gordohigh Posted June 25, 2010 Posted June 25, 2010 I have built a 29 shot cake, 3/4ID and about 8" tall. It is a triangle shape and I already have it all together and fused. I am looking for some suggestions on what to load it with and any hints /suggestions on how the disc arrangement goes to get some height. I was thinking about some stars and maybe some salutes but have never done a cake before other than a 1 inch one with crossettes and cavity stars which was nice. I used whistle mix to break them and got a nice report from that. Now I would like to try a new affect but cant find much info other than flying fish fuse which is a possibility. Any detailed ideas are welcome.
dagabu Posted June 25, 2010 Posted June 25, 2010 Salutes in cakes may be one of the last things you try due to the aftermath when one flowerpots and takes the cake apart. Saettines are your likely report insert as they resist intrusion of the lift into the body better. Time fuse in shells this small pose the issue of passfire getting into the shell. Either way, be careful and give good distances so that a detonation wont end up getting someone hurt. 1
gordohigh Posted June 26, 2010 Author Posted June 26, 2010 I think your right, scratch the salutes. If I were to use flying fish fuse cut up into small pieces, what is the best way to get them up as high as possible. I know there is a method described on skylighter which involves using 2 discs with a short tube glued between them which I don't think I will have time to do before the 4th. Anyone know where there is a good cake tutorial?
dagabu Posted June 26, 2010 Posted June 26, 2010 I have done it two ways, the first is to wrap the bundle of flying fish tightly in a single wrap of 50# kraft and prime all of the ends at once with meal and punch at least one disk (with a passfire hole) -or- use cotton or hemp twine and tie the bundle tightly, prime, use at least one disk with a hole for passfire. You will see a lot of homemade mines (cakes) that dont use disks to buffer the fire from the lift and they usually spray the effect and everyone thinks that they overlifted the shell/insert but it is actually the device adding to the burn in the tube. A piston works even better, two disks attached with a very short piece of tube no bigger then 3/4 the ID of the tube.
gordohigh Posted June 27, 2010 Author Posted June 27, 2010 I actually made a couple of pistons the other day. I need to make a punch out of a steel nipple and use this method because I feel, (and you did too) it will give the best result. Since I have five colors of fuse already I guess this would be my best choice for this cake. Thanks for the input Dave, I know I can count on your advise as being good and safe. What lengths would you recommend and should I use the 10% lift rule. I know I will need to test one based on the quality of my granulated BP but would that be a good place to start. When I shot my crosette cake that's what I ended up using and it worked pretty good, plenty of lift and it lit the top, unpasted and primed part every shot.
dagabu Posted June 27, 2010 Posted June 27, 2010 Its a small tube, (3/4") so I would stay with x2 the diameter, perhaps 1-1/4" long and see if that works for you. Dont mix the colors, thet get muddles together, do a cake with two or three the same color and then switch. It takes a little time for the mind to register color and the audience will actually be looking forward to seeing the same color again but dont over do it, just two or three in a row. I would do a cake like this, if I had five colors I would shoot all five colors in my first row in a Z shape since flying fish swim a little ways and you dont want a lot of cross over with colors. Timing about 1 second between shots. This establishes the pallet for the audiences eyes so they know what is coming. The next row/s should be either three shots of the same color delayed from each other by two seconds or a wall (three tubes all shooting at the same time) or if a Z cake, three (or two depending how many tubes you have in one row) of one color going up in each angle of the cake with a 2 second delay. The closing can be a rainbow with a fan of colors all at the same time or a quick fan almost instantly across the front so that all the colors get to hang at the same time since the eye will be accustomed to the colors by then. I would then end with a high Ti content report with ends of the fish mixed in after a 3 second delay. It's a shocker that really gets the attention of the crowd. The show we did last night was around 22 minutes and aftyer it ended, a good ten seconds of black sky, the choreographer hit the last Que and sent up a 12 timed salute barrage. The secret is this, unless there is something especially spectacular about the show, a good salute at the end will please them all!
gordohigh Posted June 27, 2010 Author Posted June 27, 2010 Well, I made a last minute change, but incorporated all these ideas. I already had some 1/2in inserts with some various contents including some stars, colored flying fish fuse, BP salutes and some dragons eggs so I decided to cut some discs. I am going to test one here in a few mins when it's dark out. I will glue a disc to each end so they are 3/4 in to fit the cake tubes I already have made and the fit should be nice. The little guys are about 10 grams each so I'm gonna try 1 gram of lift and adjust if necessary, and my 1/8 in green visco is about 1 1/2 in long total, and primed but is only covered by duct tape about 3/4 of an inch. I will be measuring the timing when I shoot and I left enough to leave longer or cut if needed. In effect, I will be shooting a piston with the small shell being a part of it, wish me luck.
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