11 replies to this topic

[Mascaletta Mad]

Hi everybody i am brand new to this web site it seems pretty cool, I have been doing Pyro for 11 years, ever since i was really young and i have just got a question for everyone who wants to reply....... Am i the only person who has heard of MASCALETTA UNITS caus everyone i ask doesn't seem to have ever heard of them, is it me being stupid or is there another name for them?

[cunning_plan]

cant say ive ever heard of them and google returned me nothing.... what actually is it

[ProfHawking]

i think ive heard of that from valencia. massive bangers no?

And, welcome to the forums!!

[Richard H]

Know them? I've been to Valencia and seen them! Mascleta really is the thunder of god. Words cannot describe it.

[Creepin_pyro]

www.freakpyromaniacs.com have a whole load of videos of Mascelatas online. Well worth having a look at.

And yes - they're insane!

[pyrotrev]

I've actually got some ...... like you say seriously loud ( I snipped a couple off the string - just to check quality as it were . The method of construction is interesting, the units appear to be made of just a couple of turn of thin card which is put inside some plasticised paper tube (think 25mm diameter match pipe). This rather flimsy tube is tied off at the bottom with some fine twine, then I guess they fill them and tie in the fuse at the top. The downside of this simple and obviously cheap construction is that if you handle the units you can feel the powder rubbing between the outer tube and the card , needless to say I took to lifting them by the fuse after that. If anyone's interested I'll post a piccy when it stops raining.

Edited by pyrotrev, 25 October 2006 - 06:40 PM.

[adamw]

The reason why searching yields no results is because of the spelling:

(las) mascletas

[Ritual33]

Post a picy!

[Mortartube]

Pyrotrev, you've got the little mascletta. The larger ones are basically 3" maroons (or bigger) nowadays often in soft plastic cases, rather like the old white fairy liquid bottles and covered in paper. Mascletta (or as AdamW rightly says las mascleta) are constructed as follows.

Imagine a length of quickmatch (attached to string) strung horizontally between two posts. Hanging down vertically from this are lengths of quickmatch at regular intervals. At the bottom of each vertical length of match is a maroon with a spoolette type delay in it.

You light the horizontal match and this in turn lights the vertical lengths of match. The maroon delays light and the maroons fall to the ground where they go off at quick intervals. Obviously not a thing to do on a pebble beach but great over grass.


Piccioes follow:

http://www.rocketpyr...s/mascletas.jpg

http://perso.wanadoo.../mascletas.html

http://carcasitas.ga...ones781681.html

http://pyroraph.free.fr/masclettas.htm

http://www.freakpyro...ery.php?cat=520

Edited by Mortartube, 26 October 2006 - 08:36 AM.

[pyrotrev]

Yes, mine are little ones (awesome bang for the size though) , the people I got them from also have 45mm and 70mm calibre types as well, but I thought they might be a bit much for small shows!. I believe in Spain they use the different sizes like you would use different types of drums to create rhythmns. Here's a closeup of one unit . These ones also have a few delays in the top (horizontal) match, quite an interesting type of fuse, like thick Visco/thin Bickford cased in plastic:

Edited by pyrotrev, 26 October 2006 - 03:54 PM.

[Mortartube]

Thet look like the ones made by Caballer. Caballer frequently use that hard cased red Bickford like delay fuse.

[adamw]

The best ones have a coloured delay composition (ie red fire, yellow fire etc etc).

The largest I've had were a good 2.5" in diameter and made of yellow plastic with a cap (same as Gamon sell)