Northern Lighters Multibreaks

[WonderBoy]

Psyco and I took a road trip up to the Northern Lighters club shoot this past weekend. We had a great weekend shooting and watching quite a few very nice shells. Also had the opportunity to consume a few beverages and talk pyro with very talented fireworkers until the wee hours of the morning.

 

I had two and a half shells in the Saturday night display, a 5" Bebbux (Snail) and a 5" Studata.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyLiFVMUQ8

 

 

The Snail broke with a very unfortunate orientation and had ignition problems with the stars in the inserts. The Studata could have had a shorter initial spolette, and the color insert stars cut a bit smaller, but otherwise I was pretty happy with it.

 

Questions, comments, and criticism are welcome.

 

 

WB

Edited September 5, 2013 by WonderBoy

[fredhappy]

wonderboy: well done!! I liked the first one a lot, nice spread and a loud bottomshot. The second one was nice too, I liked the initial effects clustering like that.

 

All in all you have reason to be proud. For small 2 and 2.5"inserts I am currently using small 6 mm stars. When these small stars are primed thick and effectively, they can be broken very hard. This results in dense symetrical flowers for small calibers, I really can recommend this

star size.

 

Thanks for sharing, I wish I could have be present during this shoot, always looks like you guys are having a blast, very nice.

 

Thanks for sharing, keep it up.

 

best

 

fred

[flying fish]

Those are some nice shells! I wish I could have made it up to MN, hope they do it again some year.

[chemtech89]

I've got a question for you. How do you fuse and prime your inserts. I recently made a 5" stutata as well and I would like my timing to be more snappy. I use time fuse with a thin layer of NC BP slurry to cover just the top of the fuse. And 2 stands of BM held by string, what I believe is called the "top hat" method. I've cross matched inserts in the past but I believe leaving the fuse whole has higher potential for better accuracy. I was thinking of adding some silicone to the NC BP slurry. Not that I have ignition problems but as soon as the fire hits the insert, I want that time fuse to be cooking. Hoping the silicone gets that stubborn fuse to light instantly. I know depending on how thick the slurry will also effect it so I'm trying to keep that to a minimal, very thin layer.

[WonderBoy]

Thanks for the advice Fred, I will remember that for my next shell. It was a lot of fun. If you ever come to the States we'll have to get you out to a shoot Here's a photo from the afterglow, enjoying old school sparklers with some very talented shell builders.

 

 

 

Chem, do you have video of your shell? Also, what kind of time fuse are you using? I use the fat core Chinese stuff. I put up some photos of how I prime my inserts in this thread: http://www.amateurpy...ends-mpa-shoot/ I don't use a slurry at all, just tie on the BM. I tie 2 pieces of BM on the fuse and 1 over the top running perpendicular.

 

I think Silicon would be helpful though, but others have more experience with that method, so I will let them speak to that.

 

I also use a fuse cutter, so I get pretty precise lengths. Some of the timing on my inserts was a bit sloppy this time, someone at the shoot recommended frequently changing the blade to ensure more precise cuts.

 

 

WB

[psyco_1322]

Here are a few of mine. My 5" shell suffered from some odd malfunction where the 2nd break went first. That seemed to damage the spiking on the first break, making it pop open and basically dump the contents.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUQ3L6Muscg&feature=share&list=UUgI5uZb74PKA0zaw9YUkYxg

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQMsndHk1fY&feature=share&list=UUgI5uZb74PKA0zaw9YUkYxg

 

 

When I started making inserts with square cut time fuse, I was priming both ends with a fence post based prime, bound with NC. I was only using a very thin layer on the fuse. I would then add a few strands of BM to the side of the fuse to "catch" fire if the prime was not getting lit directly. I have now switched over to a top hat method, where I have 3 strands of the BM running over the top of the fuse, with no prime on the outside, ignition side. I have still been priming the inside of the fuses, just for a added flash of fire. I might eventually stop the priming all together, but I'll have to give it some tests first. I know WB is not using any priming on either end of his fuses and is getting great ignition and fire passage.

 

WB, I think you could use a bit slower timing. On the bebbux, I'd envision (or did envision haha) the ring of reports going off maybe a second after the snail. I think it would build almost a bit of suspense. The studata could maybe use another turn on the fuse between the set of inserts too. That full break looked pretty nice, the color on camera looks really good. I can't recall if it was that nice in person, then again I was drinking I like the large break that spreads and droops a little with the long burning stars.

Edited September 9, 2013 by psyco_1322

[chemtech89]

I was fumbling around with the camera and didn't get it... I didn't even see it because of the damn camera . All I can go by is what I remember hearing. They did pop in sequence, just not perfect spaced apart. I too use a cutter but i'm not sure of where the time fuse comes from. I believe the all white string is Chinese and the white and red(what I have) is American?

 

 

There is more pics of the build in my gallery.

[WonderBoy]

WB, I think you could use a bit slower timing. On the bebbux, I'd envision (or did envision haha) the ring of reports going off maybe a second after the snail. I think it would build almost a bit of suspense. The studata could maybe use another turn on the fuse between the set of inserts too. That full break looked pretty nice, the color on camera looks really good. I can't recall if it was that nice in person, then again I was drinking I like the large break that spreads and droops a little with the long burning stars.

 

Sorry for the late reply. I agree on the timing, build some suspense, especially if the stars had lit, the reports would have stepped all over them. And same with the Studata, all of the inserts kind of stepped on each other. I think it also would have helped with a shorter initial spolette, so the inserts ignite while still travelling upwards. I was happy with the color break as well, nice colors and a big spread.

 

chemtech,

How many inserts do you have in each timing? And how many per row in the shell? I usually like to do at least 3 strands of BM over the end of the fuse. Since you are using time fuse for the shell timing as well, how are you "priming" the fire giving end?

 

 

WB

[dagabu]

Psyco and I took a road trip up to the Northern Lighters club shoot this past weekend. We had a great weekend shooting and watching quite a few very nice shells. Also had the opportunity to consume a few beverages and talk pyro with very talented fireworkers until the wee hours of the morning.

 

I had two and a half shells in the Saturday night display, a 5" Bebbux (Snail) and a 5" Studata.

 

The Snail broke with a very unfortunate orientation and had ignition problems with the stars in the inserts. The Studata could have had a shorter initial spolette, and the color insert stars cut a bit smaller, but otherwise I was pretty happy with it.

 

Questions, comments, and criticism are welcome.

 

 

WB

 

Beautiful shells WB. The kids, my wife and I were sitting by the shooters table about 200' back and even though we could hear the shells being announced, we had a perfect view of the shells and both my wife and I hooted and hollared at those shells. The aqua was bright and pure, never seen a nicer blue in that spectrum. You should be very proud.

 

For those of you whom were not there, the bottom shots were outrageous all nigh long.

 

Dave

[chemtech89]

The timing was sequential with the last fuse being twice as long as the first. I just gave my fuse cutter two full rotations per cut until I had eight fuses. There were two rows of four and the ones with longer timings were closer to the main fuse (build pics in my gallery). I never do anything to the inner fuse beside ball shells larger then 3" in the form of a pass fire just to make it to the center of the shell. Maybe I should start but I don't see a strong relation to the shells or inserts timing in that regard.... I should give that a shot though. Edited September 24, 2013 by chemtech89

[WonderBoy]

Thank you Dave. I am glad that you were able to make it out!

 

Chem, I am not sure if it affected the timing, but I would recommend adding blackmatch to shoot more fire into the shell. I don't do this on insert shells because of their small size, but I do for the main shell.

 

I use timefuse up to 3" shells because of space considerations, but for anything larger I use a spolette. Have you ever made a spolette? I highly recommend using them, they are easy to make and throw a ton of fire into the shell.

 

 

WB

[chemtech89]

No I haven't used spolettes yet but Id really like to start. I don't have a rod that will fit my spolette tubes yet or a press. I know I could use a hammer to compress the material but I would prefer the consistency of a press.... Its on the list of things to do.

[WonderBoy]

Many hardware stores sell small Al and brass rod, I bought a 2' length of 5/16" Al for pretty cheap. Don't be discouraged by the lack of a press, you can still make pretty darn accurate spolettes.

You can also a get cheap HB arbor press which is more than sufficient for spolettes.

 

 

WB

Edited October 5, 2013 by WonderBoy

[psyco_1322]

Yup, I get some nice rhythm with my hand rammed ones, and never have any issues with them. It's not like you can't make "tooling" for it and then later switch to pressing them.

[nater]

I actually prefer to ram my spolettes. I have a small arbor press, but ramming is a little quicker for me and I like the feel of it.