View Full Version : Project Progress: Building Jay's 2018 show
Hi guys. I've been a part of several special interest forums over the years and one of the things that I enjoyed most about them was the "project progress" threads in which members would post their builds, and the steps they were taking to get from start to finish on a project.
This thread will be an account of my 2018 4th of July show from start to finish. As I complete steps in my process to put my show together I will post up with pictures, show progress, ask questions, and hopefully walk through what I hope is a successful show on the 4th of July this year. So with all of that being said, lets get started!
So I started looking at fireworks in January looking for direction on what I wanted to do this year. I'm doing a bigger show than I have ever done and I'm wanting to do it right. I watch vids for a couple of months and mess around....putting things in my cart....taking things out of my cart....Shopping around, looking for best deal in wholesale.
I'm a youtube fireworks nut (shout out to pimpdaddee28 and Dave). While watching videos, I keep seeing slice and comet videos pop up and I'm watching them wondering how I can get my hands on them. I have to have them in my show!
After doing some searching, I find that Dave offers the AP program and I know that its for me. I understand that having a Cobra firing system (or another participant in the program) will be a must so on 4/12 I order an 18r2 as well as a 18M. So now I have the ball rolling!
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3059&stc=1
Next, I go through the AP program and receive my certificate. Now its time to place an order.
I chose American Fireworks for my first order. I have to tell you that this is a great place to buy from and I could not be more pleased with my experience. John David is a class act and is very willing to work with you to earn your business.
So anyway, on May 8th this arrives!http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3060&stc=1
Now gotta get it put away, and start building racks
So now that i have some of my stuff, I'm gonna start building racks for this. I'm fortunate, because I get basically an unlimited supply of free lumber from my work so that sure takes some cost out of it for me.
First up, wanted to build a 4 shot 62mm rack. I guess I never mentioned that I'm doing a pyromusical....but I'm doing a pyromusical. :) These will be all variegated shells and will go up with a variegated slice. Should be a nice little effect!
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3061&stc=1
Now on to building some slice racks. I got some ideas from Dave's AP video on how to build them so I needed to build racks to hold 5,13, and 15 shot slices. Using a slice as a tool to get my distance between slats right, this is how they turned out. http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3062&stc=1
^^ the 5 shot slice rack^^
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3063&stc=1
Above is the 13/15 shot rack with a 62mm angle rack attached to it. Since they will be going up together, I figured it made sense to put them all together.
Now on to building an 8 shot 62mm rack as well as a mine rack. I have to build a couple more mine racks, and 5 more 8 shot racks, but this is what I have so far:3064
^^8 shot 62mm^^
3065
^^mine rack #1^^
Ive never been a huge fan of mines, so I wont have many in my show. Maybe they will grow on me this year :)
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3067&stc=1Ok so on 5/5 I ordered a few more things. Got 240pcs of MJG firewire, as well as a license for my cobra show creator software.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3066&stc=1
I was wanting to design a short 2 minute show that could be shot with 1 module (3 more modules on the way). So anyway, I threw together some cues using stuff that I had bought this year, as well as stuff left over from last year and put a little time into it. It didnt turn out very good...see link for thread below if you have not already read it. I was able to get some stuff up in the air although I didn't learn anything since it was a race against the water to get my stuff shot off.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/showthread.php?6631-Tales-from-an-epic-fail-of-a-pyromusical-test
May 22...had gall bladder surgery. Was down for the count for the better part of 3 days. Did very little moving around as I was extremely sore.
May 23...SO76 order shows up. This should be the last of my wholesale. I will pick up a few things here and there, but it will all be retail i imagine
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3068&stc=1
May 24th...Received my import firing system that I just ordered a week prior. I was not expecting to see it for several weeks, but was pleasantly surprised. I'm very excited about this firing system, and the sequencer effect that it has. If you haven't seen Mtnviewpyro's video where he fires off the 12 comets in sequence with his system, you should watch it. Its a completely awesome effect and I'm really looking forward to it. Yes I know that you can do that with a Cobra, but at roughly $20 a cue (including remote in cost) that's $240 worth of cues for that one effect. Its $40 worth of cues on the import system. I have to say I'm very pleased with the import so far, and if you are considering buying one...do it!
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3069&stc=1
Yesterday, started wiring up cakes. I have 22 of 85 done so far.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3070&stc=1
Gonna get some more cakes wired up and build some more racks this week/weekend. Its going to be hot, and I'm gonna have to hit it early if I don't want to burn up working on it.
Zippster
05-29-2018, 06:49 PM
Looking good brother! Jump right in and have a ball.
displayfireworks1
05-29-2018, 07:03 PM
Jay Thanks for participating in the pyrotalk Articles of Pyrotechnics Certificate program and most importantly putting the certificate into action with the Cobra and product from American Fireworks in Hudson Ohio.
Looking good brother! Jump right in and have a ball.
Thanks man! I'm gonna stay after it. Still have a bunch to do!
Jay Thanks for participating in the pyrotalk Articles of Pyrotechnics Certificate program and most importantly putting the certificate into action with the Cobra and product from American Fireworks in Hudson Ohio.
Thanks Dave! I'm ready to pop some of this stuff off (have already tested a little bit). If it wasn't for the AP program, my show wouldn't have near the flash (so to speak) that it will have this year. Thanks for facilitating it!
American Fireworks is great. They are really flexible in how they sell you product, and were willing to do split cases on everything that I didn't get an entire case on. SO76 with Tim was a good experience as well, but American really did go above and beyond in meeting my needs.
Ok forgot one.
So this last weekend I went out to the shoot site to try to get a bearing on how far I want to be back. After getting some advice from the members here, I tried 300' and it is perfect. I fired a few canister shells, and a few ball shells to get a feel for what it would look like that far away. Mind you it was like 3:00 in the afternoon so didn't really light up the sky.
I wanted to test a Dominator 62mm pro shell against a 60gram can to see how much difference there really was between the two. Again its broad daylight and the breaks are hard to see, but if you watch on a big enough screen you can make out that the 62mm goes a bit higher and breaks quite a bit bigger.
This will also be the final distance for my shoot site. The rack in the video is standing where the center station will be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ra5iysPZHQ
Don't know if video will play or not, so here is a direct link to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ra5iysPZHQ
pyromustang
05-30-2018, 01:05 AM
Looks good. be sure to video it and post.
^^ Will do that for sure. Thank you!
My pyromusical will just consist of 4 songs. One of the songs is really just to use up a bunch of cakes, so I will have to jazz it up with some comets, slices and a few shells here and there. Ill get creative and figure out something to throw up in there.
It should be right at 15 minutes long, but should be very fun for that short time.
Mattp
05-30-2018, 06:36 AM
I like the idea of a thread like this.. great job so far.!!! Gonna be a great show with all that product .. and yeah, i think that a great distance.. you werent kidding.. you definitely have the room for it.. lol
cherrybomb1
05-30-2018, 07:09 AM
Ok forgot one.
So this last weekend I went out to the shoot site to try to get a bearing on how far I want to be back. After getting some advice from the members here, I tried 300' and it is perfect. I fired a few canister shells, and a few ball shells to get a feel for what it would look like that far away. Mind you it was like 3:00 in the afternoon so didn't really light up the sky.
I wanted to test a Dominator 62mm pro shell against a 60gram can to see how much difference there really was between the two. Again its broad daylight and the breaks are hard to see, but if you watch on a big enough screen you can make out that the 62mm goes a bit higher and breaks quite a bit bigger.
This will also be the final distance for my shoot site. The rack in the video is standing where the center station will be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ra5iysPZHQ
Don't know if video will play or not, so here is a direct link to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ra5iysPZHQ
You have a nice piece of property for a shoot site Jay...just so happens i have a case of the King slayers and a bunch of the Dominator single shots also...Thanks for the video!
PyroDre
05-30-2018, 11:57 AM
see that's how you do a demo comparison get some distance you can see the whole shot...
I like the idea of a thread like this.. great job so far.!!! Gonna be a great show with all that product .. and yeah, i think that a great distance.. you werent kidding.. you definitely have the room for it.. lol
Thanks Matt! Id love to see others post up their "builds" so we can all share how much work and preparation goes into our shows. Yes I'm fortunate to have a big place to shoot at. Fire is always the #1 concern out there and I still have some prep work to do at the site to ensure that we keep the fire risk at a safe level.
You have a nice piece of property for a shoot site Jay...just so happens i have a case of the King slayers and a bunch of the Dominator single shots also...Thanks for the video!
Thank you cherrybomb! Its a bit of a drive from my house, but we certainly don't have to worry about neighbors complaining or offending anyone with the loud booms. The kingslayer shells are very good from what I have shot, you wont be disappointed. I have been a Black Cat Diablo canister shell fanatic for the last 4 or 5 years, and this will be the first year that I don't have any in my show.
see that's how you do a demo comparison get some distance you can see the whole shot...
Thanks! I wish I could have done it in the dark, but I was really just doing some testing to see if the distance was right and be able to get a lift time on both shells from launch to break so I could make sure the timing is right in the show creator software. I was curious how much difference there was in the two shells and figured that there was only one way to find out.
3 Fingers
05-30-2018, 10:47 PM
Looks like someone is having fun! When you got your Cobra stuff, how did you order your power on the modules? 9v? Lipo?
cptnding
05-31-2018, 12:20 AM
Looks like someone is having fun! When you got your Cobra stuff, how did you order your power on the modules? 9v? Lipo?
Hopefully he bought lipo ones. My first 2 were 9v and after getting the lipo versions they were upgraded. I wouldn't even consider a 9v mod at this point. With lipo you can shot show after show between charges unless you forget to turn one off. Unless you only shoot one show per year the extra cost of lipo batteries will pay for itself in time and 9v replacement costs. And you get more capacity per cue.
Thanks guys!
I did 9v on everything. Yes I just do one shoot a year so they will work just fine for what I do.
3 Fingers
05-31-2018, 03:48 PM
Thanks guys!
I did 9v on everything. Yes I just do one shoot a year so they will work just fine for what I do.
Jay - most of my mods are still 9v and they work great. I am in the midst of upgrading 2 of them to Lipo so I'll have a bit more horsepower on those 2 modules.
Maybe you already know this, but if you are using MJG initiators with the 9v mods, you can only shoot 2 wires per cue in parallel. If you wire them in series then you can shoot up to 6 wires per cue. Apparently the MJGs use twice the current of an ematch and the 9v can't keep up with more than 2 in parallel. Keep up the good fight! I enjoy watching your show progress. Cheers!
Jay - most of my mods are still 9v and they work great. I am in the midst of upgrading 2 of them to Lipo so I'll have a bit more horsepower on those 2 modules.
Maybe you already know this, but if you are using MJG initiators with the 9v mods, you can only shoot 2 wires per cue in parallel. If you wire them in series then you can shoot up to 6 wires per cue. Apparently the MJGs use twice the current of an ematch and the 9v can't keep up with more than 2 in parallel. Keep up the good fight! I enjoy watching your show progress. Cheers!
Hey thank you! I was following your thread in the other subforum and that's when I made the decision to go ahead and get some ematch.
I am going to do some testing with it like you did, just to make sure that I can get a whole cue to fire multiple ignitors on the 9v. If it wont, I will work around it I suppose, but I didn't do enough research before I bought. I still wouldn't have given another $32 for the option on each cue though..I would just have known what I had up front and worked within those parameters.
I certainly don't fault anyone for doing it though, I understand the benefit. Its just not worth the added cost for me and what I'm doing with them. I know that my audience wont care what batteries I have in my modules :)
Made a little progress this weekend.
whipped out a couple 10 shot "poor man racks" with some old whooped out Diablo tubes that I had kept.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3083&stc=1
Made 3 more comet racks. I did have to buy the pegboard, but all of the other lumber for the racks was free!
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3084&stc=1
...But I spent most of my day yesterday wiring up the cakes. I have a case of gunsmoke's that didn't make the picture. They were sitting off to the side when I took the picture and I forgot about them.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3086&stc=1
Still have a long way to go, but we are making progress!
I'm still waiting on 3 of my Cobra modules, as well as 12 more import modules to arrive.
cptnding
06-03-2018, 11:32 PM
Top notch stuff in there! You're gonna love those Dominator pro lines and Jam Packed may be my favorite fan cake. It lives up to the name.
I'm curious. What are the 76 pro line cakes on the right side? If you get a chance try some of 76's pro line 12 shot Dahlia cakes. Very large breaks.
Thank you! I watch pimpdadee28’s videos, and I swear by his “Damn!” Factor. If a cake or shell goes up and I hear him say “Damn!” then I know it’s a good one ��. I’m excited about jam packed, sure bet, and double barrel. They all look really good on video.
My pro-line cakes are go getters x4 and 70s photo flash. The photo flash cake will be perfect for the first song that I’m doing.
I will have to try out the 12 shotters from 76 Pro line. Availability was pretty rough this year and I kept waiting and waiting...but finally just ordered what I had in my cart that was in stock. I picked up a few things such as slices, strobes, 140s Roman candles from 76 pro line as well. I’ll post all of my slices and other junk in another photo once I get everything going my way.
Kenny East
06-04-2018, 03:17 AM
Looks like your going to have a busy day setting it all up... Looks really nice so far, really like your slice holders.
Thank you Kenny, appreciate it! Still got quite a way to go, but I’m getting there.
The plan is to have all prep work, all racks built, wired, ect... by June 29. I’m gonna pull my camper out to the shoot site on the evening of the 2nd and stay out there. Hope to have everything ready to go by the morning of the 4th, so I can cook for everybody and shoot fireworks with the kiddos.
Got a surprise package today, didn't know they would be here this week.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=3089&stc=1
Glad they are here, one less thing to worry about. Still waiting on a few items that are slowing progress a bit, but with any luck ill see them in the next couple of weeks.
Rick_In_Tampa
06-04-2018, 04:25 PM
Make sure you check your Cobra mods before the 4th! I just did a dry run of my script and found out 5 of the 12 mods lost synch with the 18R2, and one was on the wrong channel. That would have been a disaster on the 4th if I didn't catch it now.
Jeez...don't scare me like that! After my rainy day testing fiasco, I don't know how many more of those I can take!
Thank you for the heads up Rick, and will do. I am planning to get some LED's to lay out and test my scripts in the near future. I surely want to test everything before I go out. I still have a lot to learn on the Cobra, and I need to get some experience on it.
Depending on how many ignitors/ematches I have left I might buy some cheap cakes to break apart and wire them up to have a live fire test on the script. I don't know if I will have the time to do so though. It sure would give me some peace of mind if I did!
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