countryboy7978 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 There's only one company that I'm aware of that still makes American visco fuse. International out of PA. They mostly sell in spools not consumer quantities but I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 3 hours ago, TXpyro said: Pyrogeezer, what is your company called? I was thinking about purchasing fuse from y'all. Hi TXpyro, Yes countryboy7978 is correct, Our company is "International Fireworks Manufacturing Co. PA. We only sell by 10,000 foot spools. The price is about $0.10 per foot in this amount not including shipping. We do sell 25 foot rolls out of our 1.4 store in PA, but the price is competitive with our distributors. Consider buying a spool and re-packing it for retail, there's a good mark up on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 3 hours ago, countryboy7978 said: There's only one company that I'm aware of that still makes American visco fuse. International out of PA. They mostly sell in spools not consumer quantities but I could be wrong. Hi country, yes, your right. We are the only company in the US that produces the American Visco Safety fuse recognized by the US Government as such, "that I am aware of". In reference to your earlier post, I checked out Cannon fuse’s site and read their disclaimer. Of course, every one of our distributors has a complete right to comment on what they feel is important information about a product. I checked on our Red Visco and had our Tec guy run some quality control checks and I can assure you that it is totally up to specification. It has a burn rate of between 36 and 40 seconds per foot, (3.0 to 3.5 seconds) per inch and (appx. 115 to 132 seconds per M.) It has a shiny, durable double coating of high quality NC lacquer and is still the finest Safety Fuse available. Thanks for your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryboy7978 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 7 hours ago, Pyrogeezer said: Hi country, yes, your right. We are the only company in the US that produces the American Visco Safety fuse recognized by the US Government as such, "that I am aware of". In reference to your earlier post, I checked out Cannon fuse’s site and read their disclaimer. Of course, every one of our distributors has a complete right to comment on what they feel is important information about a product. I checked on our Red Visco and had our Tec guy run some quality control checks and I can assure you that it is totally up to specification. It has a burn rate of between 36 and 40 seconds per foot, (3.0 to 3.5 seconds) per inch and (appx. 115 to 132 seconds per M.) It has a shiny, durable double coating of high quality NC lacquer and is still the finest Safety Fuse available. Thanks for your input. Thank you for clearing this up. I have always loved your product. I have had 4 colors of your fuse. The newer bright green, the red, rwb stripe, and the older (and best color) the dark green. Burn time is always right on par with what was expected. Thank you for your responses and you have made me feel much more comfortable in the product going forward. Can't beat the smell of a new roll! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 33 minutes ago, countryboy7978 said: Thank you for clearing this up. I have always loved your product. I have had 4 colors of your fuse. The newer bright green, the red, rwb stripe, and the older (and best color) the dark green. Burn time is always right on par with what was expected. Thank you for your responses and you have made me feel much more comfortable in the product going forward. Can't beat the smell of a new roll! Thanks for your valued input on our product countryboy. We do our best to produce the best possible Visco Safety Fuse. We need the input from our valued experienced buyers to improve wherever we can. Yes after 50 years of producing it I still love the smell also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyFuse Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 (edited) On 1/15/2024 at 9:44 PM, Richtee said: I noticed the lacquer burn thing on a batch of red too... very disconcerting to say the least... I haven't had personal experience with this, but I have noticed it in several videos. Most of the devices appear to be non-commercial. It would appear that the coating has a lower ignition temperature than the core or the core is insulated, I'm just speculating though. I've attached two videos found on the internet (I do not own these), in which it is visible. Another video not attached, shows a similar red visco-style fuse dripping as it burns, indicating the thread is made from Polyester rather than cotton. Whilst these instances luckily didn't cause an accident or early ignition, it's a good example of why you want to use a quality trusted product. Glad to hear this issue isn't affecting your company's product PyroGeezer, thank you for all the information you've provided thus far. It's been very insightful. Redviscoburn2.mp4 Redviscoburn.mp4 Edited January 25 by OnlyFuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryboy7978 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 The coating burns because nitrocellulose is flammable. Usually the lacquer doesn't burn that much ahead of the core though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 11 hours ago, OnlyFuse said: I haven't had personal experience with this, but I have noticed it in several videos. Most of the devices appear to be non-commercial. It would appear that the coating has a lower ignition temperature than the core or the core is insulated, I'm just speculating though. I've attached two videos found on the internet (I do not own these), in which it is visible. Another video not attached, shows a similar red visco-style fuse dripping as it burns, indicating the thread is made from Polyester rather than cotton. Whilst these instances luckily didn't cause an accident or early ignition, it's a good example of why you want to use a quality trusted product. Glad to hear this issue isn't affecting your company's product PyroGeezer, thank you for all the information you've provided thus far. It's been very insightful. Redviscoburn2.mp4 501.04 kB · 0 downloads Redviscoburn.mp4 812.25 kB · 0 downloads Thanks for your input OnlyFuse, all observations and comments are appreciated. Your correct on ignition temperature of NC vs.BP. The autoignition temperature of the commercially produced NC is roughly 190C (375F) where as for BP it is approximately 465C ((865F). Many imported types of pyro fuse do use synthetic fiber encasements around their powder core.due to the high price of cotton around the world today. Example, not to many years ago we were purchasing our 100% cotton fiber thread for about $7,500.00 per ton. Today we are paying close to $14,000.00 per ton, almost doubled. Granted, the cotton thread is processed, brushed, mercerized and and sometimes dyed and then put up on special bobbins for our machines, but everything has gone crazy in price since Covid as you well know. Nitrocellulose lacquer that we purchased 3 years ago was priced at $24.00 per gallon in 55 gallon drums. Today it costs $37.50 per gallon! It's easy to understand why county's like China, India, Brazil, Taiwan and the like are using inferior materials in their products. It's all a matter of economics. We use a low nitrogen content NC lacquer on all of our fuse in order to prevent the NC coating from advancing ahead of the powder core. As I have mentioned the NC we use is a special blend of several materials specifically manufactured for our American Visco Safety fuse that we produce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 On 1/10/2024 at 7:07 AM, Pyrogeezer said: No problem Zumber, Yes, they used the bamboo tube to dispense the powder onto the paper and then roll it up. with a touch of rise paste. Here is another video. https://youtu.be/CXntah4KYjY?si=kDuawy8hxG_lxBGC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 6 hours ago, Zumber said: Here is another video. https://youtu.be/CXntah4KYjY?si=kDuawy8hxG_lxBGC That's interesting and a unique way of making time fuse, but extremely labor intensive! 6 hours ago, Zumber said: Here is another video. https://youtu.be/CXntah4KYjY?si=kDuawy8hxG_lxBGC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 1 hour ago, Pyrogeezer said: That's interesting and a unique way of making time fuse, but extremely labor intensive! What about reliability? I am only worried about air gaps in composition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 39 minutes ago, Zumber said: What about reliability? I am only worried about air gaps in composition. Good point Zumber, I noticed in the Vid. that it is extremely soft and flexible. It's common knowledge that unrammed or unpressed BP can be extremely erratic when burning and in a short 3 or 4 second time fuse, it may very well blow through from the lift pressures on firing. 39 minutes ago, Zumber said: What about reliability? I am only worried about air gaps in composition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Pyrogeezer said: Good point Zumber, I noticed in the Vid. that it is extremely soft and flexible. It's common knowledge that unrammed or unpressed BP can be extremely erratic when burning and in a short 3 or 4 second time fuse, it may very well blow through from the lift pressures on firing. Again two things to ask One is what should be bp formula? Second is what if we use paper straw and ram bp in it then cover it with plastic tape ( to avoid moisture absorption) cotton cloth and jute or other strings tightly wrapping it? Another is why not to use black match ( using slow burning bp) As a core and cover it by same method? Edited January 27 by Zumber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 27 Author Share Posted January 27 1 hour ago, Zumber said: Again two things to ask One is what should be bp formula? Second is what if we use paper straw and ram bp in it then cover it with plastic tape ( to avoid moisture absorption) cotton cloth and jute or other strings tightly wrapping it? Another is why not to use black match ( using slow burning bp) As a core and cover it by same method? I have to admit, I am by no means an authority on Chinese type fuse but with many years of experience on fuse in general we and many other pyros have used a quality grade of BP made by a reputable manufacture. We use a blend of 70% 7F and 30% Meal D in our safety fuse. They both burn at about the same rate when confined in a cotton substrate. This provides a burn rate of 36 to 40 seconds per foot, a little over 3 seconds per inch on average. When ramming spoletts we use straight 7F and either ram them by hand or by hydraulic press. The standard ratio of 75-15-10 seems to be the most popular and most widely used in many types of fusing in the pyro business. I’m not saying that other formulas of BP are not suitable but only that the standard BP formula seems to be the most reliable for timing. Goex use to make different burning rate fuse powders for the blasting industry but I don’t know if they are back producing it yet. Using black match would definitely make some sort of fuse but I would not really rely on it for time fuse for shells etc. After all, even the smallest air pockets between the match and outer wrap could cause a premature explosion of the item or shell. That’s an interesting concept though! If you do any R&D on that system of fuse please let me know your findings. Several of the pyro suppliers sell ¼” Id. cardboard tubes in different lengths for making bottle rockets. They work good for small bore time fuse in smaller shells. a good alternative for the Chinese material. The tubes can be rammed fairly tight if put in tube support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zumber Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 27 minutes ago, Pyrogeezer said: I have to admit, I am by no means an authority on Chinese type fuse but with many years of experience on fuse in general we and many other pyros have used a quality grade of BP made by a reputable manufacture. We use a blend of 70% 7F and 30% Meal D in our safety fuse. They both burn at about the same rate when confined in a cotton substrate. This provides a burn rate of 36 to 40 seconds per foot, a little over 3 seconds per inch on average. When ramming spoletts we use straight 7F and either ram them by hand or by hydraulic press. The standard ratio of 75-15-10 seems to be the most popular and most widely used in many types of fusing in the pyro business. I’m not saying that other formulas of BP are not suitable but only that the standard BP formula seems to be the most reliable for timing. Goex use to make different burning rate fuse powders for the blasting industry but I don’t know if they are back producing it yet. Using black match would definitely make some sort of fuse but I would not really rely on it for time fuse for shells etc. After all, even the smallest air pockets between the match and outer wrap could cause a premature explosion of the item or shell. That’s an interesting concept though! If you do any R&D on that system of fuse please let me know your findings. Several of the pyro suppliers sell ¼” Id. cardboard tubes in different lengths for making bottle rockets. They work good for small bore time fuse in smaller shells. a good alternative for the Chinese material. The tubes can be rammed fairly tight if put in tube support. Thanks Indeed...!! This is very clear well explained and experienced reply thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge....I will definately try out different methods in upcoming days. Again many thanks..!😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 6 hours ago, Zumber said: Thanks Indeed...!! This is very clear well explained and experienced reply thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge....I will definately try out different methods in upcoming days. Again many thanks..!😊 6 hours ago, Zumber said: Thanks Indeed...!! This is very clear well explained and experienced reply thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge....I will definately try out different methods in upcoming days. Again many thanks..!😊 Any time, if I can help Zumber 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 On 1/27/2024 at 1:36 AM, Zumber said: Here is another video. https://youtu.be/CXntah4KYjY?si=kDuawy8hxG_lxBGC Gads- you don’t wanna be the one that “smelt that smoke” Gack! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyrogeezer Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 1 hour ago, Richtee said: Gads- you don’t wanna be the one that “smelt that smoke” Gack! Yes, I really don't care for the smell of PVDC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlking59 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 @ Pyrogeezer, Thanks alot for your info. Much appreciated and enjoyed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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