Fusing

[pyroelf]

Anyone else set up like I did this year? How do you all set up without a firing system?http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=4341&stc=1

[IndianaPH]

I did something very similar:

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=4344&stc=1


One thing I did do, that I picked up from a YouTube video, was to fuse in a Great Grizzly "A Million Lightning Bugs" with the last cake on each board. That was a nice reminder that I needed to get ready to light the next board when I heard the whistling.

My goal is to have a Cobra by next year!!

[displayfireworks1]

Those fuses look longer than your arm in some places. Time to advance to the next level

[IndianaPH]

Those fuses look longer than your arm in some places. Time to advance to the next level

It felt like that a couple of times, but overall, they weren?t that bad Dave. There is both Visco and quick fuse covered with tape. I would mark the Visco for the duration of the cake, then used quick fuse from my time mark to the cake. It went a lot better than trying to get each cake in position to hook directly to the Visco. Overall, each board was about 4 minutes, so there was about 12? of Visco plus the quick fuse on each board.

But, I agree, time to move to the next level. If I can only wait until Black Friday!!

[pyroelf]

This is defiantly something I will do next year is put a definite marker so I dont have any gaps. Dave I used over 120ft of fuse in my show and am looking to cut that down next year.

[joeld1212]

I also do it like you guys but don't cover or tape down the fuse. Have never had a spark caused mis/pre fire in the 25 years I've been doing this.

For this years show I had 28 boards and 15 mortar and candle racks. Eleven separate "firings" with from one to five boards or racks going up at
the same time and then a finale comprised of four boards and ten racks.

This is a town show done on the softball field. They play ball until about a half hour before dark. We have that half hour to set up and place the
fireworks. With this situation there's no way to use a firing system [stringing wires, etc.] even if I wanted to.

This years budget was $4500, all consumer stuff and 3 cases of M-25 Air bursts.

[rfgonzo]

I remember those day, it was actually quite fun. Your next move will be in one side of the cake and out the other for better timing, till humidity and moisture slow things down. Then it's button pushing time.

[PyroGyro]

I'm all too familiar with this except I actually chained all the different boards together too, lighting only one fuse to start the show. I've actually had very good success with this but it's very tedious and time consuming, especially when you are trying to put on a show that has pace to it and is not just a bunch of sky puke. Trying to measure the number of inches per cue using different fuse types... factoring in the time it takes to burn a cakes Visco(5 seconds), all the taping....one mistake and your chain dies or your timing for the show can be thrown off. I had about 60 cues/runs of fuse this year. NO MORE!

I just bought an E firing system and have already designed my next show and setup a cue sheet for it. I can't wait to sit back and press buttons and have instant fire cues with poked cakes. The only manual fusing I'll be doing is for sky puke with a bunch of cakes or mortars quick fused together, but even those finale items will be hit with ignitors.

[expensive_disaster]

I had 8 or so boards this year. Instead of trying to time out cakes with slow visco, i poked all my cakes in the first shot and then again in one of the last shots. I then connected each cake with quick fuse, so as one cake was ending, the next cake would automatically light. My issues came when the power from the last shot in cake A would mess up the fuse running into the first shot of cake B. The combined power of that last shot combined with the power when the quick fuse was burning pulled the fuse out of the poked hole a couple times during my show.

I used short quick fuse lengths and taped the fuse over the poked holes after inserting the fuse. I need another way this year. I know the dangers of using a hot glue gun, but if i used hot glue to keep the fuse in the poked hole, could that effect the fuse burning?

[PyroGyro]

I had 8 or so boards this year. Instead of trying to time out cakes with slow visco, i poked all my cakes in the first shot and then again in one of the last shots. I then connected each cake with quick fuse, so as one cake was ending, the next cake would automatically light. My issues came when the power from the last shot in cake A would mess up the fuse running into the first shot of cake B. The combined power of that last shot combined with the power when the quick fuse was burning pulled the fuse out of the poked hole a couple times during my show.

I used short quick fuse lengths and taped the fuse over the poked holes after inserting the fuse. I need another way this year. I know the dangers of using a hot glue gun, but if i used hot glue to keep the fuse in the poked hole, could that effect the fuse burning?

Why not buy an E firing system? You'd only have to poke the cakes once and don't have to worry about chained fusing at all. If you insist on doing what you're still doing though, maybe doubling up the quick fuse for about 6" when coming out of the last tube would help increase the chances of lighting/keeping the quick fuse lit. .

[expensive_disaster]

Why not buy an E firing system? You'd only have to poke the cakes once and don't have to worry about chained fusing at all. If you insist on doing what you're still doing though, maybe doubling up the quick fuse for about 6" when coming out of the last tube would help increase the chances of lighting/keeping the quick fuse lit. .

I actually just bought one. But i don't have enough cues for each cake. I do have enough cues for each board, so my plan for next year was to fire the first cake of each board electronically, and the rest on the board would be daisy chained together. I will continue to do this until i find the money to get a bigger better firing system. My issue isn't that the fuse doesn't light, its that the fuse gets ripped out of the poked hole on the next cake, so the fuse burns through but isn't connected to the next lift charge anymore.

[RalphieJ]

Old school. I bet you got the idea of using foil to protect the fuse from reverse-engineering some 500 gram fountains, huh? And my humble, less informed, old-fart opinion: Less failures with fuse than wire......nice job there, bud...........

[PyroGyro]

I actually just bought one. But i don't have enough cues for each cake. I do have enough cues for each board, so my plan for next year was to fire the first cake of each board electronically, and the rest on the board would be daisy chained together. I will continue to do this until i find the money to get a bigger better firing system. My issue isn't that the fuse doesn't light, its that the fuse gets ripped out of the poked hole on the next cake, so the fuse burns through but isn't connected to the next lift charge anymore.

I think I see now. That's weird and doesn't make sense to me though. Seems you're telling us that the lift charge of the last tube is so powerful that it's pulling/ripping the quick fuse going to the first tube of the next cake away from the first tube in the next cake? I don't even see how that's possible. Anyway, if that's the case tape the fuse to the next cake down to the plywood.

[pfm1700]

I think everyone that e-fires now has at one point and time had similar boards. I know I did. I started with firing single cakes, then thought I was in heaven when I got my first roll of fuse. Then discovered different timed fuse and tried my hardest to get the right time of fuse for the duration of that particular cake. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. Then poking into the last shot of the cake and connecting fuse to the next cake from there, I thought was next level ish!!!
Now that I've been bitten by the Cobra for the last 4 year's, I don't miss fusing up boards.

[pyroelf]

I think everyone that e-fires now has at one point and time had similar boards. I know I did. I started with firing single cakes, then thought I was in heaven when I got my first roll of fuse. Then discovered different timed fuse and tried my hardest to get the right time of fuse for the duration of that particular cake. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. Then poking into the last shot of the cake and connecting fuse to the next cake from there, I thought was next level ish!!!
Now that I've been bitten by the Cobra for the last 4 year's, I don't miss fusing up boards.
I have been thinking about a firing system in the near future. I fear I will miss fusing at first tho

[upNdown]

Those fuses look longer than your arm in some places. Time to advance to the next level

Hey Dave, I've read where you've said this before. Is "longer than your arm" just because you have to draw the line somewhere, or is there something more behind that adage of yours?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I have been thinking about a firing system in the near future. I fear I will miss fusing at first tho

Trust me/us on this one. The first time you sit down with a remote in your hand and you hit 1 button to fire your entire show, you won't give fusing a second thought!!

Instead of worrying about types and lengths of fuses, you'll shift to duration and types effects you can mix together to create REAL shows!! Dare I say, pyro-musicals even!

[PyroBubba]

Just FYI, I don't remove the paper from the top of the cakes. Why? Because afterward, it's easier to tell which cakes did or didn't fire. Yeah, there's more mess to clean up, but from a safety perspective, the paper actually has value.