New years 2016 rained out

[malk315]

Hey all-

I had a great small new years show set to go but the rain got the better of us.
At midnight it was still raining lightly and we had the show covered with a tarp.
I wanted to try and make it work but man the rain really got the better of us I'm afraid to say.

I did learn some things -- I thought the talons would be a bit protective of rain since they have a housing covering where the filament lights the fuse, but nope. We should have taped them over with magic tape and even duct tape over that or something (to the side of cakes) to protect fuse and fuse entry point to the cake. Tried to hand light those that didn't fire but still had 3 or 4 cakes not go.

On the racks I thought the cannon and quick fuse would not be affected too much by rain which seemed to be the case, but what I learned was the visco going to the shells seems not waterproof at all. We had 4 racks of 20 DR-11 tubes and most of them didn't fire. I think one technique I would do if trying to fire in light rain would be to cover the tubes with foil (I've done that to prevent stuff from cross firing early) that way when we remove the tarp and the racks haven't fired yet they are only exposed to weather once the first shot goes and blows the foil off.

Also in hindsight I should have waited to do my show this evening as there is zero wind and no rain whatsoever. Could have just had whoever was around to come see it and enjoy it. Oh well. At least we were safe and didn't get crazy trying to force things to fire in the rain etc. I'm soaking all of the shells that are partially wet in water for a few days before trashing them -- anything else I should do to make sure the trash folks don't get an unwanted surprise? I was thinking of cutting them open after soaking so there is no way they could explode ever.

Here's the setup video we did -- I have no good video of the show that did go off because we were trying to avoid the rain and such.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ja1F_KVqPQ

Not a great new years show, but no mishaps and we were safe. Learned a bunch and going to put all of that back into the next show!

Happy New Year!

[malk315]

I hear the crows -- the ravens -- in the background on my video. That was the bad omen that made my show go so poorly!!!! haha.
Cheers Guys.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Sorry to hear about your show getting rained out. Unfortunately, I know how you feel. My 4th of July show 2 years ago was a disaster because of rain.

For what it's worth, I picked up a trick from our pyro club this past summer. We wrapped every cake in a plastic bag after we fused them, and fired them off right through the bags. All the bags burned up during the firing and there was no mess to clean up. At least not from the bags.

We had the cakes taped together and staked down after they were wrapped, but I'm sure you could figure out a way to continue using boards and maybe use a staple gun to cover the cakes/boards with plastic garbage bags after you get everything wired.

Just a thought.

[PYRODAN]

Man that sucks. I was fighting the rain setting up last 4th. Luckily we got the tarps on and off, on and off and set up. The weather broke close to shoot time and wound up with a pretty good show.

[displayfireworks1]

Thanks for posting the videos and summary. That setup could be called backyard fireworks USA. It is like a well balanced show. You do neat work. You must have added extra wire to those consumer igniters to make them reach that one module. Maybe consider the Firewire initiators instead of the Talons next display. You right about the artillery shell fuses, they do not like rain. Thanks for the shout out. The wind and rain was bad this year for some of us.

[PyroManiacs]

I agree, it was pretty windy in Erie. All product went with no problems though.

[esgrillo]

Sorry to hear about your show. Yes you are correct about the talons. I always tape over the ignitor. I probably go a little overboard. You can see my set up in my 4th of July video.