DIY smoke tester - how to get decent smoke?

[Davie]

Evening,

I suspect I've got an air leak / vacuum leak on the car so I watched YouTube and using a discarded Patak's Tikka masala jar, an soldering iron and a couple of lengths of 10mm copper pipe... fashioned smoke test kit of some sorts. Soldering iron vertically down into the jar, one pipe in to add air under light pressure and a second for the smoke to come out through. Quite impressed with my handiwork.

However...

I've tried rags soaked in olive oil in the jar. Tried a bit dollop of coconut oil. Tried a light mineral oil I use for the bikes and nothing gives off anything more than a tiny wisp of smoke... even with the rags wrapped round the soldering iron and burning away, there's barely a hint of smoke so all I've done is piss around for 2hrs in the garage and emerged smelling suspicious and looking slippery and my wife has made her own mind up as to what I've been doing.

So, I've crafted the right set up... but what can I use and how best to use it to create smoke as so far, nothing does! Fed up now, this was meant to be a simple task so any words of wisdom appreciated and yes, I've Googled the hell out of it and can't see what I'm doing wrong?

[crowfield]

Smoke tablets from a good DIY store - used to test airflow in chimneys. I think Screwfix sell them

[Bill]

Egg boxes or big roll tubes work well in a bee smoker. Light them then blow out the flames so they're smouldering.

[Alexanderfitu]

Baby oil is what we use in our smoke machine at the garage.

Don't use vape juice (pg vg) as it codenses back to a liquid inside the pipes (found that out the hard way)

[Davie]

crowfield said:

Smoke tablets from a good DIY store - used to test airflow in chimneys. I think Screwfix sell them

Just happened across that idea on the interweb and seems a good shout so will add those to my shopping list today which also includes baby oil and a cotton sock...

Cheers