Honest question. I just finished firing my Canada Day show this year. All went well, aside from the long time it took for me to reload my roman candle fan rack. At the moment, it's set up like fingers that I duct tape the candles to. The issue is; I fire my shows in 3 stages, and to save on making tons of boards and racks (I don't have the space to store them), I replace whatever I'm shooting in the next stage on the field. The quickest I managed to replace 10 candles was like 5 minutes, and that is in addition to the time it takes me to reload all my various racks.
So I'm going to rebuild my candle rack for next year and was wondering if there was any way for me to be able to quickly swap out spent candles. I've seen people use conduit clamps, but I'd rather this be tool-free and idiot-free. (Don't flame me for this) Is it possible to use like a 6" piece of PVC piping to slide the candles into?
My only other option is to build a fan rack that has swappable boards.
Like this one
http://c.imagehost.org/0784/CANDLE_RACK_SWAPPABLE_V1_0.jpg (http://c.imagehost.org/download/0784/CANDLE_RACK_SWAPPABLE_V1_0.bmp)
Thatsit
July 4th, 2008, 02:54 PM
Just use a rack that you can put pre-taped sets into slots and just run sticky across them with som BP on the fuses.....Just like a mortar rack with no tubes just replace them with the candle sets and run the tape across the top and attach your slow fuse to it and then thats it!
ksuechuc
July 4th, 2008, 06:05 PM
I live in Canada. No Fuse without 1.3 and no BP without gun license.
I'm trying to cut down on cost and space here, that's why I would rather go the PVC route
raymor
July 5th, 2008, 08:46 AM
I've seen people use conduit clamps, but I'd rather this be tool-free and idiot-free.
My conduit clamps are tool free. The top ones are larger than need be, so
the candles slide freely through them. The bottom ones are snug enough
that it takes just a bit of effort to stick a candle in or twist it out.
I don't think I'd want to reload with conduit clamps, though, I'd want
something where I could load a pack at a time. Consider two pieces
of sheet material - plywood, OSB, whatever, with candles between them.
The sheet material is held together by three bolts with wing nuts,
clamping the candles between them. One piece of sheet material has
a thin strip of wood at the bottom where the bottom of the candles rest.
You could loosen the three wing nuts, dump out all of the candles, and
stick five more packs in very quickly. I built something like that this year.
No fuse without a license sucks. I'd look into a license. Depending on how
close you are to the US border, I might also go visit friends in the US for the
weekend. Several kinds of fuse are easy to make of course, but require
black powder, which would require a gun license. My understanding is that
getting gun license up there isn't easy, but I don't know - might be worth
checking out. Depending on your personal situation it could come in handy
in other ways. (I don't want this to turn into a gun debate, so I'm just
leaving it as "depending on your personal situation, everyone is different".)
russell
July 5th, 2008, 09:17 AM
You already know the answer to the PVC question, so why ask? Your safety and your audience's safety is far more important than the candles.
That setup of swappable racks looks kinda cool.
jack23
July 5th, 2008, 11:04 AM
Is PVC dangerous to use for roman candles?
Arthur Brown
July 6th, 2008, 07:08 AM
On soft ground in the UK we simply push some rebar into the ground and gaffer tape (or cable tie) candles onto that support stake.
As for fusing look to get legal in your jurisdiction. There are numerous online tutorials on how to make.... but none on how to get off a terrorist charge from the RCMP or security services.
Pyro-Man
July 6th, 2008, 08:48 AM
Get your self some metal pipe that will slide over the rebar described above, cut to the approximate length of your roman candles, duct tape the roman candles around those pieces of pipe, and you can pull the spent bundle off and drop the next one on in no time...
Storage is just the rebar and pieces of pipe, no bulky mess required.
Edited to add that if you paint the top part of the rebar with glow in the dark paint, it would be easier to drop on the fresh bundle in the dark...