smoke will enter the lungs of the spectators and at best it smells TERRIBLE!

They warn about cancer to cover their ***** in case some idiot decided to stick his mouth on the end of the unit. I seriously doubt that it would be any huge health risk to perform it twice in a large room during a formal close up show.

Personally, I don't think this item is quite as good as the hype would suggest, but I have gotten improved reactions with it, so I would say give it a try, if you are ready for a high maintence F/X device.

Greetings...

I own US2000 and what I get from the instructions and other users is that a chemical reaction occurs in this thing, and the smoke is acidic... one guy says he fastened a metal plate to the end of the tube under his sleeve... it looks really cool if done at the right moment... one would only use this once or twice during a show... don't know about table hopping/street but I do know someone who walks around with it and loves it... (his favorite was floating spinning coin in a puff of smoke, combining Fearson hookup on coin with US2000)...

Joe