no time fuse :(

[abbykarim]

hi guys.......very new to this artform, i know that spolettes can be used to fuse and time cylinderical top lighting shells, but in mycase where i cant get any time fuse in my country, can spolettes also be used to fuse a ballshell botom lighting? my worry is that the lift gases may blow through the spolette or even kill the spark on the spolette if it ignites.......any thougts

[pyrokid]

Your concerns are valid. In small shells, however, you can get by with bottom fusing, even with spolettes. If you are uncomfortable with this, I think you could top fuse the ball shell as well, and use quickmatch to ignite the lift.

[schroedinger]

Spollettes work just fine for shells up to 4" with bottom fusing, after that ether use top fusing method or build an overly long spollette which gets crossmatched (needs a special ramming process, if you are interested i can explain it to you).

[abbykarim]

thanks guys i cherish your opinions.are there any other method to create consistent time delay?

[nater]

Spolettes or time fuse are the most common and most reliable way to time a shell fired from a mortar. You could also lift your shells on rockets, which would use the delay in the rocket motor rather than any type of fuse. There are a few other ways to time inserts from breaking, but I would never use them as the delay for a shell.

 

I am a big fan of spolettes. They are easy to make, reliable, can be drilled back for precise timing and spit more flame than time fuse. I like that I can make as many as I need for a shoot and not have to worry about buying or shipping wound fuse. Ned has an older article on Skylighter showing how he used spolettes with top fused ball shells. Part 2 shows how the spolettes are made and part 3 shows how the shell is finished. He uses doubled up time fuse and a WASP now, but since the question is about spolettes, this is the best free tutorial I know of to share.

 

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/tiger-willow-ball-shells-1.asp

 

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/tiger-willow-ball-shells-2.asp

 

http://www.skylighter.com/fireworks/how-to-make/tiger-willow-ball-shells-3.asp

[abbykarim]

cool, i was reading down to the end and just thought that i can mention a site called hobbyhorse.com and they have some limited pyro supplies...but great prices (in my opinion) and they have a good selection of tube which can be used for spolettes and rockets...some with ver thick walls but not big OD's

[Peret]

You can also use Visco rolled tightly in at least four or five turns of masking tape. If you get a largish roll and time test it, and always cut from that same roll, the results are quite consistent. Priming it is a bit of a nuisance because NC resin dissolves the binder and the end of the fuse frays and loses its powder, but if you dip quick in premixed prime and don't fiddle with it until it hardens, no problem.

[Ubehage]

I have successfully made my own time-fuses with normal Visco and a shitload of duct-tape. Some sort of paper-taping would propably be better for the environment, but at the time I had no other choice.