Fusing cakes

[N3OQO]

Hello Folks,

I'm looking for some new ideas for this year, and I saw a video months ago and it might have been Dave's, I'm not sure and now I can't find it again. It was a technique that involved pushing fast fuse into the last shot in a cake and then into the first one of the next starting that one. Any help or pointers with this would be appreciated, and if anyone knows of the video I am talking about all the better!!!

Thanks in advance!

[displayfireworks1]

I believe this is the video from 2010. There was a man on a military base in the United Kingdom that sent me an email explaining he did not have access to Visco , however he did have Quick Match. He wanted to do a display for the pilots at the base. He used this technique. I have experimented with this technique in a few of my videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSIZj_eKk4Q
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/VSIZj_eKk4Q/hqdefault.jpg

[N3OQO]

Thanks very much Dave!!

[Playingwithfire85]

I do not have access to quick match just yet. Do you think white paper fast fuse would take fire like that?

[PyroJoeNEPA]

White paper fast fuse takes fire very easily, but it is very susceptible to dampness! You can make a sleeve-or tube- from a brown paper bag, kraft paper, or just some regular copier paper folded over & glued on the outside edge.. put 2-3 lengths of the paper fuse inside--almost as good as having quick match. Another option is take 2-3 strands of the paper fuse & wrap it in aluminum foil. Good luck!

[N3OQO]

Dave does mention visco above the video. I am expecting some soon that is 1 sec per foot, and it seems to me if you follow the video putting it into one of the next to the last tubes it would work just fine. I am anxious to try this. Personally I wouldn't trust paper fuse, my thinking is that it might get blown out or to pieces.

[Northern Sky]

The easiest way for you to accomplish what you are trying to do is to remove the paper wrapper toward the end of the cake and wrap then tape your fast fuse to the fuse in the cake.

[displayfireworks1]

I did the same thing with consumer fast fuse. I have it on video somewhere. You need more than one piece of fuse and to be sure it works.

[Playingwithfire85]

I have always used a different method to connect several cakes but I am going to work on trying this to see how it comes out. When I fuse cakes for efire with consumer igniters i usually slit open the cake at the fuse and add quick fuse into the first tube. To connect several cakes I trace the fuse through the cake and simply add quick fuse from the last tube to the beginning tube of the next cake.

[N3OQO]

Thanks very much for the advice folks! Now I am thinking of taking some fast visco and wrapping it in Dave's favorite tape, maybe 2-3 pieces and using that for a jumper. Thoughts? Has anyone tried such a thing?

[Pyro Nation]

or use some kraft paper with the grey fast fuse in it like pyrodirect has.. Tried it out..works well

here is the link to the item I am referring to http://www.pyrodirect.com/Item/089-5003

[Jman]

Anytime you use a fuse that is un-coated, you should enclose it in duct tape to prevent moisture from penetrating it. I've used fast yellow visco a lot thru the years and as long as its dry its perfect for daisy chaining racks and cakes. However, let it get wet and a 1 second burn time per foot can turn into a 30 second burn time...and that will definitely ruffle your feathers.

[N3OQO]

OK, upon some further experimentation with some quick visco (1sec per ft), my idea for fusing cakes chain style won't work. Though I did find out that encasing the fast visco in tape makes a neat little firecraker....LOL! A question to throw out there, to refine the answers I got here. If I take the fast visco and push it down into say the next to the last or so tube in one cake and then the first in the next one, will that interfere at all with at all with the shell?

[Playingwithfire85]

as long as you dont make the hole to insert the new fuse too wide then it wont be a problem. I always fuse that way and have only once had a problem because the hole i made was too big which made for a low break. It was probably due to a loss in pressure.

[N3OQO]

That's my issue, loss of lift, and the best place to put the fuse into the cake.

[papageorgio]

I tried this method for my NYE show using the consumer fast fuse. Only a couple of the cakes transferred. On the ones that didn't it looked like the fuse was blown out of the tube before it ignited. I'm not sure if this was a case of I didn't add enough extra fire to the tube like the video or if the disc on the top of the shot blew the fuse out. Any thoughts?

[ras1986]

I second the grey fuse and leader pipe. It's awesome!!!! It has a wax paper on the inside that keeps the fuse drier. Only issue it is hard to push the fuse through sometimes. One trick I have is to take weed eater trimmer line and push it through first. It doesn't bend or get caught up. You could do one continuous piece of 100 foot no problem

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I did the same thing with consumer fast fuse. I have it on video somewhere. You need more than one piece of fuse and to be sure it works.

I've got some of the paper fuse that burns at 1/4 sec per foot. I plan on using it to fuse the 36 shot mortar rack for the finale.

Has anyone had any problems with this setup? I'm afraid it (the paper fuse) might burn too fast and not ignite the mortar(s).

I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have.