Poking molded cakes

[Fox One]

I notice that more and more of these cake racks are being constructed using some type of mold. The finished product feels like a dense, hard plastic. Naturally my first thought after picking up and examining these cakes is just how much of a headache would it be to try to poke them for an igniter? Getting through this material with a little brass awl definitely seems like it would be much more challenging compared to the traditional cardboard tubes.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

The molded cakes are a dense composition of paper pulp and glue along with some magical Chinese ingredients. The fusing is all done from the bottom and covered over with glue so it is a shot in the dark to find the proper place on the tube to poke one with an awl to get between the lift charge and the insert.
This is the biggest complaint with this new type of cake from the guys that like to cut the fuses on the end between the rows of a traditional cake and use each row as a separate cue.
As far as connecting them for efire the best bet would be to use the existing fuse with a small piece of quick match over the visco [or a couple strands of paper fast fuse around the visco] and connect your igniter that way.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Maybe I need to get out more, but I've never heard of these cakes. Are these sold under one brand name? Or are they becoming a new standard? Any chance you can post some pictures?

[Lanni]

I do find some pictures about the molded cakes, it was been widely used, but I think most of them were sold in our domestic market. It was popular in some time, but now it's not that popular for some recycle and environment problem. I had seen some of them in the factory, it's easy to be produced with lower cost, I think it's why some company choose to use it. But only for square cake, not suitable for irregular cake.http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=4590&stc=1http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=4591&stc=1

[Fox One]

Maybe I need to get out more, but I've never heard of these cakes. Are these sold under one brand name? Or are they becoming a new standard? Any chance you can post some pictures?

Those I currently have in my possession are sold under the Megaton label. These are military themed 200 gram cakes in four versions....Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. In terms of performance, these are pretty nice for 200 gram cakes, which is why I'm buying them even though I'm not a fan of the material they are made from.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GA2xdE3PJ4

These are also sold under the Top Gun label with a slightly different wrap, but with the same product numbers. I assume they are otherwise identical.

I can handle having a few of these in my stash. If I have to, I'll just try to replace the lead fuse with some quick fuse to get as close as I can to instant ignition. But I sure hope this isn't a trend that gains popularity going forward. I hope the bulk of fireworks cakes remain of cardboard tube construction, something easy for the end user to work with. It would be a real PITA to deal with if these become more common on the market.

[krayg]

Molded cakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5syaKHDwcRU

This one is not a molded cake but interesting anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJRHIjhrGOo

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Wow.. Haven't run across any of those yet. Hopefully I never will. They don't look "poke" friendly.