How early to fuse/match

[Greenville Pyro]

Just wondering: How early is too early to start fusing and poking cakes? My show has grown considerably for this year, and its really just me and a buddy setting it up. I want to make sure that the humidity doesn't get to the fuses for the shells... Any thoughts? It'll probably be about 20 hours of work total. Can I start this weekend or is it too early? Maybe I can hire the esgrillo army next year

[AxeElf]

I can't imagine that the ambient humidity would affect your fusing any more than it would affect the factory fusing already installed in the cakes.

[jdels]

I've been poking and matching for two weeks already. Started fusing racks tonight. A few years ago I had a complete rain out on the fourth. Stored till Labor Day with no problems.

[displayfireworks1]

You guys need to slow down. If you watched any of my professional display videos , I show up the day of the event and set up a professional display for that night. Even massive shows like a city July 4th barge and building display are set up within a week or less. You all got the pyro fever. You certainly can do your setup as far as racks , supplies, products , testing firing systems, choreography etc. Please do not start placing electric match into products this soon. If you feel compelled to match and/or fuse a product please consider where you are storing it for the next 30 days. Please slow down , I'm getting the pyro fever myself as July 4th approaches. Now add the pyro product demand and short supply , it makes out pyro fever hotter. Relax a bit and don't rush to place match in product.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Funny you should mention it Dave. I got a call this morning asking me if I wanted to help build 6 barges for the St Pete July 4th show. Plan is to start building on the 1st. Should be fun.

As for my own show.... Like jdels I started two weeks ago as well. Hope to finish up this weekend. I have an operation coming up so between the 14th and 21st I'll be out of commission. So I have to do what needs to be done in the time I have available to do it. Honestly, I agree with Dave and I'm not happy having cases of fused products sitting in my garage for weeks. But I have to do what I have to do. Plan is to keep everything shunted and wire into firing modules day of. Not optimal but, it is what it is.

[Greenville Pyro]

I'm glad I asked now. These are all the issues I've been struggling with. Definitely a time crunch feeling, pyro fever feeling, excitement, and fear of danger/failure all at the same time.

[BMoore]

I totally agree with Dave. Fusing/Matching (especially matching) in advance is a safety issue. If you really feel the need to poke cakes, take them outdoors, poke them, then cover the hole with tape. Don't insert the initiator until on the shoot site! I've found that fireworks preparation is like water in that it always seeks its highest level. For years I'd start setting up early morning and I'd still be at it up until 15-20 minutes before shoot time adjusting things, worrying if I was going to make it. One year I got creative and started working on it 2 weeks in advance. I tried to do as much as humanly possible before shoot day. Guess what? 15 minutes before the show I was still making adjustments, wondering if I was going to make it! lol. Honestly, that's one of the things I like about having my 54 with contingency storage. I don't even get to see a lot of my product until shoot day.

[mguerra]

I poke and match consumer product well ahead, I find it a relaxing diversion. I have never been able to get a Firewire match to ignite with friction nor impact. One thing I tried this year, as an experiment, on two Cobra modules only, was landing all the matches ahead. I landed the matches and bundled them in 3 groups of 6. It's either going to save time or be a birds nest mess! We'll drop the shells and then match them per usual. It remains to be seen if there will be any advantage to this.

[jamisonlm3]

You guys need to slow down. If you watched any of my professional display videos , I show up the day of the event and set up a professional display for that night. Even massive shows like a city July 4th barge and building display are set up within a week or less. You all got the pyro fever. You certainly can do your setup as far as racks , supplies, products , testing firing systems, choreography etc. Please do not start placing electric match into products this soon. If you feel compelled to match and/or fuse a product please consider where you are storing it for the next 30 days. Please slow down , I'm getting the pyro fever myself as July 4th approaches. Now add the pyro product demand and short supply , it makes out pyro fever hotter. Relax a bit and don't rush to place match in product.I understand where you're coming from. I actually agree witk you. At the same time, most guys doing their on show don't have the crew to be able to do that. They'll be doing most of the work themselves and might have a couple of friends or relatives to help out. Even then, the people helping might have very limited experience and will be there mostly for labor. It doesn't surprise me that some guys might start a month in advance. Especially if it's a bigger show.

[gecko2015]

This is also my largest show this year. I have 206 products. About half of it is regular consumer stuff and the other half is 1.4 pro product. It'll be about 100 comets/mines, 20 slices and the rest are regular consumer fireworks. It's just me with no help so I REALLY have to plan the best I can. Although, I might have a friend to help me run the wire on the day of.

I like to do everything in batches to reduce the time-crunch stress and to limit the danger of having product sitting ready to fire for too long in an enclosed space. I haven't started poking or matching yet, nor do I plan until about 2 weeks from now. I plan my steps like so:

1. Product received -> take inventory verify product
2. Store back in the box until around June 1st.
3. Cut all my wire I need and put them in boxes by length
4. June 1st, take everything out of box and label all product with channels, ques, etc.
5. Organize it in my garage in stacks based on the station it'll be on. (Left, Center, and Right)
6. Towards the end of the 18th, I'll lay everything out in my garage on my plywood boards, poke all cakes, tape the hole, and glue them down.
7. Sometime the following week, I'll take my initiators and attach them to my pre-cut wire and shunt it; then I'll tape that to the firework but I won't insert the match. Rather, it'll be taped down the side (or near the port) for easy insertion on the day of.
7. The day of the show, I'll drag my boards out of my garage and into the field. I'll have my brass awl with me and just poke through my taped hole and plug my initiators into my hole.
8. Then run the wires to my Cobra

I did this last year (minus the Cobra, I had an import system) and it worked out for me. I was in the same boat as you. I don't like the idea of prepping too much too early. Mainly because I don't like the idea of pre-wired, ready-to-fire fireworks sitting in my detached garage for a month.

As far as humidity goes. I wouldn't worry about that at all. I've had fuses sit on the edge of my garage door for a month before (getting slightly damp) and it didn't effect them. On the flip-side, prolonged exposure, like a roll of opened fuse I had siting in my garage for about a year did end up killing it.

[PyroKing31]

You guys need to slow down. If you watched any of my professional display videos , I show up the day of the event and set up a professional display for that night. Even massive shows like a city July 4th barge and building display are set up within a week or less. You all got the pyro fever. You certainly can do your setup as far as racks , supplies, products , testing firing systems, choreography etc. Please do not start placing electric match into products this soon. If you feel compelled to match and/or fuse a product please consider where you are storing it for the next 30 days. Please slow down , I'm getting the pyro fever myself as July 4th approaches. Now add the pyro product demand and short supply , it makes out pyro fever hotter. Relax a bit and don't rush to place match in product.

That's a great idea if you have crew. As the sole person doing all the design, fusing, board taping. gluing and poking. I started in May. The cakes and shells are poked. All the wires are shunted. Pretty simple stuff.

[mguerra]

I think a lot of us, when doing consumer shows, do it alone or with little help. We have to think and do as much as possible ahead. Even when you have help promised, it doesn't always work out! When I want to relax a little, I run up to the barn and start prepping stuff for shows that aren't even planned yet!

[Salutecake]

I agree with the no crew concept. Depending upon the show size you almost have to start early. Even when I have things poked it takes time to drag them to location, hook them up to the modules, test, it takes time, especially when you get no show people or people willing to help but don't have a clue.
I usually do have a core of people that show up and help, but still that takes time. I try to use pro stuff to avoid a lot of poking and I also shoot a lot of 1.3 stuff, but still it takes time.
Last part is that I usually have a lot of family and friend and just once it would be nice to have the time to really visit with them.

[Berserker23]

I do everything myself and I also do the cooking so I always poke my cakes early and glue them down on my boards and wire them to slats.