Finding thin green Visco

[myfriendtheenemy]

I really would like to get my hands on some of the thin 1.5 mm green Visco fuse that is used in a lot of fireworks from China. I want to be able to make smaller firecrackers that couldn't blow my hand off but I haven't had any luck making my own fuse. I've looked all over for the thin Visco but haven't found it.

Edited May 27, 2021 by myfriendtheenemy

[BetICouldMake1]

Fuse is hard to find right now due to changes in regulations and import delays related to Covid. Starting to see more showing up though, so stay on the lookout.

[SharkWhisperer]

Fuse is hard to find right now due to changes in regulations and import delays related to Covid. Starting to see more showing up though, so stay on the lookout.

And the prices have about tripled at CannonFuse over the last year. Small 20-foot rolls of various speed fuses were $4.99/package pre-Covid (and $3.99 in late 2019) but are now between $14.99-$25.99 per 20-foot roll, which is silly expensive. They usually stock 2-mm "thin" green visco (versus the usual 3-mm stuff) but, 1) they're currently out of stock, and 2) you gotta be desperate to spend $25.99 on a 20-foot roll of fuse. Plus shipping.

 

I think the stuff you're looking for is probably around 1.5-mm diameter, and there's not a big market for that small in the US. My local fireworks store has regular visco for $7.95/20-feet, whereas it was $4.95 last year.

 

Firefox (RIP) still has decent prices for fuse listed, but: 1) you'll probably never receive your order after you pay for it, and 2) because of their injunction, you're limited to 25-feet a roll/year without a BAFTE license, hah ha.

 

If you look around, you can probably find somebody in Chicomland to mail you a roll direct at a lower price, but you might be guessing on reliability (and legality). Hopefully, your money won't just disappear because you might have little recourse if it does.

 

Start of Covid, they dropped the number of container ships relegated to fireworks from 2/month to 1/month, and then more recently they blew up a major pyro factory spectacularly, and I wouldn't be surprised if DJT's trade war slapped an import tax on fireworking stuff, but the last notion is just speculation.

 

Anyways, good luck.

Edited May 27, 2021 by SharkWhisperer

[myfriendtheenemy]

I found some 1.8 mm fuse on onlinefireworks.com, but that was 35 bucks for 65 feet, not including shipping.

[SharkWhisperer]

I found some 1.8 mm fuse on onlinefireworks.com, but that was 35 bucks for 65 feet, not including shipping.

Yipes, that ain't cheap. Last year you could buy a 325-foot roll of regular Chicom visco for that price...

[sefrez]

I made a miniature visco machine that puts out 1.6mm fuse. Took me over a year on and off to get it dialed in. I'd use it more often if it wasn't for the annoying process of forming a finely granulated composition for the core. Milled level mixtures have too poorly defined parameters to get consistent fuse core loading. Also at that fuse size, I had to resort to using polyester for the outer windings because I couldn't find fine enough cotton thread. The fuse does burn great though:

 

 

More recently for quickly making fuse (of which you should easily be able to get 1.5mm) I have been using that "plastic wrap" method:

 

[SharkWhisperer]

I made a miniature visco machine that puts out 1.6mm fuse. Took me over a year on and off to get it dialed in. I'd use it more often if it wasn't for the annoying process of forming a finely granulated composition for the core. Milled level mixtures have too poorly defined parameters to get consistent fuse core loading. Also at that fuse size, I had to resort to using polyester for the outer windings because I couldn't find fine enough cotton thread. The fuse does burn great though:

 

 

More recently for quickly making fuse (of which you should easily be able to get 1.5mm) I have been using that "plastic wrap" method:

 

That's some pretty smooth-burning fuse for homemade! Nice.

[Chiquinho2]

Fórmula??

[Arthur]

I'm not finding cheap fuse anywhere. I'm only finding a poor choice at high prices, sadly that's how the market is now.

 

Still expensive fuse may be better than DIY fuse of unknown reliability.

 

Be careful, there is some really fast fuse available, which you don't want.

[SharkWhisperer]

I'm not finding cheap fuse anywhere. I'm only finding a poor choice at high prices, sadly that's how the market is now.

 

Still expensive fuse may be better than DIY fuse of unknown reliability.

 

Be careful, there is some really fast fuse available, which you don't want.

I've mentioned this before but in at least one instance (2 years ago driving through PA), I located fast perc Visco at one of the interstate highway big box pyro stores. It worked well. Problem is that it was dark green just like regular slow visco! That alone is exceedingly dangerous because it's so simple to mix up your green fuses and grab a roll of fast green perc fuse (most are white/grey). Some kid making "firecrackers" and unwisely tossing them would blow up their hand every single time, essentially instantly with that fuse. Super dangerous. If I found it at the check-out line at a huge pyro store it means there's other pyro vendors carrying it. Just a reminder to always test fuse before using (sometimes the old Chicom stocks just don't performso well anyways, so good to know. That green fast fuse got labeled repeatedly and was segregated from all other fuse stocks to avoid a potential catastrophe. Just a reminder.

 

And yeah, fuse is crazy expensive right now and probably will stay that way for awhile. Luckily picked up a few large spools before this nonsense, but blackmatch has a lot of utility for many applications. Have tried NC-coated BM and that works like shit; the NC coating burns slightly slower than the covered BM. And NC isn't the best of waterproofing agents for an application like fuse. A few experiments using a rubber base in an organic slurry for BM to get some measure of water/humidity resistance

looks much more promising. But plain old BM itself can do much.

 

For timing of smaller shells, spolettes can be overkill--seems a lot of folks use green visco (as do some Chicom consumer shells). If in the US, 1/4" time fuse is still available at a "reasonable" price ($7.50/10 feet) from at least one vendor (ahem, pyrocreations), and at ridiculously elevated prices from others.

 

But this thread was about thin green visco. Sefrez, if you get that machine dialed in to trustworthy reliability there would likely be a lot of folks willing to "test" your product. That said, the dangers of unreliable/unpredictable fuse in fireworking are extreme.

Edited August 24, 2021 by SharkWhisperer

[dagabu]

We saw several examples of this fast green visco fuse at PGI this year at the rocket line. The worst part is that it is not discernible from regular green cannon fuse unless lit. We also saw a lot of poor quality US made visco with heavy, heavy nitrocellulose lacquer on the outside and it took fire right up the outside and into the rocket.

 

I fear this will become even a bigger issue next year after reserves of the good chi-com green fuse have been used up.

[SharkWhisperer]

We saw several examples of this fast green visco fuse at PGI this year at the rocket line. The worst part is that it is not discernible from regular green cannon fuse unless lit. We also saw a lot of poor quality US made visco with heavy, heavy nitrocellulose lacquer on the outside and it took fire right up the outside and into the rocket.

 

I fear this will become even a bigger issue next year after reserves of the good chi-com green fuse have been used up.

You'd think the nanny CPSC would end the import of fast green fuse, but they must have more "important" current priorities. That stuff is going to get somebody hurt if it hasn't already.

 

One consideration with the regular fast grey perc visco is that some lots do not age well. A kid on reddit posted a series of tests (videos) a few months back where a roll that was a year or two old (not even that old) burned normally in the open but would deflagrate every single time it was encased in QM piping or paper wrap. Worrisome. An another good reminder to test all of your fuses in the manner that you intend to use them.

 

A shame that a shortage of something so simple and so integral to fireworking like fuse might become the bottleneck in hobbyist pyro activities. Or already is if you didn't stock up... Well, visco is a relatively new item in the history of fireworking, so we'll just use logical workarounds if availability (at a reasonable price) stays an issue. There's a lot of utility to blackmatch, and to BM made with alternative oxidizers than KNO₃ or with the addition of metals. And it seems that several folks are working on their own Visco machines...

[Arthur]

For DIY the quality of the NC lacquer is critical, Nitration to HE standard will cause things to pass fire too quickly, nitration to guitar lacquer may be better.

[dagabu]

You'd think the nanny CPSC would end the import of fast green fuse, but they must have more "important" current priorities. That stuff is going to get somebody hurt if it hasn't already.

 

One consideration with the regular fast grey perc visco is that some lots do not age well. A kid on reddit posted a series of tests (videos) a few months back where a roll that was a year or two old (not even that old) burned normally in the open but would deflagrate every single time it was encased in QM piping or paper wrap. Worrisome. An another good reminder to test all of your fuses in the manner that you intend to use them.

 

A shame that a shortage of something so simple and so integral to fireworking like fuse might become the bottleneck in hobbyist pyro activities. Or already is if you didn't stock up... Well, visco is a relatively new item in the history of fireworking, so we'll just use logical workarounds if availability (at a reasonable price) stays an issue. There's a lot of utility to blackmatch, and to BM made with alternative oxidizers than KNO₃ or with the addition of metals. And it seems that several folks are working on their own Visco machines...

 

This is actually it's normal operation when not used as designed. Most energetic powders will push the flame front ahead of the mass if constricted unless it is in a grain that will not allow the flame front to pass. This is exactly the way it works in piping fire from my rockets into shells, immediate fire transfer and also the way it was designed and the way I want it to perform.

 

We may have our own ideas bow we like things to perform but we should always be ready to test assemblies beforehand to make sure we get the end result we are looking for.

[dagabu]

For DIY the quality of the NC lacquer is critical, Nitration to HE standard will cause things to pass fire too quickly, nitration to guitar lacquer may be better.

 

I agree, we are probably looking for fire resistance and water resistance via the NC, not a burnable solid.

[Mumbles]

Sharkwhisperer, are you talking about the paper wrapped stuff or something more akin to flying fish fuse. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any grey visco like string wrapped fuse.

 

For the paper wrapped stuff, that'd be my expectation when wrapped or encased.

[SharkWhisperer]

Sharkwhisperer, are you talking about the paper wrapped stuff or something more akin to flying fish fuse. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any grey visco like string wrapped fuse.

 

For the paper wrapped stuff, that'd be my expectation when wrapped or encased.

Grey fast fuse. Essentially the same appearance as regular Chicom green visco but grey outside with with a perc-based filler. Faster burning than flying fish. Not paper encased. This stuff usually doesn't blow when paper encased or it'd risk destroy masking tape-covered fusing on backyard fusing set-ups/inside fuse connectors; flamefront is already contained in the plastic (polyester?) coating so it doesn't speed up like BM when piped into QM (though some companies are happy to bundle fast fuse with QM piping--complete rip-off). But a video a few months ago (buried somewhere on Reddit) showed a roll of old stock deflagrating when piped into paper or straws, suggesting outer coating integrity compromised by age. Or just a bad batch from China.

 

Mentioned that I also saw this stuff for sale (once in PA) in dark green, essentially identical in appearance to regular good old slow-burning green visco, and that is where the danger lays...if somebody accidentally fused a device with stuff that burns at a half second/foot thinking it burns at 20 seconds/foot, that 40x increase in burn rate can cause injuries.

 

https://cannonfuse.com/cannon-fuse/white-safety-fuse-3-4-sec-ft-quick-fuse

Edited September 11, 2021 by SharkWhisperer