Beginner Consumer Questions

[Polluted’s Pyro]

Hey all. Just a guy who does fireworks a few times a year around holidays for fun. With two incidents in the last few years I’ve been thinking more about safety.

One year, a cake shot went up, and then started curving and blew up inches from a neighbors house. Not sure what went wrong there, cake didn’t tip or anything. Another year a standalone mortar tube tipped over and went THROUGH a neighbors window. That wasn’t a good time..

Since that last incident with the window I’ve been, I believe rightfully so, a bit skittish to light stuff off. I now know to at least support the tubes with a cinder block or bricks..It definitely opened my eyes to just how important safety can be with this hobby. I got a remote firing system second hand, made sure it works and everything with some fuse attached to a talon. It’s just a no name import, good enough for my basic usage. As long as it gets me away from these fireworks being lit off. I’m just gonna manual fire them off one button at a time.

A. I’d like to ask, is hot-gluing or double sided taping cakes to a piece of plywood good enough to stop them from tipping and such?

B. I have two 10 shot racks made from HDPE. I’ve never used racks or fused together anything. Can I drop some canisters into the rack, fuse them together, then remove them from the tubes and transport them? I have more than 20 shells, and was wondering if it’s safe to fuse them together in place like this so I can just drop in another already fused together rack - full of canisters to set off.

C. What kind of tape do you guys use to fuse stuff together?

If you’ve made it this far, shout out to Kneppys, Fire Art, Bada boom, Boomville all out of PA. These stores and American Wholesale out of Hudson Ohio always have what I need.

[BMoore]

Distance is your friend. In the professional world we have the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard of 70 feet per inch of your largest shell. So if you are shooting consumer shells, you'd want a minimum of 122.5' clearance (1.75" x 70'). Even at that distance, things can go wrong but you've greatly diminished the chance of audience injury or property damage. To answer your questions:

A: Hot-Gluing does work. A lot of people create "cake boards" this way. I wouldn't trust double sided tape. Personally I put my cakes on the ground and hammer in a garden stake or two and few wraps of tape. Keep in mind though that while this stabilizes the cake, there is still a chance a cake could blow apart or have a defective shell insert like you described in your first incident. Again, Distance is key.

B: Yes, a lot of people fuse their racks and then remove the shell chains for transport. For consumer shells, I just leave them in the mortars and transport the loaded racks. Some people will tell you that is unsafe, but I've yet to hear a good argument as to why. Just don't add your igniter to any firework until arriving at the shoot site.

C: U-Haul tape (aka Dave's Magic Tape). Any tape will work but the U-Haul tape is easy to work with, sticks really well and seems to outperform other tapes in humid conditions.

Good luck with your show!

[displayfireworks1]

Years back the number one question on my YouTube video was "What is the tape" I was using in all my fusing videos. It is sold at Uhaul as box packing tape.
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7152
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Tape Warning
1. Do not call Dave’s Magic Tape anything other than Dave’s Magic Tape
2....Do not stare directly at Dave’s Magic Tape
3.... Most importantly, do not taunt Dave Magic Tape

[displayfireworks1]

Adding to my post. On the pyrotalk website. I have a page that demonstrates Fireworks Projects, fusing etc. Here is the hyperlink
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https://pyrotalk.com/fireworks-projects.php