Bubba
Frequent Poster
Posts: 71
From:
Registered: DEC 2000
posted February 02, 2001 10:59 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are there any differences? Burn rate, etc?


Anthony
Moderator
Posts: 2312
From: England
Registered: SEP 2000
posted February 02, 2001 01:45 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IIRC, red is end spit and green is side spit. Spit is the flaming crud thrown out by the burning fuse.


Bubba
Frequent Poster
Posts: 71
From:
Registered: DEC 2000
posted February 02, 2001 02:13 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ahhh...thats pretty sharp. I personally have the green locally. I am guessing both are waterproof. Varnished or lacquered.
Thanks guys for the great info. You can learn more in 1 week here by keeping your eyes open and asking GOOD questions than a lifetime on some of those other sites. Depending on the site that lifetime might be cut short... (In otherwords, getting bad info and you go BOOOOMMM!)


SafetyLast
Frequent Poster
Posts: 233
From: the cretaceous period
Registered: OCT 2000
posted February 02, 2001 04:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I ordered 20 feet of waterproof green visco fuse from Pyrotek and the bastards sent me the damn red fuse (I hate it)
the visual effects are not as great and when it is lit it just flames for a second and then starts to spit sparks out of the lit end.


Donutty
Frequent Poster
Posts: 223
From: UK
Registered: SEP 2000
posted February 02, 2001 05:08 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Huh! You get the wrong coloured fuse which isn't as pretty and start complaining when it is fairly hard for some of us to get ANY fuse in the first place!
Any UK'ers ordered from PyroTek?


Anthony
Moderator
Posts: 2312
From: England
Registered: SEP 2000
posted February 02, 2001 05:59 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nope, just Skylighter.
Water-resistant fuse is coated in nitro-cellulose and will probably be sold as "nitro-cellulose coated". If the fuse is quite stiff and cracks when bent a lot, then it is most probably coated.


Mr Cool
Frequent Poster
Posts: 991
From: None of your bloody business!
Registered: DEC 2000
posted February 02, 2001 06:10 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, just skylighter for me as well.
Red fuse also tends to be stronger than green, because the fibres on the outside are wound closer together to reduce side-spit.


sadsakjoel
Frequent Poster
Posts: 170
From:
Registered: OCT 2000
posted February 02, 2001 11:05 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anyone in Australia ordered from pyrotek or skylighter? please email me if you have.


Donutty
Frequent Poster
Posts: 223
From: UK
Registered: SEP 2000
posted February 03, 2001 04:43 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just lookin around at 'technics websites and came across this, might be of use:
<a href="http://www.ctel.net/~dwilliams/thermalite/thermalite.html" target="_blank">http://www.ctel.net/~dwilliams/thermalite/thermalite.html</a>
Personally my home-made fuse is just soap-washed white string soaked for a few hours in Sodium Chlorate, sugar and hexamine solution. I then put it on a foil tray and stick it in the oven for about 10min.


J
Moderator
Posts: 605
From: United Kingdom
Registered: SEP 2000
posted February 04, 2001 07:08 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a couple of methods of making fuse on my site, between them you should be able to find all the chemicals needed. They aren't as tough as Visco, but they're fairly reliable.
J

------------------
"If the aquarium water has to be drunk don't waste the fish. In fact they'll probably be the easiest to eat even if you don't need the water. The cat is next in the pot." - John 'Lofty' Wiseman

I was wondering if American fuse was the same kind of fuse as viso saftey fuse. It is offered in the same colors and kind of looks the same so I was wondering if it was.

American fuse can be whatever kind it wants to be, like quickmatch, blackmatch, time fuse, or whatever. American just means it was made in America. Most of the time it is Cannon, or Visco, but I would check with the supplier to make sure it is Visco.

Anthony, Donutty - how long ago was it that you ordered from Skylighter? And how long did it take for your order to arrive?

Also on a sidenote Anthony, have you recived my email? (sent 11/05/03)

You should of just ordered from www.cannonfuse.com ALOT better fuse than pyrotek. I dont reccomend their tubes though.

I have ordered from cannonfuse.com and their fuse has so far been really good, reliable burn rate and has not gone out underwater. I also ordered tubes from there and they seem to work ok, but the endcaps arent great, where else do you get tubes from?

Well, cannonfuse did get in the new tube sizes which one is the same size as United's old Beefy tube before they discontinued them. I have heard that their endplugs are crap, you probably would be better off making your own.

Their 9/16 inch tubes and plugs are PERFECT. Much better than United Nuclears, or any other suppliers for that matter.

The reason Cannonfuse's tubes suck in comparison to other "M-80" tubes is simple. They are too thin. UN has 1/8", and CF has 1/16". The heavier casing makes for a louder bang, and higher internal pressure so more force exerted upon rupture. A few layers of tape will solve that problem if you need to.

As for the weak endplugs, you could always buy them elsewhere. Make your own, there are proceedures around. You could insert them bowl in and fill the outside with a layer of glue as well. I hear bondo is quite a useful item when plugging the ends. It does however shoot out like a bullet in the event of a end plug blow out.

I was comparing CFs tubes to UNs "classic" M-80 tubes. If you havent known about UN for too long you wouldnt know what I was talking about.

If your using flash, paper end plugs work fine. I prefer to use hot glue, mainly becuase it takes up less room. My hot glue plugs take up less than 1/8 inch compared to paper plugs, which are often longer than 1/4 inch. Less space the plug takes up equals more room for flash powder.

Ok I experimented a bit with the CF Tubes. They are the smallest ones they offer. I think 9/16 th's. I electric taped one completely and that make for quite a bang and really good force. Seemed like much better then stock tubes. I also used Shoo Goo and filled the bowl of the endcaps on some and have yet to test it

Originally posted by mr.pyro
I also used Shoo Goo and filled the bowl of the endcaps on some and have yet to test it

If I were you, I wouldn't use such an elastic substance for endplugs; use a harder drying material, such as sawdust and woodglue mixed together. That makes for hard endplugs that work well but still just shatter and pose very low risk for shrapnel.

EDIT: I forgot to add my two cents for the original topic.

I personally believe that there is little difference in visco fuse if it is one color or another. I've used rwb striped visco, green visco, and red visco, all American manufacture, and all three burn the same way: some fire on the end and some from the sides.

Umm, the coloring of the fuse has jack to do with the performance. The construction is what makes a difference there- The red, green, or red, white & blue is just a cosmetic thing. All visco is "side spit". Only Bickford style fuses such as real dynamite fuse, 1/4" timer fuse or "Rozzi" 3/8" timer are "end spit". And with the exception of the old fashioned dynamite fuse used with a fuse type blasting cap, they are best used by punching and cross matching rather than counting on them either taking or giving fire from a cut end!

End spit fuses have a layer of tar around the powder core- Side spit fuses just have a wrapping of threads, with or without a dip in some kind of varnish such as low nitration NC lacquer. If you have any question as to which you have, a few seconds with a razor blade will answer them.

How do other places compare in delivery? From cannonfuse.com, it took almost a month for my fuse to arrive. I dont get why it takes so long, damn postal office.