1.75" canister finale fusing advice requested

[ssmith512]

Yo ho ho!

I am thinking of adding some 1.75" canister shells (100ea) to my finale for this years show. Would be using milk crate racks. I think I want them all to go up in roughly 10-12 seconds. For those that have done this (or similar) in the past (I have not),...how did you fuse them? What type (burn rate) of fuse did you use? All I know is that the white super quick fuse is probably way too fast. I'll by using Cobra to fire this years show.

Thanks in advance for any helpful info you can offer!

Steve

[rfgonzo]

100 in 10 to 12 seconds I would say the white quick fuse. It has a burn rate of .04 seconds per foot. You would slow it down quite a bit 10 seconds a foot with pink perfect fuse.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

What type/speed of fuse do you have? It is getting difficult to impossible to find fuse in stock anywhere.
I would avoid the paper fast fuse--it absorbs moisture and has a tendency to fail in the evening if there is a heavy dew.
The pink or yellow fast fuse will work ok for what you want to do. I would fuse each row & tie the fuse from the ends of the rows together on BOTH ENDS of the row---and light it from both ends so it burns into the middle. It will double the firing speed that way.

[jamisonlm3]

Do you have any fast fuse or any fuse right now? If not, I think the bigger question is where are you going to get it to even do this? You might change your plans or get creative.

[ssmith512]

I have 2 new packages of white quick fuse (.1-.4 sec ft) and 22ft of pink perfect fuse and too much of super slow green fuse. I also have 4ft of 2sec yellow fuse (not even enough to fuse milk crate rack of 25 mortars.) I have 10 cues left available i can use.

[displayfireworks1]

You will find there is fuse out there, it is just not advertised. People in the fireworks retail or distributor business don't need just fuse customers. Especially when getting product imported in time for this July 4th holiday is top priority. If the outlets have fuse, they may be saving it for their fireworks product customers. I already had display companies ask me where they can get fuse because none is advertised . I tell them call XXXXX distributor and tell them who you are etc and you will find the fuse you need.
Looking back over the years fuse importation has been an issue. Without mentioning specifics, I have received request "Video what you want, except the fuse". I look and see cases of fuse, but no one else see's it. As a matter of fact I even now forget where I saw it. LOL When times are tough , distributors don't need just fuse customers.

[joewad]

Are you sure you want them all to go up in 10-12 seconds? Its your call cause its your show but I do not like a sky puke. I use milk crates with 1.5 inches of 12 inch by 12 inch wood for balance. I don't snake my fuse through each row. I run a main ignition fuse down one side and fuse EACH row seperately, you'll find that each run is about 12 inches, how simple is that? I've had a lot of success doing that. Sometimes I use 30 second per foot fuse and sometimes quicker. For example this year I will have 4 milk crate stations consisting of 4 milk crates each for a total of 400 shots, each station wil be started at the same time. The first crate I am fusing with 30 second fuse, linking each crate with .6 second quick fuse. The second crate will be fused with 20 second fuse, the third crate with 15 second and the last crate with 10 second fuse. Simple addition of each primary fuse will be 75 seconds with 400 - 1.75 canisters and salutes. Im then adding a couple thunderkings at 60 seconds each (you know where these come from). THats a total of 600 shots in 75 seconds or approximately 8 shots per second. Im toying with adding a case of BAttle of Color but thats a diiferent subject.

Now back to your original question if you use 5 second per foot as above your talking 10 seconds (1 for the length and 1 for the last row). With 10 second per foot fuse your talking 20 seconds for all your shells to go up with this type fusing. Been doing it for years and eliminates a lot of the guess work when snaking the fuse around entire crate elimination wasted fuse and time.

Any questions, shoot me a PM.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I shoot 3 sets of 100 shells for my finale every year. I use the white fast fuse to daisy chain each set together. They all go up in about 8 seconds.

[Hoosierhick]

For that length of time white fuse is way to fast . That is yellow fuse. 2-3seconds per foot.

[cutch316]

I just found pink fuse online. I can't mention the site on here but PM me and I'll let you know what it is.

[RalphieJ]

PyroJoe mentioned above a real problem, failure due to moisture.......inserting your unprotected fuse in readily available leader pipe will prevent those issues.......even so, I have experienced some maddingly slow finales once that dew rolls in.

[upNdown]

Knots knots knots! Faster than tape, more reliable, and more consistent timing, in my opinion. It's fun and neat looking.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5651&stc=1

[Fulliautomatix]

I'm surprised that doesn't have a high failure rate, given that visco is supposed to resist side ignition. I'd be worried the trunk fuse would pass by before passing fire.

[upNdown]

I think maybe it’s the multiple contact points that make it work well? I don’t know. And I’ve only shot about 6 crates this way, so far, I think. So it’s still a small sample size. But not a single failure yet.

[ssmith512]

Thanks friends for all the advice and suggestions. After more consideration, and having been led into this by the more experienced of you, I am now thinking 100 shells in 10 secs will probably get into the “sky puke” realm. So, I think I am going to reduce it to 50 shells over 20 seconds. And I think I have figured out a method using the pink perfect fuse I have on hand.

As we all know, a milk crate is 25ea DR11 tubes, 5 rows of 5 tubes. I am going to fuse each of the 5 rows independently of each other, as suggested by some, with the pink perfect fuse I have. The pink fuse burns at 10sec per foot +/-. Each DR11 tube is spaced 2.4”, so fuse burn time between each tube in a row is 2 seconds (+/-). One row of 5 shells will take 8 seconds from first shell burst to last shell burst (+/-). I am going to stagger the rows in timing. I will fire the first row of 5, then I will fire the second row 0.4seconds later, the third row will fire 0.8 seconds after the first row, the 4th row will fire 1.2 seconds after the first row and the 5th row will fire 1.6 seconds after the first row. At 2 seconds after the first row fires, the second tube of the first row should fire,…….and so on down the line. As you can see, I will have 1 shell bursting every 0.4 seconds (+/-). The last shell of the 5th row will burst 9.6 seconds after the first shell of the first row. At 10 seconds after I fire the first row, I will repeat this process with second milk crate. So the last shell of the second milk crate rack will fire 19.2 seconds after the first shell of the first milk crate (in theory). I’ll use up 10 cues on the Cobra (1 cue for each row of 5 tubes).

I think this will give me the speed I want without hopefully obliterating the sky too much.

Upndown, I love the knot idea and will utilize that method – thanks for sharing!

[joewad]

The knot method works but since all my experience with magic taping I didn't pursue the knot method. It does give a consistent burn time with speed of ignition fuse and no failures the few times I've tested it.

[displayfireworks1]

Knots knots knots! Faster than tape, more reliable, and more consistent timing, in my opinion. It's fun and neat looking.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5651&stc=1

That is interesting. I am curious what the failure rate is on that? Remember Visco fuse is made to resist side ignition. These artillery shells are designed to light at the end of their fuse. Some even have a little dried black-powder at the tip.

[jamisonlm3]

Knots knots knots! Faster than tape, more reliable, and more consistent timing, in my opinion. It's fun and neat looking.Just curious, but what's the little bit of tape looking stuff there for?

[upNdown]

That is interesting. I am curious what the failure rate is on that? Remember Visco fuse is made to resist side ignition. These artillery shells are designed to light at the end of their fuse. Some even have a little dried black-powder at the tip.

Like I said, 0% so far, but that's only based on fewer than 200 shells.

[upNdown]

Just curious, but what's the little bit of tape looking stuff there for?

the first 3 rows run on pink fuse. The last two rows run on the faster grey fuse. Taping the grey and pink together seemed to be the easiest way to join them (I'm neither a boy scout nor a sailor)