wyzard10 Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 I have made a few gerbs and have had no real problems with straight visco on singles. I am having issues with lighting several at once. Ive tried ematch on top of bp in the nozzles. This just blew the ematch out the top with most not lighting. I tried multiple strands of quick match sequenced through the string with the tops taped down with masking tape. This didn't work very well either. I have found some reference to quick match and buckets but nothing definitive on how to do it. Any ideas or reference materials on how to do this correctly would be appreciated.
OldMarine Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 I'm following this topic because I'm wondering myself. I've had the exact same experience. Identical lengths of visco didn't work with QM, ematch, etc..
Merlin Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 What about electric ignitor to each piece of visco I have never made gerbs.
OldMarine Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 What about electric ignitor to each piece of visco I have never made gerbs.If the gerbs were all you intended to light that works. I only have a 12 station setup at the moment so I'd like to be able to light a row of gerbs on one channel. Sounds simple but I've had crap for luck so far with just 6. I'll keep reading!
Maserface Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Buckets and nosings are the answer! Take some light paper, 30-40# about 4-6" wide (butchers or painters paper works great) and cut it into lengths equal to three turns around your tube. Apply an L of glue down the length of paper, and roll it around the tube, starting at the end without glue, and ending at the end with the glue, so the last turn will be glued down. (Make sense?) Then, put 2-3 strands of black match into the "nosing", make sure they are as deep as they will go into the nozzle of the device. Now expose 2-3" of black match at the end of two pieces of quickmatch, stuff both of these ends into the nosing you created, seat them nice and tight on the black match you put in before. Now take some tarred or waxed or pasted string and tie the nosing closed. So now you do the same thing with the next device, but you use one of the previous lengths of quickmatch, and one fresh one. Connect everything like this and you're done!
OldMarine Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Daisy-chaining? If I'm trying to light off 8 at once should I use more than one pipe from the ematch to the chain? Also, I'm unclear on the wrap for the nosing. Is it just a tube glued on the end of the gerb? My mental video player is acting up tonight!
Mumbles Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Maserface is right with his suggestion. If you want perfect simultaneous ignition, you'll need to e- match each one. If you don't mind a slight delay, then the chaining works great. It's way easier to do than explain nosing. If you've ever made spolette, it's basically the same technique as nosing. You lay the paper down, and use the "L" shape of glue that Maserface described. Then place your gerb on it, and roll it up down the long edge, ending with the side with the glue. This will leave a couple inch collar on your gerb. Stuff your preferred fuse in. This can be visco, blackmatch, quickmatch, or a combination there of. I like visco sticking out, with a few sticks of blackmatch covered up by the nosing personally. You then cinch the collar around the fuse, and tie a knot around it to seal it. For e-matching, I'd stuff some black match in there, and add the e-match before nosing. Alternatively, you could use quickmatch and leave a length sticking out the top. Then just e-match or chain in the quickmatch sticking out. You can just add an e-match to the nozzle next to the grain, but I've always preferred some sort of blackmatch as an insurance policy. 1
OldMarine Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 I don't have but 12 stations on my firing system so I'm was hoping to fire my line of gerbs with one ematch. I'm thinking I'd better get a bigger everything!
Mumbles Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 If you used a piece of quickmatch, that all of the gerbs were fused into, they would light more or less simultaneously. Within a second or so I'd suspect. Given that gerbs burn pretty long a little bit of time will be pretty unnoticeable.
OldMarine Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Excellent! That combined with the nosing will be my next project. Have charcoal gerbs to try in the dark so I'll give it a go.
schroedinger Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 Here you can see how you nose a device: A other way is to stick some pieces of blackmatch into the nozzle and glue 'em in with a prime slurry. Apply lots. Now you can fuse it with tapematch.
Arthur Posted November 5, 2015 Posted November 5, 2015 http://www.smokemachines.net/PDF/how-to-fit-igniters-to-gerbs.pdf If your comp really will not ignite from an igniter than you may need to paint some prime down the side of the choke hole and put some BP* into the cavity. For future reference then your gerb comp needs to be sensitive enough to fire with an igniter, if you ram without a core then the first increment can be a rough BP* priming layer, I've seen a prime made from a thick BP* slurry with painted onto the inside of the choke and covered with grain powder* before drying. To get six or so igniters to fire together use one series circuit, one long piece of bell wire and 24+volts. * - BP if compatibe otherwise sulphurless powder or a compatible prime powder
Col Posted November 6, 2015 Posted November 6, 2015 (edited) Its worth taking a look at how the drivers on girandolas are fused. Using nosings, buckets and multiple ignition paths is the way to go. I fuse my wheels in a similar fashion Edited November 6, 2015 by Col 1
OldMarine Posted November 6, 2015 Posted November 6, 2015 @ Col: I like that idea! Redundancy is the newbie's friend and I am he.
Maserface Posted November 6, 2015 Posted November 6, 2015 Redundancy is also the experts best friend!
MrB Posted November 8, 2015 Posted November 8, 2015 Maserface is right with his suggestion. If you want perfect simultaneous ignition, you'll need to e- match each one.You guys clearly have more luck with your e-matches then i ever had.Trying to light multiple fuses simultaneously never goes well. Whenever i have to, i set it up so i know it can be sequential. Like rotation, then lift, fountains, then mortars, or what ever.The more e-matches i try and use, the worse it gets. 1 by 1 they are pretty equal in time from button press, to pop. multiple channels tied to a single button, and fired, makes em take longer to pop, and the variance in how long it takes, gets bigger. In this specific case, lighting gerbs, id suggest what Mumbes suggested in post 9. Quickmatch. If your really anal you could try and compensate for the difference between the place in the daisychain by varying the individual fuse length, but i'd honestly just fuse them all in, and put the e-match in the middle. That makes the delay look intentional, and symmetrical.B!
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