Best Way To Make Fuse

[usapyro]

After testing a few brands... The dollar store stuff is the only type that works!!!

 

Edit: Actually, Saran Cling+ works if you cut it clean with a razor.

Update: Got Glad ClingWrap to work, just needed to cut the edges perfectly square with a razor.

 

Cannot get Stretch-Tite to work, and the stuff smells like garbage. Recycled plastic?

Edited October 3, 2017 by usapyro

[starxplor]

I tried that but they needed the pool back for swimming lessons.

Science is hard.

 

Today's lesson: How to avoid torpedo armed submarines... in the community pool.

[Asaster420]

I wonder what would happen if you used stretch wrap, like you wrap pallets or boxes. I think you could put in more powder and get a longer finished product. Maybe not, just thinking 😎 Edited October 5, 2017 by Asaster420

[NeighborJ]

I tried the wrap we use at work but it broke. Of coarse, I filled it with dust I found on the ground so that may not be a good test.

[Hypervale]

I find black match to be very easy to make and I would imagine it having a more consistent burn rate because you dont have to roll it yourself. This being said, I can see a few situations in which this fuse could be useful.

[Svimmer]

I find black match to be very easy to make and I would imagine it having a more consistent burn rate because you dont have to roll it yourself. This being said, I can see a few situations in which this fuse could be useful.

This fuse does have a very consistent burn

[NeighborJ]

Black match does have a consistent burn but it is very dependant on Its orientation. When used on rockets the flame envelope tends to cause the match to burn extremely fast and inconsistently due to its vertical orientation. Sure, bending the match to the horizontal will remedy the problem but it rarely stays where it is placed on its own. If you try Sondres method you will find a consistent burn in any orientation and regardless of ambient weather conditions which rivals visco fuse.

[MrB]

If you try Sondres method you will find a consistent burn in any orientation and regardless of ambient weather conditions which rivals visco fuse.

 

One of few drawbacks, being the usual... Environmental effects from burning plastic, is a bit worse then cotton and NC. I'll be staying away from it for that reason alone, but everyone else has to make up their minds.

[NeighborJ]

Now that is something I'd like to know more about. What toxins are released from burning plastic wrap, and how that compares to burning your average chlorine donor in colored stars? Maybe we should give up those as well, in the name of saving the environment.

[OldMarine]

I'd think the toxins released from a piece of fuse are so minuscule as to be negligible when compared to the average Chinese town's output. Oh yeah, they make most of the fireworks too.

[starxplor]

If I can reduce pollution creation in one way, the existence of other pollution does not negate the reduction I can do.

 

Each of us can decide what we are willing to do/do without in order to reduce harm to our environment.

[OldMarine]

All pollution is not created equal. I love a good warming wood fire but unfortunately it releases about the same amount of soot into the air as an equal btuh of burning several plastics. I choose my devil by the wonderful aroma.

[starxplor]

Who said they were all equal?

[Matthew]

If I remember correctly polyethylene, the stuff plastic wrap is made up of, burns cleanly and for the most part only releases CO₂ and H₂O.

[NeighborJ]

So Captain Planet will give us his blessing? It's got to be better than my idea of using juvenile bald eagle quill feathers stuffed with BP and covered with a heavy coating of oils derived from baby seal blubber.

 

All joking aside, B's concern for burning plastic wrap was one I did not even think of. Is anyone else able to confirm the combustion byproducts of plastic wrap? CO2 and H2O?

[MrB]

LDPE, is still an oil product. When people claim it produces only carbon-dioxide and water while burning, they are, possibly inadvertently, referring to high temperature burning in incinerators with additives, controlled air-flows, and gas filtration. But that isn't really my point. I just don't like plastic in my pyro, unless it really has to be there. No plastic shells, no hot melt glue, and no cling film.

[NeighborJ]

I completely agree B, I take every effort to use only biodegradable material in pyro BUT I have peeled back the coating on visco and found that it does have a thin plastic sheath. What it is made from IDK but I've seen other brands with a tissue paper sheath my point is that hydrocarbons are everywhere in pyro, time fuse has tar, many use tared spiking, paraffin for tubes, heck even lampblack is made from hydrocarbons. It can't be avoided, I guess it is a question of how much is to much, it parallels the age old argument of what is an acceptable risk? Pyro has risk and what is acceptable is going to vary for every hobbyist. So for those who can stomach burning a gram or two of LDPE every once in a while this could be for you, if not, then there is no harm with refrain.

 

Jason

[MrB]

I completely agree B, I take every effort to use only biodegradable material in pyro BUT I have peeled back the coating on visco and found that it does have a thin plastic sheath. What it is made from IDK but I've seen other brands with a tissue paper sheath my point is that hydrocarbons are everywhere in pyro, time fuse has tar, many use tared spiking, paraffin for tubes, heck even lampblack is made from hydrocarbons. It can't be avoided, I guess it is a question of how much is to much, it parallels the age old argument of what is an acceptable risk? Pyro has risk and what is acceptable is going to vary for every hobbyist. So for those who can stomach burning a gram or two of LDPE every once in a while this could be for you, if not, then there is no harm with refrain.

 

Jason

 

"My" visco, never had a plastic sheet in it, i did have a source that provided reinforced visco, with a paper layer inside. The fuse was perfect for making "multi shot cakes" without having to cut and bend a bunch of visco, but rather just pull straight trough all the tubes in one length. For what ever reason the retailer that sold this, no longer deals with pyro at all, and i have no idea where they sourced it.

But it's one of the reasons i want to make my own, if i ever can get my hands on a machine.

 

Timefuse, does use tar. It can be petrolium based, or from wood. In both cases i pretty much don't use time fuse, as much a cost saving, as it is anything else, and instead use a spollette, or two.

 

Vaxing tubes... Since i don't do rockets, i don't wax. If i was looking to wax something, i'm sure beeswax could be used as a replacement. But that is just speculation.

 

Lamp black... while it can be made from a few different renewable sources, i don't know of any retailer that actually specifies the source.

 

Anyhow, i still use parlon for colors. As i wrote... I don't like using plastic unless it actually has to be there, in my pyro. Sort of hard to do colors without chlorine donors.

[AllisterF]

I choose my devil

 

I'm just going to quote that, because it's very relevant and bluntly true...

 

Some food for thought about pollution and carbon footprints, for those visiting websites like this one for example...

 

http://www.howthiswebsitemakesmoney.com/data/data-website-how-big-carbon-footprint.php

[MrB]

I'm just going to quote that, because it's very relevant and bluntly true...

 

Funny enough, that is what i said in the post that seems to have triggered all this:

 

I'll be staying away from it for that reason alone, but everyone else has to make up their minds.

[muxolini]

In my opinion this is the easiest way to make a good fuse.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stVGb9yhZBI

Ty man very good

[Svimmer]

This composition made a really nice fuse.

Flamethrowing black powder

74.30% Potassium Nitrate

21.80% Charcoal

3.90% Sulfur

Edited November 18, 2017 by Sondre

[Exo]

Thanks for this great idea, it works very well.

I even tested it under water with no extra sealing just the stretch wrap, and it burns well fully submerged

[Svimmer]

Thanks for this great idea, it works very well.

I even tested it under water with no extra sealing just the stretch wrap, and it burns well fully submerged

Great to hear.

[Svimmer]

Tested to add some dextrin to the black powder and damped it a little and made a fuse with this method and it worked better then with dry powder.