Shell Kit Tubes Ideas

[randomrobot]

I've got several tubes left over from all the kits I've bought over the years. I took the advice from one controversial youtuber on what to do with them and beat the bases off and make a milk crate rack out of some. Others I've put base and all into milk crates and used expanding foam to make 9 shot racks.

Is there a preferred, recommended method to reusing these tubes year after year? I've been making/buying hdpe and will continue to do so but thoughts on the fiberglass ones that come with the kits?

[PG2159]

I build 10 10 shot rack HDPE racks this year. After the 4th I think I had some 16 fiberglass tubes. The problem I found with them is when you beat them off with a hammer, there ends up being residual glue, the plug may not be smooth on the bottom either. I figured the amount of work to grind, smooth and clean up those 14 fiberglass tubes just wasn’t worth it for me. That, and it would completely interfere with my OCD.

[Jay_]

If you have a router/router table with a flush trim bit...I like to just flush trim the bases off of the tubes. Gives them a little extra support with the particle board from the base still attached. No harm in knocking off the bases though, as long as you have them well supported with a board underneath the tube they will fire safely for a long time.

I have a ton of poor man racks. This is the monstrosity that I made this year. I made mounts to attach it to a dolly as it ended up weighing around 100lbs. Was all made with scrap lumber and repurposed tubes from shell kits. Cost for me was less than $5 as the only thing I bought that went in it was screws and brad nails.

6374

[PyroFL]

If you have a router/router table with a flush trim bit...I like to just flush trim the bases off of the tubes. Gives them a little extra support with the particle board from the base still attached. No harm in knocking off the bases though, as long as you have them well supported with a board underneath the tube they will fire safely for a long time.

I have a ton of poor man racks. This is the monstrosity that I made this year. I made mounts to attach it to a dolly as it ended up weighing around 100lbs. Was all made with scrap lumber and repurposed tubes from shell kits. Cost for me was less than $5 as the only thing I bought that went in it was screws and brad nails.

6374

Amazing setup! I see you got the sequencers.

Wish I had more time to do wood work like yours, with travelling all the time its almost impossible

I love the idea you can use step firing to save on cues at $6.65 per cue. My plan next year was to use 2-3 per rack like the ones from Big Time Pyro I built myself (have 6 50 count) for my mines and comets. Seeing your setup has given me some ideas.

[randomrobot]

Great, something else I'm going to have to obsess about. Sequencers? Step firing? So much to learn and only 8448 hours left to learn it.

[Jay_]

Amazing setup! I see you got the sequencers.

Wish I had more time to do wood work like yours, with travelling all the time its almost impossible

I love the idea you can use step firing to save on cues at $6.65 per cue. My plan next year was to use 2-3 per rack like the ones from Big Time Pyro I built myself (have 6 50 count) for my mines and comets. Seeing your setup has given me some ideas.

Ha! you gave me the idea on sequencers so I could get ideas on how to implement them.

Thank you, I really had no idea on how to mount them so that is what I came up with. They work pretty slick if you talk to them the right way.

The only thing to really watch out for is enough trigger voltage. That is what caused several cues to not trigger like they they were scripted to fire in my show.

Another little detail that I found in testing is that they like about a .1 or .2 prefire (scripted in) to be on time as there it takes a little longer to get the signal all the way through them to get the fire out of them.

It took me several tests to figure out how to make them do what I want, and I still have a few things that I want to learn about them. But yes, as far as value....it cant be beat.

[PyroFL]

Great, something else I'm going to have to obsess about. Sequencers? Step firing? So much to learn and only 8448 hours left to learn it.

With Cobra new v6.0 you can step fire upto 200 times, with the sequencer you can get 13 cues via of step firing saving you from having to purchase modules

Sequencer $6.65 per cue

Cobra $13.89 to $49.99 per cue

[PyroFL]

Ha! you gave me the idea on sequencers so I could get ideas on how to implement them.

Thank you, I really had no idea on how to mount them so that is what I came up with. They work pretty slick if you talk to them the right way.

The only thing to really watch out for is enough trigger voltage. That is what caused several cues to not trigger like they they were scripted to fire in my show.

Another little detail that I found in testing is that they like about a .1 or .2 prefire (scripted in) to be on time as there it takes a little longer to get the signal all the way through them to get the fire out of them.

It took me several tests to figure out how to make them do what I want, and I still have a few things that I want to learn about them. But yes, as far as value....it cant be beat.

Low voltage?

Could you give more details in your setup?

Slats?

AWG size?

Lengths of cable from Module to sequencers?

Did you use MGJ or something different

Did you use fresh batteries from the start of the show?

Did you check the voltage out of the sequencers?

I know a lot of questions ... Haven't seen that problem with ours is why am asking

[Jay_]

I had a bad charger, and somehow I managed to plug module 3 and module 6 both into it. So with that being said, my batteries were pretty dead showing 12.1 and 12.4 volts on the meter. The fully charged Lipo battery that I tested was at 15.9 volts. That's why I had several instances in song 3 where the first cue would fire, but none after it would fire. It had enough juice to trigger the first shot, but didn't have the juice to trigger with the short recovery time.

The trigger wires were wired directly into the onboard cues on either module with 22g single strand copper wire. They were all MJG igniters on this one. The output voltage on the sequencer showed 15.8v..was pretty hard to get a good reading on it with my multimeter. Since I still don't fully understand the address process, I used 4 cues on 2 different modules to trigger the 48 total cues on the sequencers. I didn't daisy chain because cue 13 was triggering every time a cue went off since I had everything on the same address.

The sequencers performed as they were supposed to. Operator error on my part is what caused my mishap. I do like that they require the higher voltage to trigger. Id rather have something not go off then have 12 cues go off in my face if I rake my hand across the terminals by accident.

[Schooter4]

I had a bad charger, and somehow I managed to plug module 3 and module 6 both into it. So with that being said, my batteries were pretty dead showing 12.1 and 12.4 volts on the meter. The fully charged Lipo battery that I tested was at 15.9 volts. That's why I had several instances in song 3 where the first cue would fire, but none after it would fire. It had enough juice to trigger the first shot, but didn't have the juice to trigger with the short recovery time.

The trigger wires were wired directly into the onboard cues on either module with 22g single strand copper wire. They were all MJG igniters on this one. The output voltage on the sequencer showed 15.8v..was pretty hard to get a good reading on it with my multimeter. Since I still don't fully understand the address process, I used 4 cues on 2 different modules to trigger the 48 total cues on the sequencers. I didn't daisy chain because cue 13 was triggering every time a cue went off since I had everything on the same address.

The sequencers performed as they were supposed to. Operator error on my part is what caused my mishap. I do like that they require the higher voltage to trigger. Id rather have something not go off then have 12 cues go off in my face if I rake my hand across the terminals by accident.


Where do you get the sequencers?