Ingenious Hellraiser Fires Up Homebrew Flamethrowers

Former contractor turned full-time tinkerer Bob Hofmann has built everything from an adult-size tricycle to a Skilsaw-powered dragster. But his real passion is fire. So a few years ago he came up with a lightweight, easy-to-use flamethrower he calls the Bonefire. Looking a little like an antique musket, the polished-metal torch has an elegantly simple design: Propane vapor collects in a half-gallon accumulator tank at the end of a 3-foot-long tube. A bicycle brake caliper and cable control a steam-whistle valve, which unleashes the vapor in high-volume bursts that ignite as they pass an electric barbecue starter switch. Depending on your cable technique—strum, stroke, smack—you can produce a peep of flame, smoke rings, or a 20-foot torrent of hell. Hofmann sells his handmade Bonefires for $850 a pop, but he already has his eye on a bigger inferno, a machine he's dubbed the Fountain of Flame. It'll use 32 GPS-controlled robots to re-create Las Vegas' Bellagio water show in colored flames. We're getting hot just thinking about it.