Mortar Rack and Firing System Help

[Gazerro]

Mortar Racks
I am planning on building (1) 36 shot rack and (2) 6 shot racks using 12" DR11 tubes for consumer mortars. I was planning on building the racks with 1 1/2" spacers, but my concern is the length of the 36 shot rack. Are spacers better to use? Does it make the rack safer? Because I do want the safest rack I am able to build. My 2 ideas for the 36 rack is either with 3 rows of 12 \l/ or 4 rows of 9 \ll/, the length of the 3 row design with spacers will be 52 1/2", and for the 4 rows will be 38 1/2". Which design do you think would be the best to build? And will using spacers make for a safer rack? Here is the design plans I will be using http://home.earthlink.net/~spatialoffice/10Mortar.html

Firing System
I was debating of purchasing the P12 12-cue firing system from pyroboom, I wanted to know if anyone has used the system and what they think of it. Or, if anyone knows of a better firing system, I am trying to stay $100 or less.

This is my first post to a forum, and this will be my first year doing fireworks without hand lighting everything. Any and all opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,
Jason

[Bazerk]

Welcome to the forums! I would not use spacers on a 36 shot fan rack. Its wont make a difference in my opinion. If you were building for larger shells, then yes, I would use spacers. For consumer shells, no. If you search these forums you will find a few low budget firing systems that Dave has done reviews on that can get you started in the remote end of firing shows. I personally would save my money and try to get into a cobra system. You can buy an inexpensive one for now, but certainly start looking towards the cobra system. Once you have it, you will never look back.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

I would suggest you buy 2 more tubes for a total tube count of 50 and make 5 racks each with 10 tubes. 10 tubes gives you a nice size to transport & eliminates scabbing together a bunch of 5 or 6 shot racks.
Make them all the same size & you will have a lot of flexibility in how you set them up \\I//, \I/, IIIII, III \/, etc. Just change the way the end boards are screwed to the ends & you can change configuration anytime.
As far as spacers--ten people will tell you ten different things. If you do not use spacers you can get all your side board cuts at 24" so you won't waste anything from a 4'x8' sheet. I have several hundred 1.75" guns--both HDPE & fiberglass & don't have spacers in any of them.
ALL my 1.3 racks from 2 1/2" up DO have spacers.
Whatever you decide, keep it uniform so all your racks can be assembled in "pods" as your rack inventory grows. [Believe me, it will grow!] Just have fun with it.
Also, I don't see any advantage to putting the plywood "end cap" on the racks like the drawing shows---just more weight to haul around.
Good luck with your building project.

[PapaBearPyro]

Sent you a pm
PBP

[Npntransistor]

This is the set of plans I used. The measurements are not correct length wise. I built 5 of these in 10 shot configuration and all are odd ball on one end. I should have dry fit it first.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Gazerro - Maybe I'm just a low tech pyro guy, but... I bought plastic milk crates from Home Depot for (I believe) $9.95 each, and filled each one with 25 HDPE tubes. They fit snug and don't need any spacers. If I want to make a fan display, I prop two crates up on a two foot length of 4x4 between the crates and zip tie the crates to one another so there's no chance they'll tip over. Simple, cheap, and effective. And since the milk crates are made of plastic and not wood, they'll last forever and they stack away neatly after the show. My $0.02.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Gazerro - Maybe I'm just a low tech pyro guy, but... I bought plastic milk crates from Home Depot for (I believe) $9.95 each, and filled each one with 25 HDPE tubes. They fit snug and don't need any spacers. If I want to make a fan display, I prop two crates up on a two foot length of 4x4 between the crates and zip tie the crates to one another so there's no chance they'll tip over. Simple, cheap, and effective. And since the milk crates are made of plastic and not wood, they'll last forever and they stack away neatly after the show. My $0.02.
There is a safety issue with using "Milk Crate Racks"....if you have a blow out in one of the tubes it will [or may] blow the entire crate apart sending tubes [possibly with lit shells if it was fast fused] all over the place.
Wood is cheap---body parts are not......Just Saying!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

There is a safety issue with using "Milk Crate Racks"....if you have a blow out in one of the tubes it will [or may] blow the entire crate apart sending tubes [possibly with lit shells if it was fast fused] all over the place.
Wood is cheap---body parts are not......Just Saying!

Not to quibble but when it comes to a blowout, the standard wood rack isn't going to fair any better; and quite possibly worse; than the plastic milk crate. My buddy uses the same plastic milk crates I use and he had a tube explode a few years ago. The only thing he lost was that one HDPE tube. That crate and the other tubes absorbed the shock nicely. Not sure the thin wood would have fared as well. Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to find out, and I'd rather not. I only know what I've seen/experienced first hand.

[pyroboom]

Not to quibble but when it comes to a blowout, the standard wood rack isn't going to fair any better; and quite possibly worse; than the plastic milk crate. My buddy uses the same plastic milk crates I use and he had a tube explode a few years ago. The only thing he lost was that one HDPE tube. That crate and the other tubes absorbed the shock nicely. Not sure the thin wood would have fared as well. Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to find out, and I'd rather not. I only know what I've seen/experienced first hand.

Interesting.

[djsmurf]

I divide my 10 shot racks in half with a spacer, 5 shots on each side. I have never had a failure in hdpe pipe. Might not be a bad idea to test the racks (cause a flowerpot or upside down load) and see what happens. Rick_In_Tampa what caused the failure in your buddies rack?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I divide my 10 shot racks in half with a spacer, 5 shots on each side. I have never had a failure in hdpe pipe. Might not be a bad idea to test the racks (cause a flowerpot or upside down load) and see what happens. Rick_In_Tampa what caused the failure in your buddies rack?

He had his father help him load the tubes and he thinks maybe his Dad put a shell in upside down. He has 1000 tubes in his show, so it's possible one shell got put in upside down and not discovered while he was fusing them. The explosion put a hole about the size of a fifty cent piece in the side of the tube at the base. The adjacent tubes weren't affected at all, and the crate retained it's integrity.