I covered all my boards and racks (1.4g) with 4 mil clear plastic for a wedding display saturday night. We have a 60% chance of rain and I have to set up early so I can attend the wedding.
My question is has anyone tried shooting through this 4 mil clear plastic?
I intend on removing it before the shoot but if I read that others have shot through it with no problems I may leave the plastic on.
vegasfire
August 4th, 2006, 04:55 PM
I have not had any experience shooting through the 4 mil plastic, but you reminded me of a real spectacle I saw last year:
A noob had bought a couple of Brothers cakes (Acid Rain), cut the plastic lid on the side, and lit the fuses without removing the plastic!
He was lucky. When he saw me take off, he figured there must be a reason & followed me. He found out quickly what the reason was!
Deweycoon
August 4th, 2006, 05:07 PM
The plastic one the Brothers cake is heavy, 4 mil plastic is about as thick as a heavy duty garbage bag.
I will not shoot thru the plastic unless there is others on the forum who do this with no problems.
GK
August 4th, 2006, 07:23 PM
I don't know about the 1.4 world...
As far as 1.3, I bag all the cakes if it looks like rain and shoot through it....
Shells.... I have shot through plastic...(I have also shot through tarps....and plywood <oops>)
The biggest problem is that the plastic catches fire, then can make a mess, light things at the wrong time, burn up wires, etc. so aside from cakes, unless its POURING at showtime, I'll pull the plastic.
If you think you need to keep covered, my advice would be to take your least energetic item and try to shoot one through a double layer of plastic and use that to determine what to do.
GK
Deweycoon
August 4th, 2006, 07:29 PM
That would be a mine cake and I used all of them so I don't have any for testing. I will just have to cut the plastic and hope the weather holds.
A_pyro_rush
February 11th, 2007, 01:21 PM
Well did you shoot thru the 4 mil plastic?
Why did you choose 4 mill anyway? There is less thick plastic like the cheap drop cloths used for covering floors when painting. It's like .9 mil
compo
February 11th, 2007, 02:51 PM
We wrap all of our shell racks and larger cakes with pallet wrap as the shot will burst through no problem otherwise we use black rubbish bags on large cakes and cling film on the smaller stuff
Deweycoon
February 11th, 2007, 02:56 PM
Nope, cut the plastic before the show started.
I used heavier plastic because I used it to covers boards full of cakes not just the tops of cakes.
After doing it once I wouldn't try to use anything that was thinner.
I had some holes in the plastic by the time I got the boards to the shoot site.
Pat1mn
February 11th, 2007, 03:27 PM
I do not know about shooting through plastic, but If you were going to try, I would recommend using fire retardent poly. They do make it, because I have used it in other applications.
My 2 cents
Kwyjibo
February 11th, 2007, 06:40 PM
Take it off right before showtime, because like blowing through aluminum foil, its going to make a HUUUUGE mess.
graybeard
February 11th, 2007, 06:55 PM
I would suggest shooters be mindful of static electricity with sheets of plastic. Dragging around large sheets of plastic or allowing the plastic to slide against itself, can cause sparks of static electricity. You can demonstrate this danger by taking one of those large plastic dropcloths like they sell in the WallMart paint department; Slide it around the floor in a darkened room. You will see the sparks lighting up all over. If you use plastic, cut it in smaller sheets just big enough to do the job, and carefully lift it over your mortars and cakes. Do not allow it to drag or slide over the items or along the ground.
Kwyjibo
February 11th, 2007, 07:31 PM
I would suggest shooters be mindful of static electricity with sheets of plastic. Dragging around large sheets of plastic or allowing the plastic to slide against itself, can cause sparks of static electricity. You can demonstrate this danger by taking one of those large plastic dropcloths like they sell in the WallMart paint department; Slide it around the floor in a darkened room. You will see the sparks lighting up all over. If you use plastic, cut it in smaller sheets just big enough to do the job, and carefully lift it over your mortars and cakes. Do not allow it to drag or slide over the items or along the ground.
I didnt think about that. Static would be a huge problem if it wasnt posted 60% of rain that day!!! You learn something every day!
Troutmanx36
February 11th, 2007, 09:27 PM
you could always try a thin coat of static guard over the plastic sheets. I'm sure it's not 100% but i think it would help.
cjurczak
February 12th, 2007, 07:29 AM
Fortunately when there is a treat of rain there is usually sufficient humidity in the air that static becomes less of an issue...While it is actually raining, there is alot of friction going on with rain drops...but there is no exposed pyrotechnic compounds...at least there shouldn't be...Your plastic drop clothes will be covered in water that is running off which will slowly dissipate some charge from the sheet...and there is less of a chance of a spark with all of the moisture in the air...Even the moisture in the air is sufficient to dissipate charge from surfaces...
I am not trying to tell you static electricity isn't dangerous...because it is...but there are some things working for us when it comes to our environment...
Since we can't control the weather and our environment, what should we do?
There are a few easy things to the most important for several reasons is to wear COTTON clothing...right down to your socks and under garments...
Be sure that any coat you may we wearing is non-synthetic...
Also, less of a issue is Ground yourself...since we pyro's are commonly working outside on the ground this is pretty easy...whether you realize it or not you come in contact with the ground or another grounding source more than you think...Any large metal object will usually dissipate charge from your body...
When it comes to static surface area is important...
While static initiated accidents seem rare in the pyro world, I'd bet it will take one good case where static is to blame, and NFPA will have us all wearing grounding straps and bonding off while handling pyrotechnics...