52 replies to this topic

[Rhodri]

Hi

The "5th" is on its way!

May I ask what devices / shows people are planning?

Personally, I have some mines and candles that I can't wait to 'pass fire' to.....

[Matt]

Not many people here celebrate the fifth, but it sounds like a decent excuse for me and my mates to have a party, Ive got a few 1 1/4 inch payload rockets sitting on my shelf. Mightswell make a whole bunch of em.

-Matt

Edited by Matt, 15 October 2003 - 11:02 AM.

[lord_dranack]

Loads of rockets, and hopefully a variant of my own on Clark's giant steel fountian...

[Rhodri]

Excellent stuff. Any out of the ordinary / experimental devices?

[Matt]

Hmmm, Ive got a 2 1/2 inch shell of "splitting comets" not crossettes, just tubes with 20mm comets in each end, spollettes in the sides with BP break in the middle. Should be interesting.

-Matt

[Rhodri]

Sounds good Matt - or at least it should do!

How much lift will you use for that puppy?

[Matt]

I was planning on using a rocket to take it up. However if I do manage to get a mortar for it then i'll have to play around with dummies till' I get the lift right. I would imagine about 15g of my homemade 2F would do the job.

-Matt

[Rhodri]

Nice!

[Matt]

would you care to dish out some details of your candles and mines?

-Matt

[Rhodri]

Mines: I have 4 x 7cm (id) 12cm (height) mines. Each with 12g's BP and about 15g of microstars.

Candles: 4 x 2cm (id) candles with 2cm Willow charcoal / Al comets with 5g BP lift each.

Nothing too spectacular but I'm looking forward to seeing the mines go!

Going to give these at least 15 metres distance.

I've bought (yes, I know.....but I have) some commercial cakes too.

These are from Millenium fireworks (UK no good to you I guess ) check out the multi shot (single items).....

LINK

[Matt]

Sounds like your gonna have a lot of fun! I might whizz up a few simple star cakes aswell, Ive been experimenting with a new fusing method which allows me to run black match through the bottom of each tube without the whole thing goin off in a second.

-Matt

[Rhodri]

Please tell me more about the fusing.....sounds very interesting!

[Richard H]

I'm firing a couple of shows for bonfire night, one is my own and another is for some friends. Spent around ?500 on cat3 items for the displays :-)

Most of the items are from Kimbolton fireworks, although got some stuff from Men Shun and Devco.

I might be tempted to make some firecrackers and gerbs too.

[Matt]

You just had to show us all up didnt you!
As for my fusing Rhodri, I get some double stranded black match and a bunch of tubes with holes going in one side and out the other. I put the first tube on one end of the length of fuse and smother the opening with the fuse in it with hot melt glue. This makes a fire-proof joint and my black match burns comfortably in hot melt so it provides a short delay ( bout' half a sec ) whilst the glue is still hot I get the next tube and slip it over the black match and push it up against the first tube, This method also doublesa up as a tube joining method. The hot melt holds all the tubes together. Now I glue up that fuse joint and slip the next tube on and so on so forth. Kinda' like making a necklace Hope this made some sence to you. Perhaps tonight i will put up the videos of the three cakes Ive made with this method.

-Matt

[RegimentalPyro]

You can find my firing sheet here (Excel spreadsheet with a macro to aid sorting the firing order. - No virii!)

The pyro has been sourced by a variety of friends, all using different suppliers - It's up to me to put it all together into some semblance of a display!

Kinda on the subject of fuse, I've been experimenting with electrical ignition and I've come up with a REALLY cheap way of doing it.

You get those twistex twisty things that are used to seal food bags, keep cables together etc. Most of them have a thin piece of metal wire running through the middle - and this is the bit we are interested in. so strip the plasticky bit off and chuck it away.

Now wrap it round whatever you need to ignite - I've been experimenting with small strips of quickmatch - and run 12v through it [car battery with bellwire and terminal block = ideal for this]. The wire glows red hot and melts and the pyro goes off a treat. How cool is that!