Imagine a video about how to make a reconstituted boiled egg, about 8 inches long. The guy making it is a bit nervous and clumsy, and the end result isn't great. But 1.7 million people have watched it. Then imagine he works on it some more and does another video a year later. The result is much better and he's endearingly ecstatic at the end. And 4.4 million folks have watched it. Now he's done another one.
I was that guy, and 3 years later I'm back with Long Egg Mark 3. The technique is more or less the same as the previous version, except I've 3D printed a few parts and the egg can be cooked on its side in a large frying pan. It still isn't perfect - I printed the parts in PLA, which starts to melt above 85°C. Now that I know the process works, I can send the files off to a print bureau to be printed in nylon. Also, I improvised seals with BluTack, but proper O-rings would be much better. And I had to lubricate the inside of the tube with spray oil which is a bit tricky.
You may be wondering why I waited 3 years to work on this again. Let me say that making Long Eggs is not my life's work, it's a bit of fun. I have no plans to commercialise it. But I will tell you that after the last video became popular, an American gentleman based in China contacted me with a proposal that we work together to develop a commercial version. He spent quite some time and money working up to prototype stage but in the end he decided it wasn't viable.
I'm quite pleased with the method I have now - it's still a bit fiddly but then cooking sometimes is.
Here's the first video, The Long Eggsperiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0TMVq3dQu4
And the second one, The Definitive Long Egg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonNy7s2Nhk
And somebody made a song about The Long Egg! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqrJK8DDyvQ
I hope you enjoy all this and have an eggcellent day.