Fusing Fountains

[FireworkNewbie]

I had a quick question regarding the possibility of fusing fountains. My wife loves fountains and I thought I could do a mini show where I light fountains, one after another. Call me lazy, but I'd rather light once and sit back and watch the show as well. I have a COBRA, but don't like the idea of using that many ignitors for a fountain fireworks show (I would if need be).

My plan is to just use one long visco fuse and run that along to each fountain at different intervals. The problem is the sparks from the fountains would more than likely ignite other sections of the visco run and the show would be over in a minute or so. I have thought to insulate the fuse with aluminum foil but was wondering if anyone has done this or would know of a proper execution?

[MtnViewPyro]

The aluminum foil tape will work just fine. I use it a lot for a 18 shot fan rack and haven’t had any issue. I also used it last year when I only had 12 channels to work with. I had to do a lot of time fusing and just used the foil tape on the boards to cover the fuses. Worked like a charm.

The second option is to just get a cheap firing system and use that for the fountains and then your cobra for the rest of the show.

[FireworkNewbie]

Now, I've read that by wrapping fuse causes it to burn at a quicker rate... does that apply to your standard 2mm/3mm visco fuse? If so, how much faster does it burn? I guess I could do tests, but if you might know that would save me some work...

[Mattp]

Ok #1.. YOU HAVE A COBRA??? Lol.. guess your not really a "newbie".. personally i dont think the sparks from a fountain will ignite the fuse.. theyre not really made to ignite from the side.. but rather on the end with the powder exposed.. but definitely cant hurt to protect it..and personally i havent found that foil tape makes it burn faster..

[joed2323]

You could always take a foot or two of fuse that you planned on using, do a test same length out of foil and in the foil with a stop watch and see how different in time your burn times will be?

[FireworkNewbie]

Lol Mattp... My steps each year are quite large; this year is the addition of cobra. Wish we could shoot every day, I'd gain experience quite quickly that way. Thank you for your insight in regards to your experience with foil. Maybe I was reading about quickmatch or quick fuse igniting from any point due to it's nature.

I may do tests, after all these are fountains, so I'm not too stressed on how perfect the transition timing is... I'm more worried about everything going up at once.


I appreciate all of your comments... such great support and such a healthy community here... thank you!

[Kenny East]

You wouldn't change the burn rate on the fuse that much with foil tape as long as it isn't pressed right onto the chain fuse.. Most visco fuse would be safe from smaller sparks but any that isn't coated well, or is fast can take fire very easily.

[MontanaMike]

A couple years ago we had sparks from a fountain ignite a cake that was supposed to come up just before our finale. Ever since then we've kept our fountains well away from each other and from the cakes.

[FireworkNewbie]

Man, hard lesson learned... Yeah, some of those 500g fountain cakes put out a ton of sparks!

[displayfireworks1]

I keep hoping to see some large fountains in the Articles of Pyrotechnics category with electric match ports attached. Back to your issue. I think its time for you to consider purchasing another Cobra module. Trying to fuse and space those fountains is going to mess up the timing on your display. I'm curious, how many Cobra modules do you currently own?

[FireworkNewbie]

This is my first year with cobra. I only have one module at this time, I plan on adding 1 each year. At this point, with my current limitations, I am planning on doing separate shows... one (exclusive) show for my family with fountains, and the other with the bigger stuff for a larger group.

[PyroMike79]

Question for you Dave. Are there 1.3 fountains? I don't have experience in that area and cannot recall seeing any in your videos. I would be interested in what the performance is like as compared to consumer.