Mini canister fuse not lighting from lift charge

[BigYooper906]

Small 1.5"X3/4" shells not igniting from lift charge. Tried 2mm cannon fuse cut at angle and spolettes. Also tried both with ends dipped in NC laquer then granulated BP, but not many went off. Shells are 10g and lift is 1g granulated BP. 

I've seen people put small ground salutes in mortars with BP lift and they went off every time. Feels like I'm missing something fundemental..

Edited November 24, 2023 by BigYooper906
Added picture

[cmjlab]

When you dipped the fuse into NC Lacquer, was it plain NC in acetone with nothing else added?  If so, the plain NC can

- at worst act as a fire block due to the quick touch of flame it's exposed to, and the smooth surface created by the lacquer (vs a lumpy uneven surface with sharp points for the fire to catch).  

- At best add to the amount of time needed to expose it to flame for it ignite, resulting in some of it g and some not 

Fix:  add B.P. to your NC to make a priming slurry, coat the fuse with a paint brush or popsicle stick instead of dipping it (this makes a difference), then dip that into fine granulated B.P. and it will take fire much easier.

Good Luck!

Edited November 25, 2023 by cmjlab

[cmjlab]

I can't tell from the photo, does that have cannon fuse on it?  It looks almost like a mini spolette.  

One more note, two ways I've seen people do it successfully is to cut the fuse at a long/sharp angle like you did; Or split down the center with a razor for 1/4", then placed a grain of b.p. in the fork to keep the slit open, and paint the whole forked end with your NC/B.P. slurry then dip it in fine grained B.P.  

Neither method will work for perfectly timed inserts, but will work well if you are going for ignition only.

Edited November 25, 2023 by cmjlab

[BigYooper906]

Thanks cmjlab! The shell in the picture has a spolette and has been split twice. on other ones, I applied NC with a small brush and then dipped it into BP, so it would stick. Is there a formula for BP, NC, Acetone slurry?

Thanks again

[kingkama]

Cross match with black match usually spolette are primed like that

[Arthur]

The USA retail acetone that I've found contains some water so uses for acetone need drying times for water.

[cmjlab]

I thought you meant you were using cannon fuse instead of a spolette.

If it has a spolette, then like Karma said, it's typically fused with black match (string soaked in B.P./water slurry, then dried to make a moderate burning fuse that takes fire easily) laid over the spolette's face (touching the spolette B.P. grain) and tied with waxed or tarred string to the side of the spolette. Cannon fuse is unlikely to work well for that purpose. 

You can also try scratching up the face of the spolette that will receive fire to expose fresh B.P., then painting that surface with a light coat of B.P. / NC slurry, and dipping that in b.p. granules, if your launching them with the spolette faced downward into the lift. This would allow the spolette to take fire directly from the lift charge.

There is no set formula for NC/B.P. slurry, you just take a thin solution of NC and add B.P. fines and mix until you get a thick slurry like molasses or honey.  You don't want it to thick, just thick enough to hold the grained b.p. that you dip it in, and allow the fire to catch and transfer to the spolette.

[cmjlab]

Do you have a copy of Pyrotechnica 9, the first Fulcanelli article?  It covers the basic concepts of building cylinder shells to include fusing.  The concepts are mostly the same and could be really helpful if you haven't read it 

[BigYooper906]

To be clear, I have tried both cannon fuse and spolettes with spolettes being the better of the two. I'm going to try a couple with black match tied to a split spollette and a couple with NC/BP slurry applied then dipped in granulated BP and see what works best.

I do not have a copy of Pyrotechnica 9. Just a noob trying to figure out how to make cool stuff.

Thanks for all the help!

[cmjlab]

Black match would just be laid over the face of the spolette, bent over the edges, and tied around the tube.  I'll get a photo uploaded in a bit.  

[BigYooper906]

I found Pyrotechnica 9 in case anyone else needs to read it 

Pyrotechnica 9

[BigYooper906]

2 minutes ago, cmjlab said:

Black match would just be laid over the face of the spolette, bent over the edges, and tied around the tube.  I'll get a photo uploaded in a bit.  

I understand. Found it taped across the face, split and tied and punched and fed through spolette

[cmjlab]

Sorry for the crappy drawing. On the 2nd photo.

1st Photo - Preparation of spolette

2nd Photo - putting blackmatch on end that will receive fire.

[cmjlab]

This shows a shell with blackmatch and passfire attached.  Since you are making small shells, you won't need a Passfire, you just shoot yours "upside down" with the blackmatch'ed spolette in the lift powder.

[cmjlab]

10 minutes ago, BigYooper906 said:

I understand. Found it taped across the face, split and tied and punched and fed through spolette

The split and tied method isn't used on a spolette, that's used for 1/4" Chinese Time Fuse.

[BigYooper906]

cmjlab, got it.  I'll  try  it that way too.

Thanks again!

 

[Mumbles]

I'll need to go digging for it, but Tom Niesen has a pictorial/description of how he primes spolettes somewhere.  I've never had it fail on me.  If anyone has it handy, I'd appreciate you posting it.  The pyrobin link I have is dead.

[MicroGram]

There's this, also from "Traditional Cylinder Shell Construction". The pic Cmjlab posted is from there too i believe.

[greenlight]

If OP ends up using time fuse, I have an illustration from when I made a few reporting shell inserts before and had to prime them with 1 second delays using time fuse.

The method was splitting the fuse down the middle with a razor and then placing two strands of blackmatch across before tying the top of the split closed with string to hold the match in there tightly.

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by greenlight

[Guest]

More often than not, that 2mm fuse has a fair amount of lacquer on it, and it caused me problems like you're having.

My next order of fuse came with a sample of the green 3mm which has little to no lacquer, and also a bigger core of powder. It never fails to light from the lift charge.