Making a Firework Cake with a Star Gun

Two separate events have led me to explore this subject.

Harry emailed me and said that Skylighter had received a shipment of functional, but ugly, star testing guns. He said that he was willing to make folks a great deal on them if I could find a way to illustrate the need for them and how to put them to good use.

I said that I could easily do that, and that I had in mind a bonus, creative way to put them to use.

Additionally, a fellow pyro on Passfire.com was recently mentioning that he was having problems with some stars he had made. He related that he had ignited some of them while they were sitting on the ground, and although they had burnt all the way through, there was not much effect from them and they had left a large ash on the ground ounce they had gone out.

So, all of that came together, and this little article is the result.

Well, technically it’s not.

I’ve lit and thrown many stars to test-burn them in the air, and usually could do so without burning my fingers if I licked them first. Sometimes I’d grab the leather glove, but then sometimes I was too lazy for that move.

I have made Super Bottle-Rockets using Steve Majdali’s tooling, available in the ads in the back of the PGI Bulletin. Taping a test-star atop one of these nifty little rockets is a great way to get the star way up in the air where it is ignited. But, making a rocket to test each star can become a bit too much work.

Way back when, I got the bright idea of getting a slingshot, taping a piece of visco fuse to a star, loading it all into the slingshot, firing up the visco, pulling back on the rubbers, waiting until the star just ignited, and letting ‘er fly. I just knew I’d invented a new useful pyro device. Even called it my “Kentucky star gun.”

I posted my “unique” invention on a pyro discussion list, and a well known fireworker responded that he’d been doing just that for years, and that he had some good welder’s gloves (which covered the arm in addition to the hand), which he could sell me, and which were handy for that operation.

Darn. I’d reinvented the wheel once again. That happens a lot in hobbyist fireworking.

But, with all these devices, the idea is to test-burn a star or comet flying through the air at some distance from us.

Often color stars don’t show their true colors if we are too close to them while they are burning. They’ll look quite different at a distance of 100 feet. And they burn differently when flying through the air than they do sitting still.

For instance, willow stars and glitter stars won’t create their unique effects at all if they are just sitting on the ground burning. But put them up flying through the air, and we can begin to appreciate their effects and visualize what hundreds of them flying out of a shell-burst will look like.

And, honestly, a slingshot or hand-tossing will not get the star very far from me nor very high in the air. They will often burn me. If half of my attention is on not getting burnt. I won’t really focus on noticing how the star performs.

Enter the tried and true star gun.

My star gun has 5 tubes on it: 3/8-inch, 1/2-inch, 5/8-inch, 7/8-inch, and 1 1/8-inch inside diameters.

Using FFg or FFFg sporting grade black powder, I use lift powder loads as follows:

3/8-inch	Shallow 1/8 teaspoonful
1/2-inch	Flat 1/8 teaspoonful
5/8-inch	Heaping 1/8 teaspoonful
7/8-inch	Flat 1/4 teaspoonful
1 1/8-inch	Heaping 1/4 teaspoonful

To test a star, I determine which of the tubes will be a close fit for the star, while still allowing it to freely fall to the bottom of the tube. Occasionally it is necessary to persuade the star to get to the tube bottom with a thin wood dowel.

I insert 3 or 4 inches of Visco fuse into the tube’s fuse hole, drop the correct amount of lift powder into the tube through a funnel, and insert the star.

Fire up the Visco, retreat, and prepare to observe the test star in flight.

Heck, single one-inch comets fired out of the large tube can be a little show all in themselves if it’s a night when I simply must “smell the smoke” from something.

OK, that’s using a star gun for what God intended it to be used for, but now let’s get creative.

I got to thinking that a star gun could be used to create a small 5 shot repeater cake device, progressing from the smaller tubes up to the largest of them, and making an increasingly impressive little display in the process.

Stars in ever-increasing sizes could easily be rigged up to create such a cake.

But I have a complete assortment of Skylighter special effects fuses: falling leaves and flying fish in various effects and colors. Why not play with these a bit to see what would make the most fun and impressive little show?

I’ll test these fuses one at a time to see which of them I like best, and which light best when shot, unprimed, out of the star gun.

First I insert the 4-inch piece of Visco fuse, and then dump the correct amount of black powder into the tube. Then I tip the star gun over, keeping the mouths of the tubes slightly higher than their fused ends.

I’m thinking that about 3 seconds of burn time for the special-effects fuse will be a good display duration. The burn time is shown on the Skylighter label for each fuse. In this case I’m testing red-crackling flying-fish fuse, which burns at about 1.9 seconds per inch, so I mark the bundle of fuse at 1.5 inches with a Sharpie.

Then I cut the flying-fish fuse with my anvil-cutters, and push the fuse into the tube with a wooden dowel.

With this particular fuse, ignition was very good as all the fuse lit when it came out of the star gun. The display was very nice, and the fuse burned out just before it came back down to the ground.

Warning: I do not reload the star gun in my pyro shop or anywhere else where I am around pyrotechnic devices. The star gun may still have a glowing ember in it and I don’t want flaming black powder to be ejected from it, along with a star or fish-fuse inside my shop. I treat the star gun as if it could go off at any time once it has been fired once.

The rest of the special effects fuses worked as follows:

The falling leaves fuses really don’t work well in this little device. They burn too long and come back to the ground before creating their signature effect.

All of the flying fish fuses worked well, but one-inch lengths worked better than the one-and-a-half inch pieces. The shorter lengths ensured that they burnt in the air rather than on the ground.

The first thing I did was plan a route that the fuse would take. Then I drilled the bottoms of the star-gun tubes to allow the fuse to pass through them on that route. The center tube fuse-hole was left as-is.

The first time I constructed the repeating cake, I used fast-visco fuse as shown in the photo below.

This configuration burned a little too quickly for my tastes, and there was not much delay between the last two shots because of the short length of fuse in that section.

So, I constructed the cake again using Chinese Visco fuse, as shown here.

This configuration burned much more to my liking, and the extra fuse between the final two shots lengthened the delay between them.

Stay Green and Have Fun!
Ned

Mortar Racks, Fusing Techniques, and a Firework Wheel

In the last few weeks I’ve discussed making small Cremora fireballs and electric matches to use in a Consumer fireworks display, as well as firing systems and wiring techniques.

I’ve also covered many topics which deserve attention when planning the show and purchasing devices for it.

This week we’ll be looking at the construction of mortar racks from which to fire artillery shells during the show, how to construct a really nice wheel using fountains from the local fireworks store, and some techniques for using various fuses to attach devices together for the display.

Mortars are the tubes with plugged ends that fireworks shells, comets or mines are fired from. Mortars can be made of HDPE plastic, fiberglass, paper, or in some special cases, metal.

The mortars need to be secured in an upright and safe position. This can be done by burying the mortars (guns) about 2/3 of their length in the ground. Here are a couple of shots of some of the large guns that were buried for shows and competition at a recent Pyrotechnics Guild International convention.

Often, especially with smaller guns, the mortars can be securely held in place in racks, either perpendicularly or at an angle. The racks can be constructed of metal, wood, or a combination of the two.

Here are a couple of artillery shell racks made by Brian Paonessa at Skylighter, using Skylighter’s PL3182
fiberglass mortars. One is a fan rack, and the other holds the guns straight up and down.

Here is a shot showing some of the construction details of the fanned rack. Brian has glued and screwed the rack together.

Below is the angled PL3175 artillery shell mortar rack that Skylighter sells. The swing-out feet hold it in an upright position. When using this rack, I drill holes in the feet and drive spikes through them and into the ground to keep the rack from bouncing and falling over.

As you can see in the photo of the PGI racks above, wooden racks can also be held upright by attaching them together with lengths of wood 1×3s, or by pieces of plywood attached to both ends of them. In either case, screws or nails are used to keep the whole assembly upright and rigid.

Care must be taken to avoid driving fasteners into the mortars. In pyro this is known as a “bad-thing.”

Typically, except in the case of fan-racks, racks are set up so that their ends are perpendicular to the front of the crowd. That way, if a rack happened to come loose and fall down, it would not be firing toward the crowd.

Here is another way to secure wooden racks. Screw-eyes are installed into the rack ends, and rebar pins are used to hold the racks in place. Both ends of the racks are supported in this manner, and racks can be erected end-to-end with only one pin between them.

No matter what method is used to erect them, once the racks have been assembled, they ought to be secure enough to withstand a healthy kick with a boot.

In this section I’ll be referring to and using the various kinds of fuse shown in the photo below. Each one serves its own purpose and has its own unique burn-rate. The burn rate of a roll of any particular kind of fuse can vary. So it’s a good idea to cut 10 inches of the fuse off that roll and time it with a stopwatch as it burns to determine its exact burn rate.

American Visco	2.5 seconds per inch
Chinese Visco	1.7 seconds per inch
Fast Visco	0.25 seconds per inch
Fast Fuse	0.1 – 0.15 seconds per inch
Time Fuse	2.2 – 3 seconds per inch
Quickmatch	Instantaneous
Foil-Taped Fast Visco	Instantaneous
Foil-Taped Fast Fuse	Instantaneous

The foil-taped fast-Visco or fast-fuse may be used as excellent substitutes for quickmatch, which is not shippable. I described how to make it in Really Nice 4″ Plastic Ball Firework Shells .

In the rest of this article, I will refer to quickmatch, and you’ll know you can make substitutes for it with the fast-Visco or fast-fuse as described above.

So, I have filled 6 tubes in my rack with an artillery shell, comet, or a mine. If they are to be hand-fired, the shell-leaders (fuses) can simply be left hanging out of the guns, ready to be lit one at a time with a propane torch.

These shell leaders are fast-Visco fuse, and I’d expect a burn rate of about 4 inches per second, which will produce about a 3 second delay between lighting the fuse and the shell launch.

A shell of this size will take about 3-4 seconds to rise in the sky and display its starburst. So if I light the next fuse immediately after the first shell has launched, and so on, I’ll get a nicely paced series of bursts that lasts a total of 18-20 seconds.

If the shell fuse leaders are a bit on the short side and threaten to drop down into the mortars, they can be held in place with a little masking tape. Be sure the shells are all the way on the bottom of the guns, though, to insure proper height when they are launched. A shell that’s not seated solidly on the bottom of its mortar can become a “low break,” which, in turn, can cause fires or injuries.

But, let’s say I want all of these shells to launch at the same time at some point during the show or at the end of it (the “finale”). In that case I’ll chain them all together with a length of quickmatch. Chaining shells simply means attaching their fuse leaders together in a series. If the shells are chained together with quickmatch, and then the end of the quickmatch is lit using a piece of Visco fuse or an electric match, once the flame hits the quickmatch the shells will all ascend skyward in quick succession.

This is done as follows:

• Cut a length of quickmatch as long as the run of mortar tubes containing the shells, plus about a foot. Always use a razor blade or anvil cutters to cut fuse, never scissors.

• Pierce the quickmatch wall with an awl where each shell leader comes out of the top of the mortar, making sure that all the layers of match pipe are pierced and you can see the black match inside.

• Put a fresh diagonal cut on the end of the shell leaders with a razor blade in order to expose the powder inside the leader.
• Insert the shell leader into the quickmatch for an inch or so.
• Use masking tape or aluminum foil tape to secure the shell leader into the quickmatch. I really like the aluminum foil duct tape with the peel-off paper backing. The stuff sticks like crazy, will not gradually come loose over time, and is fireproof.

• Use string to tie the fuse chain down to the rack between each mortar. I like waxed string for this purpose. It makes “threading the needle” with it a breeze. This prevents the first shell from yanking the chain as it is launched, which might pull the rest of the leaders loose from the chain.

Warning: In the past, some folks have used a staple gun to staple quickmatch chains to the tops of wooden racks. More than once, the stapler has created a spark which has ignited the chain and instantly sent shells skyward. This has killed or seriously injured some people. Don’t use a staple gun to secure flammable fuse, nor use one anywhere near pyrotechnic compositions.

The nifty thing about this fusing method, and the following ones, is that they can be applied to fusing rockets set side-by-side in launch tubes, or to fusing cakes laid out in a field or on a piece of plywood. A whole show can be laid out, fused together with a combination of these methods, and fired by lighting one fuse or firing one electric match.

But Wait, There’s More! Maybe I want that nice 3-4 second delay between the shells’ firing that I spoke about earlier. Maybe I want a different delay time, but I want to fire the shells in a chain as in the section above. How can I build that delay in between each shell in the chain?

Near the end of the Pyrotechnica XI article, Traditional Cylinder Shell Construction, Part II, “Finale and Flight Chaining” is addressed. This is a fascinating explanation of “old-time” chaining methods using quickmatch, paper buckets (rolled tubes of kraft paper), string, spolettes and regular time fuse. It’s a valuable addition to my pyro library. In the photo above, there are about 3 inches between the center of each mortar. If I run one of the Visco fuses down the line instead of the quickmatch, and attach my shell leaders every 3 inches, then I will get 3 inches of delay between shots.

3 inches of the American Visco fuse will give me a delay of 7.5 seconds between shells. That’s more than I want, but that might work in some cases. 3 inches of the Chinese Visco will give a delay of 5.1 seconds between shots. That’s more like it. I could go with that, although it’s a bit more of a delay than I really want.

To use Visco for a chain, simply tape the end of each shell leader alongside the Visco fuse as it runs along the tops of the mortars. The two fuses must be parallel to and touching each other for at least an inch of tape. Then tie the chain down to the mortar rack as shown above. Don’t try to run the shell leaders into the Visco fuse chain at a right-angle. You’ll get poor or failed ignition that way.

There is another, more precise, way of incorporating delays into a chain of shell leaders, though. It incorporates sections of cross-matched time fuse, or the hand-rammed spolette fuses that I described in Firework Shells in 2-1/2 Days – Part 3.

The roll of 1/4 inch time fuse that I have burns at a rate of 2.2 seconds per inch. If I use 1-1/2 inches of it between each shell in the rack, I’ll get a 3.3 second delay between the firing of each shell. This is done as follows.

I want 1.5 inches of time fuse delay, and I’m going to split each end of the fuse 1/2 inch for cross-matching. So I cut five, 2-1/2 inch sections of the time fuse. I split each end 1/2 inch with my razor blade, insert three 2 inch pieces of the thin black match that can be found in the fast-fuse or quickmatch, and I tie each end of the time fuse closed with a clove hitch and overhand knot to secure each knot.

Then I make “buckets” out of 3-1/2 inch x 3-1/2 inch pieces of kraft paper, rolled around a 1/2 inch wood dowel, with the edge of the paper glued down. I then tie a bucket on each end of the cross-matched time-fuse pieces, with the knots just to the inside of the pieces of cross-match. Tie the knots very tightly so that hot gasses cannot escape the bucket and transfer over to the next one before the time fuse has burned through.

Now it’s just a matter of making a chain of these bucket time-delays, in similar fashion to the chains that were made above. The first bucket in the chain has a piece of quickmatch coming into it from the ignition source, and a piece of quickmatch coming out of it into which the first shell’s leader is tied or taped. I don’t want a delay before this first shell’s fuse is ignited. This first bucket also lights the first time-fuse delay element.

I bare the black match in the quickmatch for 3/4 inch before inserting it into the buckets. It’s easy enough to clip the buckets a bit shorter with scissors as necessary. It’s just important to avoid cutting into the cross-match with the scissors, and to leave enough bucket so that the knot can be tied without any blackmatch protruding beyond it.

During the chain assembly, it can help to tie each delay down to the rack before assembling the next link in the chain. This helps to insure that the quickmatch pieces leading to the shells are long enough, and are routed away from each other and away from the mouth of a previous mortar, which would lead to a premature ignition.

The chain shown above is designed to be ignited from the left end, to have 3.3 second delays between each shell, and to pass fire from the right end to the next device in the line if desired.

This same type of chaining using time fuse, can be used to link box-cakes to each other. Let’s say I start with the ignition of a cake that has a 30 second burn time, and I want to overlap the next box 5 seconds into the first cake’s time. I’ll put a 25 second delay time fuse and buckets at the ignition point of that second cake. On and on, this type of show can be assembled.

Now for the added bonus section in this article. I find it to be fun and creative to take consumer fireworks items from the fireworks store, and assemble them into larger and more impressive assemblies. Fireworks cone-fountains can be hung upside down in a line to form a waterfall, and they can also be used as drivers in this large wheel. “Drivers” provide the force to make the wheel go round.

Chromatropes are a traditional fireworks display exhibition pieces. They are simply composed of two counter-rotating wheels, each of which is a basic assembly of wooden crosses with the drivers attached at the ends of each arm. They produce the kind of effect shown below.

The device shown above has 8 pairs of crossing fountain-sprays, or 16 drivers. This would be 8 drivers per wheel, and with 1 driver at the end of each cross-member, each wheel would have 4 cross-members. We’ll build a simpler version, with two wheels, each having 2 cross-members and 4 cone-drivers.

Here is an illustration of a chromatrope out of Weingart’s Pyrotechnics.

You’ll notice in both the photo and the illustration that the drivers are mounted at a 45 degree angle to the arms, and will shoot their spray out at that angle. This angle also diminishes the amount of force with which each driver will drive the wheel. I’m going to mount the cone-drivers at less of an angle to increase their force when turning the wheels, since the cones are not as powerful as handmade drivers.

Here’s a very simple pictorial essay on this consumer fireworks model. The hubs that the bolt-axles go through are simply 3 inch long 3/8″ threaded tubes/nuts/washers, available at a hardware store in the lighting department.

I have cut 1-Inch x 2-Inch x 8 foot pieces of lumber in half to produce 4 foot long arms, and I’ve cut steep angles on the ends of each arm.

Then I drill 3/8 inch holes in the center of each arm, insert the threaded tubes, put some wood glue between the arms, and tighten the nuts and washers.

I’ve removed the wrapping paper from the cones and drilled some mounting holes in their hollow bases. I’ve also installed some extra scotch-tape to insure that the fuses are secured in their tops.

I then mount the cones to the arms with iron wire, and I install buckets and quickmatch to fuse them together. I have clipped the cone visco fuses on an angle to get fresh powder exposed, and I’ve glued and tied the buckets to the cones to insure that they don’t slip off.

I’ve assembled a T-support with 4×4 lumber and reinforcements. This insures that the wheels don’t hit the vertical support during operation.

I’ve assembled the wheels so that they are driven and turn in opposite directions. You’d be surprised how easy it is to mess this detail up.

On the day of the show, I’ll tie the two wheel ignition points into one leader so that both wheels will light at the same time.

I always test at least one of the wheels with the cones you want to use to make sure that they are powerful enough to get the wheels spinning once they are lit.

Stay Green,

Ned

Connecting Electric Matches to Visco (Cannon) Fuse

About this time of year we get lots of questions about attaching electric matches to consumer fireworks. That’s because more and more people are using electrical firing systems to fire their 4th of July consumer fireworks shows, even at home.  Here’s how to do it.

The Problem:
Electric matches made using Skylighter’s Electric Match Dip Kit (GN5050) and Electric Match Blanks (GN5040) put out a good amount of fire and can directly light visco fuse when connected end-to-end. Visco fuse is the green fuse used in most consumer fireworks (it is also called cannon fuse).  But just taping the electric match to the visco fuse is not 100% reliable, so the connection technique you use is critical. Here’s a little trick that works quite well for me when connecting electric matches to visco fuse and has given me 100% ignition so far.

Materials needed:

• Consumer fireworks
• Electric matches ("ematches")
• Roll of clear packing tape or masking tape.
• Roll of quickmatch (GN3001) or Super-Fast Firecracker Fuse (GN1205)
• Razor blade

Assembly:

Cut visco fuse at an angle. Cut the firework’s visco fuse on a sharp angle (as seen in figure A). This will expose more of the fuse’s black powder core. If your device comes with a long visco fuse attached, you may want to cut it down to about an inch to reduce ignition delay.

Figure A:
Cut visco fuse at an angle

Create a quickmatch sleeve. Using a razor blade, cut a length of quickmatch about 1 inch longer than the fuse supplied with the consumer firework device.

Note: It’s best to cut quickmatch with a razor blade or anvil cutters. Quickmatch can ignite from the friction of scissors cutting through it.

Slide quickmatch over device’s fuse. Carefully slide the device’s fuse into the center of the quickmatch sleeve. Slide the quickmatch sleeve all the way down so it covers the firework’s entire fuse.

Figure B:
Slide quickmatch over fuse

Insert electric match into quickmatch. Outside and away from people, hold the device so it is pointing away from you and any flammable material. Insert an electric match into the open end of the quickmatch to a depth of an inch (as in Figure C). You may need to slide back the electric match’s protective plastic cap.

Note: Removing the electric match’s protective cap may make inserting the ematch easier, but can cause ignition by friction. Insert the ematch’s head slowly and gently.

Figure C:
Insert electric match

Tape quickmatch, and electric match to device. Secure the electric match to the side of the firework with clear packing tape covering both ends of the quickmatch, as in Figure D. Add a couple of extra wraps of tape to secure the electric match in place.

The tape serves two purposes:
1) It confines the burning gasses, increasing the burn rate.
2) It secures the ematch in place.

Tip: If you’ve never done an electrically fired fireworks display, just imagine people moving about in complete darkness with dozens of wires all around. It’s inevitable that if you don’t completely secure each and every electric match someone will trip on "that" wire and pull the electric match free causing a misfire.

Figure D:
Tape electric match in place

How does it work?
When the electric match fires, the ematch sparks for only an instant. If the ematch sparks and fire do not directly hit the visco’s black powder core, the electric match may fail to ignite the firework device. The blackmatch inside the quickmatch sleeve prevents this problem by carrying the fire forward, and increasing the amount of fire given to the visco fuse. This ensures that the slightest spark from your electric match will pass fire to the visco. The quickmatch’s outer paper wrap directs the fire downward through the tube like a flamethrower, lighting everything in its path, including the visco.

"But, I live too far away to pick up quickmatch…"
Having quickmatch on hand does make this process faster, but all you need to make this work is blackmatch and a homemade tube to direct the fire. Skylighter’s GN1205 is a great source of blackmatch, unless you want to make your own.

What is GN1205, Super-Fast Paper Firecracker Fuse?
Well it’s our fastest, shippable fuse. It burns at 1 foot per second! It consists of 3 strands of blackmatch with a light tissue paper wrapping. This tissue paper wrapping gives it a controlled fast burn great for chaining candle batteries, adding leaders to homemade festival balls, even chaining up your finale.

Harvesting blackmatch from GN1205. Gently peel the tissue paper off of the Super-Fast Firecracker Fuse as shown in Figure E.

Figure E:
How to remove blackmatch from Super-Fast Firecracker Fuse

Make a thin walled tube. You’ll need a thin walled paper tube to hold the blackmatch, visco and electric match all in place. For this cut a 3 x 3 piece of copy paper, and roll it on a 3/8th inch dowel or anything about that diameter (a Bic pen works well). Use glue or tape to keep it closed.

Insert blackmatch into thin walled tube. Insert 6 strands of blackmatch into a thin walled paper tube (as seen in Figure F). If the blackmatch is long, cut it flush.

Figure F:
Insert blackmatch into tube

Continue by following quickmatch instructions above.

The preceding tip provided by,
Brian P.
Skylighter

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