Best Practices for Running your Fireworks Show

[LordKevin]

I am still working on improving my shows. My main goals at this point are decreasing setup time (before the show / day of shoot) and increasing the reliability (trying to get 100% of items to fire). Here is a list of what I have found that works, and also a list of things that I need to improve.

Notes:
I am using a Cobra Firing system with 1x 72M's and 6x 18M's. I also have 7x 50 shot mortar racks and 3x 28 shot mortar racks.

What has improved the quality of my shows:
* Buying the longest ignitors possible (thanks Dave). I actually buy several different lengths but I mostly buy the 15ft ignitors. Extending the length of ignitors in the field should be avoided when possible because it adds a lot of time and every splice increases the potential for a failure ignite.
* Using visco shroud igniters for making connections from igniters to fuse. This has made a big improvement in the reliability of igniting fuses using ignitors.
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* Pre-making cake boards using thin plywood sheets @ 4'x4' or 4'8' and gluing cakes down using liquid nails adhesive. This has definitely increased show safety and decreased show setup time.
* Using cake racks for slices. This saves setup time.
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* Switching my firing system to quickplugs. This decreases the setup time day of the show, but more importantly decrease errors if you are using helpers to make field connections.
* Using RJ45 slats (series) with cat5 cables and prewiring the ignitors to the slats. This definitely saves a lot of time for day of the show connections and makes shooting 2x or 3x of the same item very easy to setup and shoot. Definitely use series connections because running a lot of ignitors in parallel increases the potential for a failure to ignite.

Remaining failure points:
* Adding quickplug connectors by hand to wire / ignitors has been unreliable. I had 3 items fail to ignite due to hand added quickplugs even though they passed the continuity check on the modules. I am saving some of the ignitors with quickplug ends from my last show to make quickplug extension cables.
* Fusing racks of mortars has not been 100% reliable. I have been using two zip ties and a piece of tape in-between the zip ties, however this does not guaranty ignition every time. I believe the main problem may be fuse speed fast fuse (1-2 seconds per foot) seem to be less reliable than slower fuses (20 -30 seconds per foot). I am still looking for ways to improve fusing.
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* Using cheap sequencers to extend the number of firing cues has been hit and miss. They seem to work fine when testing before the show, however I had a number of failures in the show on the sequencers. Still trying to determine the reason for this, but most likely the long term solution is to buy more cobra firing modules (it seems like I never have enough).
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* Pre-make the script ahead of time and debug it, vs making it the night before :p.

It would be great if anyone else wants to add their best show practices. Also, any thoughts on how to decrease failures or speedup setup would be great!

[PyroFL]

Adding

- We set off 500 mortars for our final and put the racks on a trailer a couple of weeks before the show. A lot easier to do in a AC garage then in field.

- To cut time down on set day, I’ve gotten a 1-3 splitter board to hook-up our slate cables. This should cut down a few hours on set day from having to wire in 2 72M for the center location

Last year we had mostly a rookie crew and first time using a cobra. We were close to 240 man hours for a 20 min show and I would like to cut that to under 200 this year but we will see

Great list and ideas ... thanks for posting

[topshelfpyro]

I only use tape to chain fuse shells and have not had any issues. One thing to consider is the length of overlap of the fuses and making sure the entire length of overlap touches.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

If your fuse is burning from right to left in your mortar picture, I don't see any reason why the mortar wouldn't light. I also use the paper fast fuse, two zip-ties and tape. The only difference is I use U-Haul tape, and I tape over the zip-ties. I only use 300 mortars in my show, but it's rare for a mortar to not fire.

As PyroFl mentioned, slats are a great time saver. If you can pre-wire everything prior to the 4th, then all you have to do on the 4th is set the boards in place and wire the slats, that should cut down on your setup time considerably.

[PyroFL]

LordKevin

Not using my phone I can see in the photo your zip ties are a little to tight. If you look at the photo you can see the fuse is squished together tightly. Also looks like your using the nicer zip ties which means it’s not that flexible so you need to make it tighter to make it close, you need cheap ones that you wouldn’t normally use on a project around the house.

I was very worried about this last year when training the new guys. I told them the zip tie is only there to hold it together until you can get the tape on, the tape is real part holding it together not the zip tie.

After seeing a lot of post on here of pros and cons on this I ended up getting around 10 different brands to test and I’ve never had any problems ... even with a rookie crew last year.

The best ones I’ve found are from a non-advertiser here so you will have to order around from pyro suppliers. They don’t sale fireworks just mostly mortar tubes and racks.

Happy hunting

[Greenville Pyro]

I was thinking the same thing. Especially with white quick fuse, make sure a bunch of it touches the next shell. (or do a braided rope technique). When in doubt, ADD MORE FIRE!

[BMoore]

In regards to fusing, try cutting the end of the visco taking fire at an angle to expose the black powder core and have that cut facing the your main fuse. That should enable it to light much faster which is especially helpful with fast fuse. I'd also recommend a piece of tape around the point where the two fuses meet to help contain the fire at the transfer point. I use U-Haul tape only for my connections which to me seems much faster than zip ties and equally as reliable. You'll just have to experiment to see which technique you prefer.

As far as saving on set-up time, I find fireworks preparation to be like water always seeking it's highest level for the space available. No matter what I do, I'm always working up to the last minute, worrying I won't finish in time, but always manage to pull it off. When I started shooting 1.3 my set up time was drastically reduced by default since I had to pick up the product on the day of the shoot. I still manage to get it done and get it done safely.

[Salutecake]

Hey BMoore, U-Haul tape, space and working up until the last minute, 3 standards of operation no matter how long or good you get at it, lol. I also do a lot of 1.3 and it kind of reminds me of computer term plug and play but I still do use 1.4 and try when possible to use the aop's. So the only slow part with the 1.3 is that I usually have a section of fancier shells that I use at a certain time during the show, so planning and positioning might slow down a bit there. The 1.4 I try to get everything poked before hand and to have it's cue, I try not to fuse anything but sometimes it's unavoidable and the U-Haul tape is the best. I try to use aop's again plug and play. My biggest challenge is that I usually make up boards for the 1.4 cakes, and finding the space to store them until 'm ready to set up is always a problem. The other problem with cakes on boards is that they are all uneven and do not stack easily on top of each other.

Finally I think I have to thank Dave for his course to get into 1.3. 1.3 is certainly easier to set up, also I remember Dave saying something about the pro stuff being cheaper or evenly priced with consumer stuff. Like most of us here we buy whole sale but I just saw a NOB (retail) for like 135.00 I can buy at least 25 3' pro shells for that, I don't know what the brand new prices on the pro stuff will be come July but I just purchased a bunch of 3' shells from 3 to 7 bucks a shell (depending how fancy).

[Scotty Rockets]

Get rid of fuse all together, that’s always a fail point.

Efire everything, poke and direct ematch cakes bypassing the visco.

Check out quick split boards for firing multiple quick plug ematches at once.

Zip ties suck, I recommend aluminum foil tape. It’s super sticky, very easy to use and traps the heat making passfire more reliable.

Always add more cues, this is yearly for me.

Dedicate single modules to positions and pods.