Christmas Light Igniters

[Updup]

Hey ya'll, it's nearing the holidays and Christmas lights are super cheap this time of year! And what better thing to do with lights then ignite fireworks? I am going to share with you a way to make low voltage igniters for less than 4 cents each!

 

1. Go to your locale Wally world (wal-mart) And pick up a couple hundred lights, I got mine for 2 bucks.

 

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/November_1-1.jpg

2. Take all the lights off the strand, and keep the strand, you can use part of this later in step eight.

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/November_4.jpg

 

3. Before you get started, it's MUCH more efficient if you do allot at once, and don't finish an igniter then do the next, you want to work in hundreds doing step one on all of them, then step two ect. Okay now you want to file off the tip of the glass tube around the light, I used a file at first, but found it much easier to mount my dremel tool in my vice and run the lights through it with a tube or bowl under it to catch the glass tips, I get a cleaner cut that way as well.

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/November_5.jpg

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/DSCN7415.jpg

 

 

4. This next picture is two steps. Fill the remaining glass tube with small granules of black powder. For working with lots of lights, take a piece of scrap wood and drill holes in it, use this to mount the filled lights upright.

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/November_11.jpg

 

5. Cut 100 1.25" pieces of fuse.

 

6. Cut 100 1.5" pieces of cheapo masking tape. To make this faster cleaner and easier, find something you can put the roll of tape on (Some kind of rod) and pull out a little tab. Next mark your thumb* 1.5" back with a sharpie or pen, now grip the tab with your *right/left hand (I'm a lefty, just whatever feels more comfortable) with scissors in the opposite hand, and when you grab the flap, make the end of it line up with the mark on your thumb, now grip on to the tape with your marker thumb and index finger and pull away from the roll. next just cut against the tip of your thumb, make sure you leave a new tab for the next cut, lastly take the cut piece of tape and put in on the edge of something.

 

7. Now you have to take each light insert a piece of fuse, and wrap in tape don't tape over the green/white plastic like I did in the picture, only wrap around the glass tube, it's much neater that way..

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/November_12.jpg

 

And there you have it, one hundred igniters for the cost of the lights, a dollar for fuse, and some time! Now your homework is to time yourself making 100, and post it here, I'll see if I can beat your time.

 

8. Cut off the light sockets and solder them on to your ignition system, now just plug a light in the socket and your good to go!

 

http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx255/Updup/November_15.jpg

[Ventsi]

One of the better C-mass light tuts. I have seen. Good job.

One tip though, its better to use finer grain/mill dust powder since the big granules can easily tear the filament into pieces when poured in. Also a slower BP or comp is better, it gives more fire, and less of a chance to shatter the bulb or "jump" and pull on your firing system.

[Updup]

Thanks. Seems like you can use black powder of your prefrence, I'll have to cheak but I think it might be cheaper to use powder vs granulars because when you granulate the black powder it kind of shrinks. But powder is just so messy .

[Mumbles]

I am curious about two things. Is there any advantage to removing the bulbs from the sockets, since you have to put them back in to fire? Does the visco you put in go directly into the devices, or proceed to light another ignition source?

[dagabu]

I am curious about two things. Is there any advantage to removing the bulbs from the sockets, since you have to put them back in to fire? Does the visco you put in go directly into the devices, or proceed to light another ignition source?

 

This is a LOT harder then it looks! My filaments broke when I filled the bulb with BP no matter how gentle I was. I decided to go about it a different way altogether, break the glass with a small hammer, dip the filament in a mix of finely powdered pot perc, dark Al and Nitro lacquer, let dry and dip again.

 

They are almost fireworks by themselves as they are so bright and vigorous! Oh, I almost forgot, I just grab the scab wire after a shoot (my wife and I do the clean up after the shows) and solder the bulb to the scab wire. I discard the holder and the wire all together. A single turn of Al tape holds the igniter to the quick match.

 

Your mileage may vary...

 

D

Edited December 21, 2009 by dagabu

[a_bab]

Just my 5 cents. See if any applies to you:

 

- you want to break the bulb without fearing the filament rupture

- you hate risking to get a glass shard driven in some unlucky part of your body

- you do not need a green day turned into a red, mad one

 

Just heat the tip of the bulb with a gas lamp and put it in water. The glass wil crack very nicely, leaving the filament intact.

[Swede]

Nice pics and fine tutorial! Some thoughts:

 

I like the concept of unplugging, then replugging, because for small shows, you can wire together harnesses made from the remnant wire. You can make a 2 shot harness, 4 shot, whatever, parallel or series, giving you flexibility in how you set it up. The bulk of the heavier wire hopefully remains intact, if you use fuse like it's shown here. But for more traditional ignitors, I like the thought of an MEK or acetone-based pyrophoric slurry. NC, chlorate, Al, antimony trisulfide, that sort of thing. Thin enough, you might be able to use one of those disposable PE plastic pipettes and inject the slurry into the light bulb. Once the filament is covered with slurry, add a bit of BP on top. The use of a drilled wooden board to hold the bulbs for this is a great idea.

 

They sell diamond wheels for dremel tools, thin suckers that I've used to cleanly cut even thick glass pipettes. They'd make short work of xmas tree light bulbs. It does kick up glass dust, which would be some insanely nasty stuff to get in your eyes or to breathe, so be careful if you cut glass. I think a-babs suggestion is a good one, I'm just not sure how consistent it would be in the sense that if you want a "tube" of glass to pack with material, cutting might be easier. I don't know because I've never tried the "heat and water" method.

[Updup]

Wow this topic sure did kick off! It's showtime tomarrow and I'm in Kentucky right now, away from home.

 

Anywho , here's my opinion on your thoughts.

 

Mumbles, the reson for removing the bulbs is so you can hook up the igniters to your devices without messing with the wires running to the box, and like Swede said, I've made some "harnesses" for diffrent actions. As for your second questions, I figure you can do whatever, in my case, I taped them to my fountains fuse, but for my shells I set an igniter in my quickmatch (the wanabe tape kind) for quick ignition response time.

 

Dagabu, dipping the matches is another good option and I bet it will match preformence. As far as your filaments breaking, are your bulbs used? Have you turned them on at all? Because if you have, the filament becomes much MUCH more brittle, due to it heating and cooling. I have yet to have any of mine fail, not kidding.

 

Thanks Swede, when dipping, do you use stright nitrocellulouse? Or do you mix in some black powder into the slurry?

 

 

Cheers guys!

[Swede]

Thanks Swede, when dipping, do you use stright nitrocellulouse? Or do you mix in some black powder into the slurry?

 

The few I've done were dipped in a water-based slurry of potassium chlorate, antimony trisulfide, and lamp-black in an attempt to experiment with bridgeless ignitors. They dry quickly, then get dipped in NC to seal. They burn fierce and furious, but I've given up on bridgeless for now because they seemed too inconsistent for me.

 

You could always make a sealer-dip out of NC lacquer + BP dust for a little extra boost, or dip in NC, then roll in BP, then a final NC dip. But that sounds like more work than necessary. A good amount of e-match comp, sealed in NC, should do any job needed, I think. But I don't have that much experience with e-matches.

[Arthur]

The only stable bridgeless igniters that I have heard of were bound with CMC and they worked well but needed a lot of volts to fire them and had to be fired in singles.

 

With ODA selling bridgewire chips at peanuts a thousand is there really any value in doing DIY chips esp when the lamp filament is very fragile.

 

The only thing I really worry about is having to clear something after a fail to fire scenario, so really good ignition is essential.

[Mumbles]

To save yourself some trouble if you are inept at soldering (like me), you can buy uncoated e-matches from pyrodirect, skylighter, or pyrocreations. Pyrodirect used to have some cheap ones, but currently they'll run you about $0.50 a piece from any of the source, with pyrodirect being the overall cheapest. Skylighter also has really short leads, which I am not a fan of.

[Yafmot]

Swede, I like your method best. What I've been thinking, though, is if there's a certain EMF pulse that will cause the filament to work as an exploding bridgewire. Just drill a tiny hole near the tip and use a glass syringe and squirt in a little SHN or NG, then plug the hole with a drop of epoxy. If we have some electron herders reading this, maybe they could experiment with different voltages, currents, wattage, durations, rise times etc, and let us know.

 

Also, I remember seeing a conductive igniter dip which works without a bridgewire. Actually, I think you're supposed to paint it on, watching that you don't get it too wide, which would lower the resistance. I can't remember if it's for sale, or if was a how-to I read somwhere (maybe here). Not recalling just tortures me to no end, as I'm interested in it now.

 

Does this ring a bell with anybody?

Edited January 10, 2010 by Yafmot

[Mumbles]

Yafmot, you may remember a Finnish gentleman named Frogfot. He was pretty active a few years ago on Sciencemadness and Roguesci. He's unfortunately fallen off the face of the earth. It's a shame. Very nice, intelligent guy and we used to have lengthy chemistry discussions. Anyway, he came up with one of the better mixes I've ever seen.

 

Layer 1:

A graphite slurry is made in NC, and dipped onto the wires and allowed to dry.

 

Layer 2:

A BP slurry, with an additional dip in NC lacquer to seal everything in.

 

The last I heard we was working on the inner layer, as this method had a bit of hesitation at time. I suggested a BP mix made with graphite instead of carbon as a better first fire, which I believe he was going to try.

 

 

 

I've seen a few other conductive mixes.

 

From Bob Forward:

Potassium Chlorate - 50

Antimony Trisulfide - 25

Conductive Lampblack - 25

 

I've seen this made with 7:1:1, which saves on the expensive materials, and reduces sensitivity.

 

Either mix is made into a slurry with NC lacquer.

 

An often quoted ematch composition is:

 

16 Potassium Chlorate

5 CMC

3 Lampblack (conductive)

3 Magnalium (200 mesh)

2 Aluminium (120 mesh, spherical)

2 Zirconium (200 mesh, optional)

 

Source: PML, post by Mike Carter

Comments: This composition does not require the use of a bridge wire. The composition itself acts as a resistor. Comments from the poster: "The matches fire just fine on 200 feet of #16 guage wire and a standard 12V battery two at a time. Sometimes there's a delay...I haven't tested these on the high power electric firing systems so I don't know how they fare."

Preparation: 1) Bind in water. Make CMC & Water into a mostly soupy mess. Add components into a container and mix well. 2) Dip freshly stripped wire with both conductors about 1mm or slightly less between them, evenly parallel. The longer the exposed metal on the wire, the less Ohmage the match will have. Allow to dry in vertical hanging position. Redip as necessary. I find that two dips is just fine. 3) Once the comp is dry, you will need to coat it with NC (Nitrocellulose) laquer. I find that two dips in the NC laquer is enough to keep the very brittle comp from cracking or splitting while manuevering the wire into your shell or mine or rocket motor. I normally will color the double-dippers with some Iron Oxide stirred into the NC Laquer so I have a visual that they're unsuitable for firing whistle motors. (Double Dipped tend to go BANG, and destroy the motor).

 

Insensitive mix from Alan Yates:

 

64.00% 16 Potassium Nitrate

12.00% 3 Lampblack (conductive)

12.00% 3 Magnesium (-60 mesh, flake)

4.00% 1 Aluminium (-40 mesh, granular)

4.00% 1 Aluminium (16 um, bright flake)

4.00% 1 Sulfur

 

Made into a NC slurry.

 

All of the above are generally coated with an additional NC sealing layer, or even BP slurry and additonal NC dip to seal off some of the more dangerous mixes.

[NightHawkInLight]

I posted a video of this method right around when this thread started but did not see it until now. It was FrankR that first tipped me off about using a triangle file to break the bulbs, which works quite well. When I posted the video last month I got dozens of comments saying the method of applying heat to the end of the bulb via an everyday lighter and dipping in water cracked the bulbs quite cleanly. I'm yet to try it just cause I really could care less with the file working just fine for me. Seemed to be agreed upon by quite a few individuals as a very quick and effective method.

[Updup]

I posted a video of this method right around when this thread started but did not see it until now. It was FrankR that first tipped me off about using a triangle file to break the bulbs, which works quite well. When I posted the video last month I got dozens of comments saying the method of applying heat to the end of the bulb via an everyday lighter and dipping in water cracked the bulbs quite cleanly. I'm yet to try it just cause I really could care less with the file working just fine for me. Seemed to be agreed upon by quite a few individuals as a very quick and effective method.

 

Yep, I saw your video, just after I had made my first batch too.

I used the EXACT same file you did in your video, and found it to crack the bulb very unevanly and sometimes too short, but the dremel method works great, nice clean cut.

 

The heat method sound interesting, and very fast if you have a butane torch, but you would have to be carful about heating the filament because they become alot more brittle when heated and cooled again. Thats why people say never use used lights.

[NightHawkInLight]

Well apparently the bulbs heat up very quickly with a plain lighter. It would not damage the filament at all I'm sure, as the bulb would need to reach a very high temperature to even come close to heating the wire inside to a substantial temp. By the time the gas inside the bulb was much more than room temp it would have already been dipped in water. Just imagine what temp the wire is when the light is turned on, and I have very successfully used old lights for igniters from Christmas past. The heat from cracking the bulb is not even comparable.

[gordohigh]

I watched nighthawks video and being Christmas time and having a bunch of old lights I had to try it. I made around 6 of them and used the lighter and water method (which worked great) and all 6 fired perfectly.The first 3 I did with black powder only, and the other 3 I dipped in NC and sprinkled BP on it and let dried. They all worked equally well so this is a viable way to ignite for us cheap guys that don't want to spend 50c on an ematch. My lights by the way, were old, used lights and I had no problem with filaments breaking.

 

Maybe not practical for a large scale shoot, but, I enjoy doing things a different way sometimes anyway,just to learn more about everything.

[gordohigh]

Just wanted to mention that the used lights are really not reliable as I have since found out. Its been a while so I couldn't edit my post but I would suggest using only new bulbs as was stated above.

 

The beauty of these bulbs is they will fire with very little voltage. I am curious though if anyone else has tried the method mentioned above where you break the entire glass and dip just the filament. I'm thinking you would need to slide a tube or straw over the end to protect it and I am planning on trying this with the mix for regular ematches using Potassium Chlorate and Antimony Trisulfide. The straw should protect the end and force the fire in the right direction as with a commercial ematch, at least thats what I'm hoping for.

 

If anyone is using this method please post your experience and reliability because if there are too many misfires then I wouldn't be interested. I'm just too cheap to buy the ematch and this seems to be the best alternative so far, for me anyway. I have made some ematch chips using 1/4in copper tape and cola type cardboard with 44ga nichrome but this is very time consuming, took me about 4~5 hours to make 30 of them, lol. That wire is so small if you drop a piece it's almost impossible to find.

 

 

Just thinking outload here but what if after breaking the glass, the whole thing, you took a small piece of cardboard, chip size and glued the bottom into the bottom of the socket and then dipped it, seems that it might be a way to even further protect the filament?

 

 

[dagabu]

Lots of ground to cover here. First, yes, use new bulbs, the filament is several times stronger if it has no been heated. Yes, I break all of the glass off, I don't like metal or glass inside my rockets (or leaders for shells).

 

I found that the Christmas light igniters work the best when double dipped into a hot flash comp thinned to a syrup consistency with NC lacquer. The double dipping makes them nice and strong and projects a lot of flame when set off.

 

When I need to shield them, I simply take a 1" section of ice maker water tube (Home Depot) and hold the middle over a flame until it turns clear, pull it apart and let it cool. I trim it back to the point where I get an opening just bigger then the wire on the tapered end and slip it on the wire all the way down to cover the igniter.

 

The heavy wall protects the flame and makes it spray out the end and it melts and closes in on itself sealing the igniter.

 

D

[FrankRizzo]

Gordo,

 

Here's a few videos I made detailing the process.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M2uwiaOVxo

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5fFPfM4wI

[gordohigh]

Thanks guys, the additional info has helped. Yesterday, I managed to make up about 30 of these igniters and dipped the first coat of the Potassium Chlorate and Antimony Trisulfide. Today I'll dip in Potassiumm Chlorate and charcoal and redip in NC after they dry. I saw a picture tutorial somewhere, maybe ODC where they stripped the bulb from the housing, (completely), and then broke all the glass off but this seemed to be too labor intensive so I used the a combination of the method that Frank and Dagabu posted above. I did break all the glass off though, and found that the masking tape wrapped and vise grips worked the best for me. I cut the wires for each bulb, stripped them, broke the bulb, tested continuity and dipped them in about 2 hours so I think that is a pretty good trade off. I used a very small amount of the dip for the prime because of how active it is so I might double dip the second coat just to build it up a bit because not a lot stays on the filament and posts and I was worried about having the mix too thick and breaking them, maybe I was being too cautious?

 

When I was looking around yesterday I saw where ODC sells the chips with nichrome attached for 12.00 per hundred, not too bad really, cheap enough where I may just try a batch of those too. Has anyone tried these? I emailed them yesterday for a shipping price and hope to hear back today. BTW, you can get 500 for 45.00 and 1000 for even less.

 

Anyway, I plan on doing some tests with the ones I made to check reliability and to see how many I can ignite on one que. I have the single que system that uncle sams sells and so far I have 8 cues and can expand to 12 with the one remote and 4 AA batteries per que. It so far, seems to be a pretty solid system and I used one cue next to me to quickly test continuity which helped speed things up. I'll try to report back on how the tests go. I am toying around with attaching a tube to the end so I have something to attach a piece of quick fuse to, or to direct the fire into a piece of quick match. I'm just wondering if the straw will be enough or if I should try the method Dagabu used. I'm trying to picture in my mind how that works and if you stripped everything but the bulb itself to use with the tube. (aren't those icemaker tubes 1/4 in?) If you could post a pic that would be great.

[dagabu]

Sure!

 

To save time in making the igniters, I just use a hammer and break the glass at the base of the light bulb. I have yet to have one break the filament and I always check the continuity before I dip them and again after they are double dipped.

 

Also, on the homemade e-matches, I found a person on eBay that had 1/32" copper clad fiberglass sheets that he would trim to any size you wanted. I have a bunch of 1" x 12" strips that I cut down to 1/2" x 12" and simply wrap the nichrome wire around the sheet in a spiral from one end to the other then I take Oatey liquid flux and etch the wire and copper, crank up the cigar lighter, heat the surface and time the entire surface with solder.

 

When cool, I cut the strip again down the long way (1/4" x 12") and cut each match head away from each other (1/8" x 1/4"), solder on to the shooting wire and dip as per the modified flash above.

 

I usually only use these for rockets using a capacitive discharge system at 100' and the spark will arc the match head even with no wire.

 

D

Edited March 31, 2010 by dagabu

[TheSidewinder]

Very nice videos, Frank.

 

Good job!

[gordohigh]

Hey Dagabu, thanks so much for posting the pics, I didn't realize the tubing would stretch so much but it now makes sense and you have a really good method for enclosing them.

 

I had a chance to set off a few of my Christmas tree light igniters today and I am impressed with the reliability of them, 100%

 

The dip I mentioned above worked great, in fact, I could probably dip the prime a little heavier and you were right, they become very sturdy after they are done, much more than I imagined!

 

I have another 20 to test with and will try to remember to do a video of them, been down with the flu and just starting to feel good enough to do something other than mope around the house.

 

I dipped the prime yesterday and dipped the potassium chlorate and charcoal with final nc dip today and a few hours later fired 10 of them, I should have dried them more but they all worked fine

 

anyway, nice and stout too!! Thanks again for sharing with a fellow pyro.

[dagabu]

Sure Gordon, I even have some video of them burning but I didn't like it so I will take some more tomorrow out in the sun. Personally, I dont use Chlorate, I dont like the reactivity with Nitrates and sulfur. Perc and Al works well for me.

 

D