106 replies to this topic

[fishy1]

That's not really a good reason to use incredibly small lengths of it...

OH, and it's though, not tho : P

i would never use small amounts of fuse, which is what prices like that incourage you to do.

i've use touchpaper and/or black match, or if it was something new or very energetic, i might even use quckmatch.

[Frozentech]

To be perfectly honest I would rather pay ?6 for 5m of fuse than have only a single hand remaining on my body. It is worth the investment. Besides, 5m is quite a lot of fuse, that lasts me at least a month or two usually.

This is another area where I was almost sickened when I saw the fuse supplies that the pro's have access to. I was helping a pro shooter make up cake boards of 12 1000 gram cakes per board and he hands me cutter and says "grab me about 30 foot of match out of that box". Jeez... he had boxes and boxes of quickmatch, he treats it like dental floss or something. For me, quickmatch was always a major project, making blackmatch, rolling paper tube, etc...

I have to agree with Sizzle... we've got to stop skimping on fuse ! This is one area where the restrictions by various agencies definitely do *not* promote any improvement in safety. Heck, even the dreaded ground salute (M80 or whatever ) isn't nearly as dangerous with a sufficient length of good visco fuse, is it ?

[Haydz]

i only operate my ball mill outside, that's one thing i really am paranoid about, i mean paul only got burn (still bad), but if a ball mill goes up lead balls get shot everywhere, which is even worse.

If you have access to passfire then the "lead balls being shot everywhere" is false, kyle does an experiment and shows they dont travel far AT all. I still wouldn't want to be near it if it goes off though

Edited by Haydz, 24 December 2005 - 06:50 AM.

[paul]

Even without lead balls or anything projectile-like, even 50g of well milled blackpowder can cause serious damage to people and equipment.

And most of the members have bigger mills that can handle at least 100g BP at a time. Some can do 500g...

By the way: My hand recovered nearly 99%. The spots where the vesicle was is still red but the normaly skin is there, again.

[seymour]

Mine can do 1000g. The PVC shards from that... ouch! I am glad to see your hand is nicely repairing, those BP flames are hot, I got a nice finger burn from a spolette a few days ago. Nice to see you here Hayden.

Edited by seymour, 24 December 2005 - 09:19 AM.

[Pretty green flames]

Good to hear you're doing fine, must be a nice christmas knowing your hand is almost healed.

About the ball mill thing, i completely agree with seymor, PVC shrapnel is the thing you should be worrying about, PVC does not show up on X-ray and this makes it dificult to remove especially if its deep in your body.

[Pedros the third]

You have defiantly made me think twice about how I look at pyros, thanks From now on the gardening gloves are coming out!

[littlejohny]

I was not in the hospital with it. simply because here in germany you will get into serious trouble if they get to know what you really did.

Are people really that stiff!

[alany]

PVC does not show up on X-ray and this makes it dificult to remove especially if its deep in your body.

That's such a myth, I wish people would stop propagating it.

[Frozentech]

That's such a myth, I wish people would stop propagating it.

It just occured to me that Brian Redmond, ( of recent fame on Passfire for beating 9 felony counts in Oregon ) is a radiography technician, does X-rays for a living. I will ask him if he has ever tried to view PVC on standard X-rays. Maybe he can take a piece in and do a test shot or something. I would like to put the myth to rest, one way or the other.

[Pretty green flames]

That's such a myth, I wish people would stop propagating it.

Sorry to be spreading false information but i read this on this forum.
But still, a nice way to scare the kids .

[alany]

It just occured to me that Brian Redmond, ( of recent fame on Passfire for beating 9 felony counts in Oregon ) is a radiography technician, does X-rays for a living. I will ask him if he has ever tried to view PVC on standard X-rays. Maybe he can take a piece in and do a test shot or something. I would like to put the myth to rest, one way or the other.

Yeah, stick a piece of pipe through a piece of pork or something...

I am pretty confident all the fillers in common PVC water pipe would make it fairly radiopaque. Soft plasticised PVC flex tubing would probably be quite radiolucent, but the difference in radiopacity to the surrounding tissue should be visible if there is sufficient contrast.

I'd imagine a CT would resolve even objects of very near radiopacity because it would more easily visalise the disruption to the surrounding tissue, shrapnel doesn't just magically teleport into your body, there will be a path of damage and things pushed around where it stopped. An MRI would definately have no problems seeing the difference between artifical polymers and human tissue.

[Frozentech]

Yeah, stick a piece of pipe through a piece of pork or something...

I am pretty confident all the fillers in common PVC water pipe would make it fairly radiopaque. Soft plasticised PVC flex tubing would probably be quite radiolucent, but the difference in radiopacity to the surrounding tissue should be visible if there is sufficient contrast.

I'd imagine a CT would resolve even objects of very near radiopacity because it would more easily visalise the disruption to the surrounding tissue, shrapnel doesn't just magically teleport into your body, there will be a path of damage and things pushed around where it stopped. An MRI would definately have no problems seeing the difference between artifical polymers and human tissue.

Well, I got a reply back from Brian Redmond. He has actually performed tests of x-raying PVC , and it *IS* clearly visible.

[Damp Squib]

Getting the shrapnel out isnt the surgeons biggest concern anyways,stopping the bleeding and repairing the wound are,I'v heard many surgeons say unless the shrapnel clearly exposes itself and can be easily removed without causing any more damage it will be left in there,the body will grow a protective grissle around the shrapnel to stop it causing any more damge or poisoning you in the case of lead ect.

At least with pvc you wont have any trouble at airports metal detectors

Edited by Damp Squib, 12 February 2006 - 10:29 PM.

[Yugen-biki]

Safety is important in this hoby, and when I browsed the WWW I found some interesting reading about this subject.

http://www.pyrokits.com/documents.htm

Download the .pdf and expand your knowlidge. And don't forget to save in on your hard drive, it won't forget but people some times does.

Edited by Yugen-biki, 24 February 2006 - 10:45 PM.