How to fuse a rack of shells?

[Berksglh]

I tried searching a bit for the info and didn’t find a good answer, so here is my question:

 

How do you guys tie multiple (quick match fused) shells together in a rack.

 

Last 4th I used green visco and masking tape to daisy chain a rack of commercial 1.5 inch shells. That worked fine, but that was visco to visco.

 

I tried it last night with two of my quick match fused 2.5” shells, and it appears that the first shell pulled the second shell half way out of the tube before the second lift lit. The first shell was low, but not to bad, and second shell only went up about twenty feet. and I've tested them individually, and was ten for ten getting decent height.

 

I’m assuming the little bit of masking tape held the quick match leaders together, and the quick match paper didn’t burn apart before the first lift charge fired.

[crazyboy25]

hmmm you could set up your shells and take a long piece of black match wrap it around the first fuse than have it go and wrap around the top of the next fuse and so on.

[billyb]

I work for a pro display company and when we fuse shells together for a single hit, we simply slice the sheave carefully and insert the end of the QM, ensuring black match touches black match. And then use just enough black insulation or parcel tape to secure it.

 

Works perfect. We also insert just an inch of green visco into the open end for a second delay.

[ST1DinOH]

there's quite a few different ways to go here...

 

slow visco (30 seconds per foot) chain is good for sending shells up nice and slow during a non-finale situation. if you are transitioning from visco to visco the best method is to angle cut the visco you are passing the fire to, then using a small zip tie secure the shell leader to the visco chain about an inch away from the end of the visco leader (the part you angle cut). now with both hands free and the leader secure use a second zip tie to secure the angle cut end of the leader fuse tight against the chain visco ensuring that the exposed powder core of the leader visco is in direct contact with the chain visco.

 

at this point a covering of some kind of tape to insulate this connection is optional. but it does increase the odds of passfire by giving you a nice little tape "oven" around the connection that will increase the heat and odds of passing fire to the leader fuse.

 

fast visco (3-6 seconds per foot) chain is used the same way but burns much faster so it's good for fans, zippers and sky pukes.

 

passing fire to visco from sticky match is a little tricky but if you take the time to do it right you'll have near %100 sucess. i always use a blade to make a small lengthwise incision to slip in the angle cut end of the visco leader, then fold the sticky part over the leader to secure it to the sticky match. because the SM tends to fly all around quite violently during ignition you might be wise to secure the leader to the sticky with some tape (a few times around) to prevent it from pulling away from the leader fuses as it burns.

 

passing fire to visco from quick match is basicly the same way.

 

but in both methods it's important to remember not to collapse or choke off the sticky match or quick match tube as this my cause small delays in the burn rate by not allowing the hot gasses to pipe ahead of the actuall flame.

 

passing fire from sticky match to sticky match i try to cut a small opening into the end of the sticky to expose the inside powder, then i do the same thing on the chain (again a small hole) and marrythem together ensuring that the inner powder core from both touch each other.

 

the problem is securing the SM to SM connection to prevent the two from seperating whiel the SM chain burns. you can use tape but again you must be carefull not to collapse that tube and pinch it off.

 

this connection is much less reliable than quick match to quickmatch because it's far easier to secure QM to QM without pinching off the tube effect than SM to SM.

 

with a QM to QM connection you carefully slice an opening in the chain, then carefully remove about an inch of the paper off the end of the shell leader's QM and insert the black match of the leader into the small hole in the QM chain. then secure both together with tape (again ensuriung you aren't collapsing that tube. but much less to worry about here unless you tie the QM in a knot for some reason).

 

QM tends to puff up quite nicely whiel burning as opposed to SM which sometimes shrinks due to the flamable clear tape it's made from.

 

i think that covers all the bases...

 

if you want info like this on attaching e-matches let me know and i'll type it up when i have time.

 

hope this helps.

 

one last tip:

 

whenever you use QM or SM it's always a good idea to secure the chain in as many place as possible to something solid (like a rack or a cake). this will aid in the prevention of pull away whiel the chain is burning and trying to fly all around.

[Berksglh]

Great info! After reading that, I think I figured out what I did wrong.

 

I had a three inch piece of visco tapped tightly in the end of each quick match leader. Then I tapped the two pieces of visco side by side, but spaced one piece an inch back, allowing a delay after lighting the first. I believe when I did this, I wrapped the 2 sheaths of the quick match together at the fuse end. So the two shells were physically joined at the ends of the quick match sheath.

 

Based on what you just described, I should have tied the first piece of quick match to the center of the visco, independently tape it there, then repeat down the length of the visco in that fashion. Then the visvo burns apart between each QM leader, allowing the shell leaders to separate after passing the fire.

 

I shouldn’t have the issue any more. I’ll test it Sunday night if my new batch of shells is ready by then. I just finished building a 16 tube rack for 2.5” shells. When I get my 4 tube rack to fire flawlessly, I’ll be anxious to try the 16 shot rack.

 

Thanks big time.

[asilentbob]

In racks its common practice to wrap the e-match leads around the wooden horizontal brace on either side of the rack so that when the shell is fired it dosn't rip the other e-matches out of the field modules if the leads are tangled or something. Or pull adjacent shells out of their mortars. Doing the same with quickmatch would be wise... some people put holes right near the very top open end of their guns to tie off on for visco, quickmatch, e-match, etc...