Angled racks/cakes for fan effect

[Crab107]

So when you guys build racks, or get fan cakes..etc..what are the most common angles to get the fan effect?

Thinking of using 3 milk crates, 1 set for center with 2 angled on each side ..if that makes sense.

Planning a small labor day show and just brainstorming right now. Got an order in with wfboom.

Gonna be using:

Commander in cheif can shell
Blue Rush cakes
Whistling Blaster artillary shells...love that effect..thump..peeeeeewwwwwww...pow!!! Lmao.

Ill get a couple more cakes from phantom here in Ga closer to my shoot day.

Mineshell Mayhem
Premiere palm pyro

Majority of my show will be centered around shells with cakes for finale'

[Rick_In_Tampa]

So just off the top of my head I'm thinking the main issue would be lateral clearance from any obstacles. You don't want to be shooting mortars into anyone's bedroom windows, right? You also don't want to angle the crates too far or they might tip over. Yet another consideration would be tubes bouncing out of the angled crates since they (possibly) won't be on a solid foundation.

So here's what I would do if you wanted to use milk crates.

Lay all three crates out end to end and place a 2' section of 2" x 4" under the inside edge of the outer crates to elevate them. Zip tie or wire all three crates together at the top so they don't tip over.

Something like this:
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=1238&stc=1

The graphic I threw together isn't to scale, but you get the idea.

To prevent the tubes from bouncing out of the outer crates I would place a 1/4" piece of plywood at the inside bottom of each crate under the tubes. You might even try that spray foam that expands and seals cracks to kind of "hold everything together" in those outer crates.

If all else fails, Pyroboom has 36 shot fan racks that include the tubes for (if memory serves) $129.

[aldude345]

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13552620_10154507974297262_1034604869_n.jpg?oh=c8c fe8d65de378584fdf31e5bffe47c0&oe=5788D0C2

This is how we did ours and it turned it mega wicked! Perfect Peacock effect and shells went out very wide and covered every angle in between

[Crab107]

So just off the top of my head I'm thinking the main issue would be lateral clearance from any obstacles. You don't want to be shooting mortars into anyone's bedroom windows, right? You also don't want to angle the crates too far or they might tip over. Yet another consideration would be tubes bouncing out of the angled crates since they (possibly) won't be on a solid foundation.

So here's what I would do if you wanted to use milk crates.

Lay all three crates out end to end and place a 2' section of 2" x 4" under the inside edge of the outer crates to elevate them. Zip tie or wire all three crates together at the top so they don't tip over.

Something like this:
1238

The graphic I threw together isn't to scale, but you get the idea.

To prevent the tubes from bouncing out of the outer crates I would place a 1/4" piece of plywood at the inside bottom of each crate under the tubes. You might even try that spray foam that expands and seals cracks to kind of "hold everything together" in those outer crates.

If all else fails, Pyroboom has 36 shot fan racks that include the tubes for (if memory serves) $129.

Yeah i was already thinking of having the racks on a solid built platform and putting wood in the bottom of all my crates as well. I like the spray foam idea. Ive been thinking of ways to secure the tubes in the racks. Kinterke gave me the idea when looking at his pics on the pyro musical. He had 3 cakes on the back of his plywood sitting on a 3 angle platform. I was thinking of trying it with the milkcrate racks.

Ill come with somthing and post pics for critique and safety ideas..

As always, thanks Tampa Rick. Truly appreciate ya

[Crab107]

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13552620_10154507974297262_1034604869_n.jpg?oh=c8c fe8d65de378584fdf31e5bffe47c0&oe=5788D0C2

This is how we did ours and it turned it mega wicked! Perfect Peacock effect and shells went out very wide and covered every angle in between

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! Waaaaaay out of my league brother!!! Please tell me youve got a video of that thing spraying fire...that is amazing!!! Please..if you have a video, id love to see it.

[aldude345]

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! Waaaaaay out of my league brother!!! Please tell me youve got a video of that thing spraying fire...that is amazing!!! Please..if you have a video, id love to see it.

Certainly do dude will upload tomm. Was 119 shot total. Rigged first 50 on medium fuse and then went into fast fuze on back 70 and back was off in prolly 10 seconds haha. We used Pyro king 5 inch pounders and primos. New shells that pack mega punch and dethrone excals amd then some

[chriskrc]

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13552620_10154507974297262_1034604869_n.jpg?oh=c8c fe8d65de378584fdf31e5bffe47c0&oe=5788D0C2

This is how we did ours and it turned it mega wicked! Perfect Peacock effect and shells went out very wide and covered every angle in between

Awesome rack brother built very nicely.

Crab107 just keep in mind when you do angle the racks not to put too much of an angle, you don't want too low of breaks from the shells.

[chriskrc]

At Crab107, I just thought of this after my last post. If you are able to I would shoot 1 shell in the daylight and see how it flies out of the tube. The reason I say this is last year my buddy bought a case of G-force shells and I had a case of big pro shells. Now before it was dark we shot a couple shells and noticed the pro shells had an end over end spin in there flight which going straight up seem to give it a little more height than the G-force which had a wobble type flight.
Depending on the angle the end over end spin may give it a little drop before the break which may be lower than intended. The wobble flight may hold it's height better on the angle.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13552620_10154507974297262_1034604869_n.jpg?oh=c8c fe8d65de378584fdf31e5bffe47c0&oe=5788D0C2

This is how we did ours and it turned it mega wicked! Perfect Peacock effect and shells went out very wide and covered every angle in between

That is super cool! Great use of the consumer tubes. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it looks like you glued or screwed them down to 2" x 4"'s that you already attached to some kind of curved base/platform, yes? Any details on the construction of the platform?

[Northern Sky]

May I suggest making some poor-man 10 or 12 shot racks and fanning those? I've had mixed luck with Milk-crate racks.

The least of it was that timing is difficult to keep any consistency. There is no way all three clusters will finish near the same time but maybe that isn't the effect you are after.

[Crab107]

Good idea on the daytime shots. I will be using cans and shells so i will need to see how they "interact". As far as how they will be firing..i was thinking right to left sequence..just tying them together with visco fuse ( green, pink and yellow) and run right to left then back across left to right..30 shells total. I wont be using the racks full..just kind of a fire and reload a few times with slow or fast timing with a small finale'. It more of a practice show..or as Johnny Cash said.."Hell its all practice"..lol

[aldude345]

https://youtu.be/jgTXgwhMtFY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgTXgwhMtFY&feature=youtu.be
Here she is. Rack is going when u see the big angles start

[Crab107]

Duuuuuuuuudddddeeeee...holy hell!!!!! THATS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT!!!! I love that last few seconds. Freakin massive and fast!!! Thats is you should call it RACKZILLA...if you havent named it yet..lol

[Crab107]

I mean ...lmao...that thing even looks like a dinasour..like some jacked up stegasaurus with spines..lol.

[displayfireworks1]

I like that homemade rack.
.
https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13552620_10154507974297262_1034604869_n.jpg?oh=c8c fe8d65de378584fdf31e5bffe47c0&oe=5788D0C2

[aldude345]

http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af302/aldude345/Mobile%20Uploads/20160703_160928_zpstcyyhlkl.jpg
http://atewmtgucghvdg9idwnrzxquy29t.g00.photobucket.com/g00/TU9SRVBIRVVTMCRodHRwOi8vaTEwMTgucGhvdG9idWNrZXQuY2 9tL2FsYnVtcy9hZjMwMi9hbGR1ZGUzNDUvTW9iaWxlJTIwVXBs b2Fkcy8yMDE2MDcwM18xNjA5MjhfenBzdGN5eWhsa2wuanBn/$/$/$/$/$

As u can see the back 70 are rigged on sticky match fast which burns like 20 feet a second. The front medium wick i felt was too slow because i think the zip ties interfered. We reshot the whole rack the next night at our lake show and just used a think masking tape layer and it went much faster on the front end. yeah the Primo and 5 inch pounders pack more punch then exals for sure..thats what was in the rack. They are brand new this year. I go all wholesale and was able to get 4 packs of 24 shots for 172 bucks for each kind. so around 350 bucks for 192 power canisters. Thanks dave it was my dads genious idea..well MY idea but needed his crafty hands haha

[theundecidedt]

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/13552620_10154507974297262_1034604869_n.jpg?oh=c8c fe8d65de378584fdf31e5bffe47c0&oe=5788D0C2

This is how we did ours and it turned it mega wicked! Perfect Peacock effect and shells went out very wide and covered every angle in between

Do you have a more recent link to this photo? link seems to be down.