well I pretty much finished up my season of fireworks shows for this summer. I sat down this morning to look over and clean all of my consumer racks that hold all of my HDPE and Fiberglass mortars.
I found a couple problems. I have a couple "milk crate" racks that hold 25 of the fiberglass tubes I bought from Colin here on PyroU. From all of my original examinations of these tubes, and from other guys looking them over as well, we came to the conclusion that these tubes were "poured resin" plugs. Well upon inspection this morning I have two of my fiberglass tubes in the rack with their "plugs" blown out.
I haven't pulled them out of the rack yet, but will do so and take a closer look a bit later today. I did NOT have any low breaks, or flowerpots, but did find two of these tubes with the plugs GONE
Anyway before you guys put your racks away for the year, be sure to clean and inspect all your mortars.
Dan
Deweycoon
July 27th, 2006, 09:10 AM
I want to add I have some fiberglass mortars from Victory I bought this year that have very poor clay plugs.
You can crumble the plug with a fingernail.
The fiberglass mortars I bought last year at Victory are all in excellent shape.
St1dinoh
July 27th, 2006, 09:28 AM
i always wondered why there wasn't some sort of nail or staple in there to prevent the plug from dropping out.
Bill Corbett
July 27th, 2006, 10:37 AM
The black fiberglass mortars I bought from United Pyro all have the poured resin plug in them and there is a 1/8" steel pin that goes completly thru the mortar (both walls) and plug. I haven't found any plugs blown out yet but I won't shoot out of them again until October.
lamrith
July 27th, 2006, 11:06 AM
i always wondered why there wasn't some sort of nail or staple in there to prevent the plug from dropping out.
Concrete, cement etc plugs do not take nails/pounding real well. It also sounds like these plugs are crumbling apart as much/more than being pushed out. Lose enough material and that plug will come out even is nailed/staked in...
danmagicman
July 27th, 2006, 01:25 PM
Consider pouring epoxy on top of the clay plugs?
St1dinoh
July 27th, 2006, 01:28 PM
Concrete, cement etc plugs do not take nails/pounding real well. It also sounds like these plugs are crumbling apart as much/more than being pushed out. Lose enough material and that plug will come out even is nailed/staked in...
i wasn't suggesting that it's stapled or nailed after it's filled....i was thinking pouring the plug around the support. that would make them very secure.
Dan
July 27th, 2006, 01:38 PM
I know Dewey is experiencing the crumbling with his, I just want to reiterate, my tubes are NOT crumbling like his. The plugs simply "blew" out the bottom.
I was under the impression until this problem, that Colin was selling ONLY poured resin tubes. I don't think these are. Not if the plugs can blow out anyway. I don't know I could be wrong. Anyway, I am going to pull them out and re plug them by pouring resin into the bottoms.
Dan
Mikeee
July 27th, 2006, 02:07 PM
If using the right resin you willnot have a problem you must sand the area with some rough sandpaper make sure its clean and pour the Getgum on the plug good or else there will be leaks or a Major blow-out.
MrX8503
July 27th, 2006, 02:34 PM
This is a little disheartening. I was thinking about purchasing 100 of colins tubes. I dont want blown plugs.
PyroSteamer
July 27th, 2006, 03:56 PM
Some people are so clueless about fiberglass tubes and how easy they are to obtain, and also screw up. THERE IS NO NEED WHAT SO EVER to buy it from someone online. 9 out of 10 times they are selling you the WRONG type. It is easy enough to buy 15 foot lenths and cut them yourself. Most plumbing supply houses will special order it for you also. Buying from someone online you are paying them to pick it up, cut it with a hacksaw, mark the price up and also charge you inflated shipping. Why not use that money to pay for a few cases of shells?
MrX8503
July 27th, 2006, 04:33 PM
Some people are so clueless about fiberglass tubes and how easy they are to obtain, and also screw up. THERE IS NO NEED WHAT SO EVER to buy it from someone online. 9 out of 10 times they are selling you the WRONG type. It is easy enough to buy 15 foot lenths and cut them yourself. Most plumbing supply houses will special order it for you also. Buying from someone online you are paying them to pick it up, cut it with a hacksaw, mark the price up and also charge you inflated shipping. Why not use that money to pay for a few cases of shells?
So you're saying Colin is selling the wrong tube, inflating shipping prices, and costs more if I bought them myself somewhere else?
Colin charges about 1.50 for a 15" Tube. I cant find it any cheaper than that anywhere else.
PyroSteamer
July 27th, 2006, 05:15 PM
I was simply stating that if you want to buy tubes IT IS CHEAPER to get them yourself. They are not hard to make THE RIGHT WAY! Also people obviously have a problem with the tubes in question (plugs blown out)
MrX8503
July 27th, 2006, 05:42 PM
I already stated that i havent found them cheaper. Granted i've only looked online and the price on avg was $2-$3 per foot and colin sells them for around 1.50 for 15"
EDIT:
Also if i were able to find them cheaper I dont think I would save enough money to offset the labor that is needed to prepare the tubes anyway. This also seems to apply to HDPE, its just better to buy them from pyrogear.net.
Dan
July 28th, 2006, 09:26 AM
Guys,
I just want to make it clear also, that I am in no way advising you NOT to buy the tubes from Colin. They seem (for the most part) to be excellent tubes. I have about 75 of them, and just like I said, I have noticed that 2 of them in one of my racks have blown out plugs after this past 4th of July show.
So I am questioning the integrity of the resin poured plugs, if they are truely a resin plug, or if they are indeed clay. I have not taken the tubes out of the rack yet to look closer, but will try to do so later today.
Dan
lamrith
July 28th, 2006, 11:11 AM
Time is $$, when you add in your time to do the work to the materials costs and shipping to yourself you will find that these online places are only making a very small margin for a labor intensive job. That is what I have seen in the HDPE market, I bet it is similar on the FG market.
Mikeee
July 28th, 2006, 04:08 PM
Today at work I ran into the sales rep for smith Fibercast one of the two companys that make this stuff and I asked him about plugs which I have never used in the field and he asked why a plug and not a cap I told him that I use the pipe for fireworks and that the cap is round and I feel it will break over time cause of the small surface area touching the base. He stated that the factory has tested the pipe for use in the pryotech ind and that the testing firm stated that the tubes could only be used for shells 2'' and under. He said they have heard of many problems using them with bigger shells. The main problem he knew about is that the heat from the lift charge weakens the resin in which the fiberglass is wrapped and the heat also causes the pipe to expand and he said if there is not a fiberglass cap on it any other material will break over time cause the other material doesnt expand and contract and the same rate as the pipe. Another problem he said was if it is cold out they will break really easy.
P.s. He knows so much about it cause he is a permit holder and he has shoot many of shows using this stuff but he only uses it once.
missinglink
July 28th, 2006, 05:07 PM
I bought 120 fiberglass tubes from Colin and not one of them lost a plug. I fired Excals and the bulk Rambo kid shells. Not to say is doesn't happen and obviously did. They were all packed and fired in wood boxes. I ran short of FG mortars on one box and used HDPE mortars to finish filling the box.
Still.... I will inspect them all more closely now. The heads up is welcome. St1dinoh's suggestion of pouring the resin over pins already in place is a good one.
ThunderKing
July 31st, 2006, 06:10 AM
all tubes fail no matter what they are made of.
i have fire tubes of all sizes that were useless after one shot.