152 replies to this topic

[tajmiester]

Matt, I would of thought that you would appreciate the value of accurate timing! Blackmatch is fine for many things but for some stuff it just doesnt cut it!

Tris

[alany]

Spoulettes work for accurate delays. Annoying to make though.

Nice thing about spoulettes is you can make them into rising effects for shells. I've seen whistle, colour, and glitter spoulettes, especially in cakes. The bad thing is they are big and easily blown into shells by the lift.

Some cakes have colour or glitter comet composition rammed into the base of a salute tube (I guess they use a sleve?) and the top filled with flash for a rising comet to report insert. I've seen smaller versions in candles. The larger ones in cakes seem to use a clay diaphram to stop the lift pressure blowing-by the comet.

[lord_dranack]

Iv'e been making some spoulette casings recently in 3mm and 5mm id. Have not got round to filling them yet. I think I'll use 10 parts S, meal powder 65 parts & KNO3 25 parts (Lancaster White fire/ spoulette fuse), or possibly a sulfurless black powder.

I have managed to make 6" lengths of imitation visco using flat bootlaces! It burns slowly and is no too flexable. I have only ever used it for salutes- black match works fine for everything else I do.

[Matt]

Tris, I do beleive that most of the people talking about this subject only really want to use it to ignite devices and not try to whip up a shave and haircut type shell, in which case im sure people would go for some nice time fuse.

Mr. Dranack. May I suggest just using straight meal? that way it is technicaly more accurate as + or - 1mm wont make such a dent on timing from spoulette to spoulette as say a fountain type composition (assuming its slow) But ofcourse if you just want it to put delays on shells then go for gold.

I use 3mm spollettes for basicly all my shells. not much of a tail but attaching a 1" comet fixes that

-Matt

Oh and does anyone know the official spelling for spoulette? I personally say spollette. There are just so many versions around! and since ive never heard it said by a pyro I cant figure it out that way either

[alany]

I've tried the hollow braided string visco thing. I found it was really hard to get the slurry distributed well down the middle, more effort than it was really worth. I used unwaxed candle wick, which turned out to be a pure cotton braided tube with a jute core, the entire thing had been treated with something, probably potassium nitrate and smoldered away nicely (like slowmatch) in its raw form.

The jute core, once removed, made excellent spiking, but I ended up just making the braided tube into blackmatch. Which worked pretty well, once worked in the slurry it filled up inside somewhat and burnt away quite cleanly.

I think spoulette is a bit like pulverone, everyone has the favourite spelling. Neither are english words, so as long as it encodes the pronunciation and everyone understands I don't think it matters much.

Anyway, enough theory. I just wish this bloody wind would do away so I can go shoot some stuff!

[The_Djinn]

We arent here to slag anybody off, and trust me, it wont happen, so watch what you say!

My thoughts on this matter are that the more expensive the fuse is, the less people want to use it, so the more unsafe the hobby becomes - ie at say ?10 per meter for example, you dont want to use much of it on just one device, naturally. This gives you a shorter delay and therefore a larger risk...

Not sure who or whether this was aimed at anyone in particular Adamw or if it was just a general statement as I didnt think anything I said or anything in Chaz's response could have been termed as slaging anyone off.
As a general statement everyone should take note, the forum is all about sharing and working together.

But I must agree completely with what you say about taking short cuts due to expense of items, it isnt worth the risk and people should take note. Rather take your time and do it right first time as in this game second chances are not always an option.
Safety should always come first, for your own safety and those around you.

Mark

[Phoenix]

I "borrow" what visco I need from bought items (I found a good source were the old whistle rockets, the 7 or 8cm of fuse could be easily pulled out, then replaced with black match; pity they're gone). I use black match and paper fuse for delays on my items. I never "waste" visco on an application where it only has to burn through a hole (eg a fountain). What I use it for is inserts where it has to burn through a pressed clay plug. In my experience, black match will not do this. My thicker paper fuse seems to have about a 9/10 success rate at burning through plugs, which is OK for ground salutes as if they fail, I know where they are and can reclaim the BP. However, if the fuse fails on a salute or bombette fired from a cake, shell, or mine etc. then it's gone, so A) I lose it and B) there is a live device lying around somewhere.

I use spolettes on larger shells as they are more reliable even than visco, and give better timing. However, they don't work on inserts, as the insert itself might only have a 5mm I.D. so my flash or BP would just jet out of the hole left by the burned BP. Plus each spolette takes about 2 or 3 minutes to make. (Matt - I admire your patience making spollettes for every 15mm I.D. insert)

I attempted to make a visco machine. It looked quite nice, with two contra-rotating discs with spools of thread on them and a hopper full of BP on the top, but it didn't actually work. I couldn't get the BP to fall through a narrow nozzle (yes, I used a thread to pull it through) and with a larger nozzle I just got nice BP dusted braided string and a heap of BP on the bench under the machine, so I chucked it in the end.

I had some success making "time fuse" type stuff by stretching eight pieces of string in a cirle (parralel to eichother, to make a kind of tunnel), with a plywood guide disc over them (cirlce of eight holes for the string to go through, and one in the middle for black match). I put some black match in the centre of the pieces and rotated the disc by hand. This formed a rope about 5mm thick with the BM in the centre. This was then spirally wound with a layer of tape to stop it unwinding. I only made about 60cm of it, and it seemed to pass fire reliably, without any side spit, but often skipped sections. I will try doing the same thing again, but with the black match still a bit damp so it doesn't get gaps between it and the string (which I assume was the source of the skipping). I'll try more pieces of thinner string too to make the fuse a bit thinner.

Finally, a fuse I've recently tried a few centimetres of is black match, stretched while still wet, and wrapped in gampi tissue paper. When dry it is painted in NC laquer. This is faster than making paper fuse, and the fuse is physically stronger. The bit I made seemed more reliable and was much more flexible than black match. I will make some more of this soon. The main reason I want this fuse (which burns with quite a bit of side spit) is for large bore chinese style roman candles, as I can't make paper fuse in lengths more than about 45cm and black match is too fragile to have sawdust and stars repeatedly rammed past it.

Edited by Phoenix, 11 January 2004 - 06:44 PM.

[adamw]

Yes it was aimed at someone in particular, and as much as I value free speech, the forum isn't a place to target people. That is why the name was *** out. It would have been acceptable to post 'an individual' or even 'a member of the forum' however.

[tajmiester]

Tris, I do beleive that most of the people talking about this subject only really want to use it to ignite devices and not try to whip up a shave and haircut type shell, in which case im sure people would go for some nice time fuse.

• 1) I'm not 'most people'
• 2) When I said accurate, thats not what I meant. I meant accurate as in you can put a piece of fuse (that is short enough to stand under it's own weight) to give a 10s delay so that you can retreat 25m and then have time to turn around and see your'e creation in all it's glory.

Besides, all this contraversy about whether visco or similar is absolutely neccersarry is quite irrelivant. The fact is some of us either dont have the 'gift' of making Matt's perfect blackmatch or perhaps we 'would like' some visco at a reasonable price. People don't NEED TV's, Stereos, DVD players to live but it doesnt make it a crime to want or own them. After all 'how to GET good value visco' was the purpose of the thread, was it not?

Tris

[Chaz]

Yes it was aimed at someone in particular, and as much as I value free speech, the forum isn't a place to target people. That is why the name was *** out. It would have been acceptable to post 'an individual' or even 'a member of the forum' however.

Sorry, I didnt mean to slag him/her off, but ?5/meter is terrible, and you're absolutely right about fuse lengths/delays being shortened because of high prices.

Sorry again. On another note I finally managed to make a half successful rocket! It was plain BP, milled for a while, then put into a paper casing with wooden endplugs, one with a 4.5mm hole. It had to be this large because I had to use a blackmatch fuse, it wouldent burn through a hole any smaller.

It was a slow take off, with slow accelleration too, it got to about 15 feet where it arced over to the left, into the neighbors garden! Still got a lot of work to do...

[Matt]

Tris. I cant tell wether that was sarcasm or if you actually had seen the video where i bend, kink, twist and beat my black match for 30 seconds then ignite it and it burned with a perfectly even burn rate
As for buying visco however. Im sure gunshops arent unheard of, just ask.

-Matt

[tajmiester]

Gun shops aigh, now thats a thought. But what would they stock visco for? I cant imagine any 'gun nut' wanting visco unless he was one of those blokies that recreates medieval battles, firing cannons etc...

Tris

[Matt]

I dont know why but they do. Just ask, never hurt anyone.
Most gun shops down here sell it, I pay $8 for 12 feet of "green canon fuse" The business i buy from are currently out of stock, they have thermalite atm but its now what im after.

-Matt

I just got 1kg of rice hulls in the mail today

[tajmiester]

Dollars aigh, Ah I was under the impression that you were a UK man. Well that might be different, I don't know but it seems that you need a lisence just to enter a gun shop in the UK, and almost definately to buy fuse. Otherwise I presume this thread wouldn't exist and we would all get our fuse from our friendly neighbourhood gun shop.
Tris

[Matt]

I always thought it was because people just didnt bother asking. I always thought aussy laws were tighter than uk. Dont need no darn liscence to buy BP here.

I might step out of this post, i feel like im just wasting space.

-Matt