25 replies to this topic

[pjalchemist]

It's my step sons 6th birthday this friday. I've treated him to a nice big stash of fireworks, cakes, fountinas, rockets, roman candles etc. 200+ rockets!!! It's all CAT 3 1.3G or 1.4G mostly 1.3G : -)

Sam (my step son) is brining all his class (36) and then we've a load of friends and family coming so all in all about 60 of us i think.

I've used no more nails to hold a lot of it down on some 18mm chip bord.

There is a mix of quick fuse (pink), quick match (red), and std 2mm visco linking it all up!

Every fuse has ether 2 or 3 cable ties to attach each fuse.

The cardbord tubes are from the local carpet shop and are 4'' dia, 8mm thick, i've taped them nice and heavy and think at the bottom and then tin foil tops.

Do anyone have any last min advice, changes or tips on how i can weather proff it as it looks too be a bit wet, possible showers.

I though of using some clingfilm, then cooking foil over the the fuse so it's kept dry. Not sure if i need to do anything else or extra.

Anyway here are the photos......

[pjalchemist]

[pjalchemist]

[pjalchemist]

[Dagabu]

Have you tested the pink fuse lighting the green fuse yet? In all the times I have tried an open tie method like that the green visco has failed to light every time but a piece of aluminum tape covering both fuses seems to do the trick in keeping the fire close to the fuse.

[pjalchemist]

Have you tested the pink fuse lighting the green fuse yet? In all the times I have tried an open tie method like that the green visco has failed to light every time but a piece of aluminum tape covering both fuses seems to do the trick in keeping the fire close to the fuse.

It has worked everytime

[Mortartube]

I must admit I'm not keen on the rockets in the cardboard tubes. There is the possibility of one being dragged out of the tube, whilst a previous one is leaving it. If the fuse lights on the dragged out one it could end up on the ground and go in a random direction when the motor lights. They will fire at staggered intervals with green visco fuses in them, they need raw match into the motors for a proper flight effect where they all leave together,

I would also suggest foil over the plastic nose cones of the rockets as I had a cone of flight rockets explode when the exhaust of one, melted through the nose cone of another and caused a mass explosion.

I would also suggest a sheet of plywood on its side between the glued down cakes and the audience, just in case one does fall over. Don't forget that you have probably only glued onto a sheet of cardboard that covers the bottom of the cake.

Sorry to sound negative but best to eliminate all chances of an accident. On a positive note, I think the kids will love it.

[Potassium chlorate]

You're a good dad, but be careful when firing those rockets, like he said.

My dad bought me my first bangers when I was 4. That was back in the mid 70's.

[Creepin_pyro]

looks like a nice stash!

I must say I'm not a fan of cake boards - gluing onto the base like that isn't much better than placing them on a flat surface...

I would stake these individually but mortartube's suggestion would also provide some protection.

Good luck!

[pjalchemist]

Thanks guys, all the rockets are quick fuse, they will all light in 0.5 sec as there is 1ft of fuse. The pink fuse will light them all and then it's a case of the visco burn time, but as most of the rocket light it'll catch all the fuses in there.

Have done a lot of testing and all cleared.

I put weight on the cakes to apply presure when glueing down hoping it would help. I'll see if i can add some sides to the bords asap.

Thanks guys

[Candle]

What a lucky lad and his 36 friends, why didn't I know kids like that when I was a wee lad.

Where do you get the pink and green fuse? I seem to be rather dumb in these matters.

Thanks[

quote name='pjalchemist' timestamp='1290101113' post='70651']













[/quote]

[The Legendary Graham]

Dont want to sound like an old fart but with that amount of kids around if anything goes wrong you are severly screwed for modifying those fuses they are all cat 4 now.

[pjalchemist]

It all went off pretty much without a hitch.

3 cakes didn't go, bord 2 the 12 shot fan type. I looked at the photos just and i'd somehow not fused them on the to the rest!

2 bits of quick match didn't light the rest of the visco, think it was due to the setting up and visco hitting the deck getting wet. We had a mapp gas toruch and took the risk to return after a set time to light it on again.

1 Rocket on the rack went pop

Other than that everything worked perfectly and it went on for 40 mins, loads of noise. Wind was blowing to the right, so it was a really clear display, full moon, no clouds!!!

We were 50m away in the end so mega safe and it was perfect, loud, colorfull, all in the air.

All 250 rockets at the end went, nice big bang then wosh.

The last 2 shells at the very end (4'' shells on rockets) went miles up, kinda shocked at there height, they were not loud as such when going off but the effect, how the filled the sky up was amazing! Huge.

It was heard over 4 miles away, were on top of a hill.

In the end we had 100 people there.

A lot of videos were taking so ive just to wait for them now.

Have been asked to do a display for someone birthday already after last night. I'll change everything making it much more safer, a box to hold cakes full locked in, with sides and spacers and will look at using Epic for some bigger 1.3G stuff

The pink visco (quick fuse) worked amazing. STD visco (2mm) was alright but when setting up it hit the deck and got a little damp sadly. The red fuse (quick match) im not so sure on, it worked at the end and on one of the leaders but then seamed to fail earlyer on, i'm gonna check my batch but might of been the setup with lack of cable ties.

Anyway it was fun, amazing, huge turn out, big countdwon and cheer at the end, my son was well happy, the missies loves me, i've been asked to do a display for someone.

Plus i got to play.

Will post vids soon as i can get hold of them

[Deano 1]

Well done matie, it all adds to the addiction. Just be very carefull doing displays for someone else without liability insurance. Its fine when everything goes off alright, but as soon as something goes wrong you're SHITE, and most of the time at no fault of yours. But anyway congrats on your first succesful dispay.

[Arthur Brown]

Initially I wondered whether a stash as big as that would frighten young children, but with good planning and enough space that lot made a great display and lots of people very happy, well done congratulations!

You may have set the bar rather high for the friends and neighbours to follow, Be realistic about cost if you do shows for others, and yes please look at insurance not everywhere has a big safe site.