Refuse or no refuse??

[Rick_In_Tampa]

So I have 136 mortars that didn't fire last year still wired up with quickfuse in their tubes in my garage. I live in Florida and it's very humid down here. So my quandary is, do I take them all apart and re-fuse them? Or should I take my chances on the 4th and hope they light?

[DavidthePyro]

You could double fuse, just add another trunk line to the existing, but if you refuse, you could take some of that old fuse and test small sections, then use it as double fusing for lighting assurance. Personally, I would refuse and mess around with the old fuse, experiment, etc. Maybe let some of it get another year old and see how humidity effects it. That would give you a good idea as to how the humidity impacts the fuse. Basically just hold on to some of the fuse, but if you light the fuse, light it unattached to anything, just to experiment. You ever have problems with humidity damaging shells or cakes?

[Rocketshooter]

That's a tough call. Personally I would refuse the mortars, that's a lot of shells not to go off because of possible bad fuse.

[joewad]

I would not leave them alone and take whichever means you decide to refuse. Quickfuse is very "paperlike" and I would not take chance with your humidity.

[Bung]

Question:

Why is quickmatch not used? Quickmatch is protected against moisture and ignites even when it is throwing down with rain.
If you have shells with a green fuse leading to the launch powder, it is time to ditch the manufacturer of your shells and get shells with quick match to launch powder.

[joewad]

My guess, he can't meet the storage requirements for quickmatch.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Question:

Why is quickmatch not used? Quickmatch is protected against moisture and ignites even when it is throwing down with rain.
If you have shells with a green fuse leading to the launch powder, it is time to ditch the manufacturer of your shells and get shells with quick match to launch powder.
Bung: Here in the USA we have two classifications of fireworks: 1.4g Consumer grade and 1.3g Professional grade.
The average "backyard hobbyist" is shooting the 1.4g consumer grade ball and cylinder shells--1.75" dia. which are sold as re-loadable items . I believe they are not available to you in the UK. Those ALL have a visco fuse leading to the lift charge.
The 1.3 professional shells all have quick match but require licenses, storage, etc. for use and are not generally available to the "backyard pyro" without the proper credentials.
So, the issue Rick is facing is the reliability of the visco after a years time of not being used.

Rick--I would say it depends on what type of visco you used to chain your shells together. The white paper tape fast fuse would undoubetdly have suffered from the humidity. Other types of visco would depend on the actual fuse construction. The yellow and pink "fast fuse" with different burn rates would probably not be reliable. The heavy lacquered green canon fuse visco would probably be ok.
If it were up to me, I would just trash the old fuse and refuse the racks. Fuse is cheap enough and then you won't have any surprises with "dark sky" if a string or two doesn't light when it is supposed to.
Most of the time that I do runs of 10 tubes with the pink or yellow visco I use two pieces of fuse parallel with the shell fuse. Then I put the two pieces of fuse inside a piece of quick match a couple inches long with an ematch port attached to it.Siince I started doing that a couple years ago I have not had a single mis-fire.

[Bung]

Bung: Here in the USA we have two classifications of fireworks: 1.4g Consumer grade and 1.3g Professional grade.
The average "backyard hobbyist" is shooting the 1.4g consumer grade ball and cylinder shells--1.75" dia. which are sold as re-loadable items . I believe they are not available to you in the UK. Those ALL have a visco fuse leading to the lift charge.
The 1.3 professional shells all have quick match but require licenses, storage, etc. for use and are not generally available to the "backyard pyro" without the proper credentials.
So, the issue Rick is facing is the reliability of the visco after a years time of not being used.

Rick--I would say it depends on what type of visco you used to chain your shells together. The white paper tape fast fuse would undoubetdly have suffered from the humidity. Other types of visco would depend on the actual fuse construction. The yellow and pink "fast fuse" with different burn rates would probably not be reliable. The heavy lacquered green canon fuse visco would probably be ok.
If it were up to me, I would just trash the old fuse and refuse the racks. Fuse is cheap enough and then you won't have any surprises with "dark sky" if a string or two doesn't light when it is supposed to.
Most of the time that I do runs of 10 tubes with the pink or yellow visco I use two pieces of fuse parallel with the shell fuse. Then I put the two pieces of fuse inside a piece of quick match a couple inches long with an ematch port attached to it.Siince I started doing that a couple years ago I have not had a single mis-fire.

Ohhh, down to the powder. Really is different. There is a cut off weight whereby any pyro unit over 1kg or any unit without any instructions and any type of shell is for professional use only. Ball head rockets were a way around shells where the shell was launched to the sky via rocket motor. I think the largest shell rocket was a 4 inch shell, but the burst was not quite the same as a CAT 4 shell.
I must admit, that I do wonder why shells are available for members of the public. A 50 shot 30mm tube cake at 800g might be better, but then again, pyro is packaged differently between our two countries and laws/rules etc.. differ.

Here is one example of a retail cake with 49 shots at 980g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvgGZnN2WuE

[Mattp]

hahaha..bung.. that cake would definitely be classified as 1.3(professional grade) here in the US......rick. is definitely a tough call.. thats alot of work im sure you barely have time for.. then again would really suck for the fuses not to ignite... if it were me... i would cut out a few sections at random... and test the fuse... if all the sections i cut out lit.. id just patch it back up and go ahead.. but if even one piece had an issue.. then id go and redo it all

[joed2323]

Could you spare lighting say 6 of the 136 shells in a row?

Id say if all 6 go with no issues you will be fine.

On a side note. I refused the leaders with quick fuse on 96 shells last year, fused the whole rack up with quick fuse to get that instant last hit at the end of my show for that last second "wow" factor.

Ended up having to stop the show briefly to put a cpl cake fires out and someone accidentally tripped and pulled the wires on the last cue to the 96 shells.

Needless to say they never went off and i was totally bummed out big time waiting for that last cue to fire that never fired.

I noticed that 96 shells were missing in my finale. The crowd did not. Long story short man, dont roll the dice. Change the fusing up so you know 100% that the shells will go off dont run into a similar issue with a bunch of shells not firing

[Robbro097]

Iv noticed from testing in the past with quick fuse in humidity the ends become more difficult to light but after that burns fine, but test didnt span a full year only a month or so

[Bung]

hahaha..bung.. that cake would definitely be classified as 1.3(professional grade) here in the US......rick. is definitely a tough call.. thats alot of work im sure you barely have time for.. then again would really suck for the fuses not to ignite... if it were me... i would cut out a few sections at random... and test the fuse... if all the sections i cut out lit.. id just patch it back up and go ahead.. but if even one piece had an issue.. then id go and redo it all

Yet over here, that cake is 1.4G. Sounds like the regulators over there need a flea in the ear.

[PYRODAN]

Rick, I would re-fuse. they didn't work once. I had a bunch of 1.75 shells that didn't go one year. Problems with the factory fuse. I pulled all of those fuses and replaced half with fast fuse, (non paper type) and half with a slower fuse. The next year they all went off and had a nice cadence to them.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks everyone. You all pretty much confirmed my worst fears. But as most of you said, better to be safe than sorry on the 4th.

Looks like I'm re-fusing. :(