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I want to take a music toy, particularly one from an electronic guitar, and do whatever I need to the circuit in such a way that it can still function, but will eventually ignite/burst into flames. This is a serious question and is for an art project I want to pursue.

I thought about taking out all of the resistors and soldering over where they were, but then the circuit may not function the same. My teacher suggested adding something that would ignite with a piezo-electric signal. Any other suggestions?

Smoke bombs!

I doubt you'll be able to get the effect you want using a safe (ie 9V) voltage. If you use a mains supply, you'll do it easily, but you'll kill yourself and take out the power for your entire state. Probably not worth it.

Despite this, I thoroughly approve of this project. Maybe consider making something out of crepe paper and REALLY overheating it someway. Or build it out of firelighters. Or soaking balsa wood in something flammable.... Try not to kill yourself though- have a good old fashioned heath and safety briefing before hand!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eADRdBCn2tU[/youtube]

AC power on a DC circuit will smoke, but it aint gunna work after.

I live in RI. I know people that were there when the station night club burned. my whole state is financially fucked now because the new fire code is forcing people out of business. I'm not sure what the context is with posting that video but I hope it is intended as a reminder to be safe and not some kind of forum joke. if you want to start a fire with a guitar pedal, just use a small gauge wire and draw that maximum current your power supply can put out. 500ma is enough to heat up a wire and burn off the insulation. it will stink and may start a fire. I think what you are trying to do is make some kind of art + noise for a period of time maybe 5 minutes are 10 minutes that ends in a display of fire and smoke. having a component designed to fail (like the smoking wire) is almost like cheating. having a high voltage power supply is not really safe. even if you had a power supply that would increase voltage at a steady rate, getting consistent failure at consistent times would be difficult or impossible. the only way this project would really excite me is if it was done with tubes that start to sound super bad ass right before they blow out. also, tubes look cool in the dark and they usually don't start fires or explode. you even get to play with high voltages safely (I hope).

Most electronics are designed to not catch on fire even in the most extreme conditions. An unimpressive puff of smoke or a glowing hot component is the best you'll get if you're lucky. However, sodium perchlorate and aluminum powder mixed properly can be ignited with a small fuse. Think model rocket ignition meets magicians flash powder.

the safest way I can think of.

find some old flashlight light bulbs. the little glass ones. crack the glass off but keep the filament intact. put a straw or something equally cylindrical around the filament to protect it. crush some match heads into powder and fill the straw. cap it with plastic wrap or something. have other stuff catch fire by catching the mini "canon" of flame that will erupt out of the straw when you apply 9v.

you'll probably want to test this off-performance a few times.

ps, there is no perfectly safe way to do what you're asking. another idea I had come up with was making a diode/capacitor ladder running on 9v, but since that would essentially be building a taser, thought better of it. even with the light bulb idea, wear safety glasses.

I essentially want to make a self contained Jimi Hendrix Monterey Pop Festival guitar by going completely opposite of what a circuit should properly do. Being that I'm hoping to do this as safely (for me) as possible, I guess this will be extremely difficult with using low voltages. This isn't something that I'm going to look into until March, but its never too late to start. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a tube amp, let alone make it also melt down, but that would be pretty awesome. I'm going to start small.

Big Ass Capacitors

sweet fucking Jesus, that's one of the most dreadful things i've ever seen. at LEAST have someone with a fire extinguisher close at hand.