Advanced Firework Display

This project utilizes the electrical control panel to ignite consumer fireworks rather than a person running around lighting them manually.  Why use it?  When you have the ability to light off dozens of groups of fireworks just by flipping a switch, you can have much more control over your display.  You can ignite one group of aerial shells from one location, than instantaneously ignite a group of fountains hundreds of feet away.  Any combination of fireworks in any location can be lit off precisely when you want them to, with a switch or button, eliminating the need for you or your assistants to be running around trying to light different fireworks.  And with an electrical ignition system, you’ll be able to synchronize your displays to music, if you so desire.  I have been using this method for 4 years, and every firework show I put on is so spectacular and intense that people often mistake it for a professional display.  

Before reading the rest of this, I highly recommend that you read through the five major sections of the Your Own Show  page to get a general idea of how to organize a display.

The method I have developed for an electrically ignited consumer firework display involves launching series of fireworks from different locations spread out across a large area.  I build firework launching "stations" by gluing fountains and repeaters to several different sheets of plywood and fusing them together so they ignite sequentially - and slightly overlapping - so fireworks are constantly going off, both on the ground and in the air.  Besides stations of fountains/repeaters, you can use shell launching racks, mine launching racks, rocket launching racks, roman candle batteries, set pieces, heaps of firecrackers, tons of blinding strobes, etc.  You can place these firework stations in any pattern that you like – rows, a curve, a semicircle, and fire them off with the control panel.  The stations provide a constant barrage of sparks and aerial effects, which is complemented by mines, rockets, shells, etc.  It’s completely up to you how you do it, but below are some instructions and tips on how to create a organize a truly spectacular consumer firework show.

First of all, you need to find a location.  This is discussed in the Your Own Show section.  For this type of display, however, a much large location is necessary, since the show is larger and more fireworks are involved.  City streets and cul-de-sacs WILL NOT work for this.  Your best choices are a bulldozed lot or a healthy, green field of grass.  The reason you need to know the location before anything else is so you can plan your show according to the area.  For example, if the area isn't too wide, then you won't be able to spread your fireworks out as much.

Now to the actual planning of the show.  You need to think of a rough idea of the setup of your show, and what you want it to look like.  What kind of fireworks do you want in it?  Do you want the majority of the fireworks to be a certain type, such as shells or aerial repeaters?  Or would you rather have fountains and firecrackers?  I have used 6 repeater/fountain stations arranged in a semi circle shape.  The middle two ignite first, followed by the next two, and then the outermost "finale racks" (BIG repeaters fused to go off all at once).  During that time, I set off racks of shells - 10 at a time - followed by a set piece at the end.  The entire display lasts about 5 minutes.

You could do something like that, or make up your own layout.  Perhaps you could have several rows of stations, finished off with artillery shell racks - it's up to you.  However, there are some general techniques and rules of thumb that you should stick to when planning and setting up your show in order to make it truly amazing, which are described in detail below.  Remember, you're using the electrical control box to fire off this show - so you can ignite anything you want at any time!

DISTANCE - The spacing between the different elements of a display is critical to how it will look when fired.  It just doesn't look good to have every firework being ignited from the exact same spot - not just because it's boring, but because the fireworks will overlap each other and the audience won't get to enjoy them as much.  You want everything to be spread out enough to fill up as much of the sky as you can - it's a huge, three dimensional canvas, and you should paint the whole thing with fire.  Most professional displays will ignite shells, candles, etc. from multiple locations.  The key is to have a huge, long "wall" of fireworks going off, spaced just far enough apart to give each firework room to burst and fill in the space in between.  Fountain and repeater stations should be placed anywhere from 20-30 feet apart.  The wide spray from the fountains and the aerial bursting effects from the repeaters (which can spread out quite a ways) will fill in the space in between.  Shells and shell racks should be at least 50 feet apart to keep the bursts from overlapping too much.  Shells don't travel up in a perfect line, rather they tend to go off to the side a little bit.  And the actual burst diameter of the shell can be fairly large, making it necessary to have shell launching stations farther apart.  Mines and roman candles can be used to fill in the space in between, or can be put farther away/closer than the shells/stations in order to give the display a little depth.

SIZE - Start off with small, insignificant fireworks, and slowly build up to larger ones.  This creates a lot of excitement in the audience.  I always fuse the stations so that fountains ignite first, followed by increasingly more powerful fireworks such as aerial repeaters, mines, and shells.  Do not go the other way around.  Things like fountains and wheels are great, but they seem crappy and boring if you ignite them after a large volley of shells.

AMOUNT - Along with increasing the size of the fireworks as time goes by, increase the density as well.  For example, if you start out setting off 4 fountains, then move on to 6 repeaters, 10 roman candles, 30 shells, etc. 

STATION CONSTRUCTION - Now you may be wondering how to best put together and fuse a station, given the tips mentioned above.  First off, figure out how long you want each station to last - that is, for how long do you want a constant stream of fireworks going off.  Two minutes?  Five?  Whatever it is, you have to have enough fireworks to be going the entire time.  Since very few fireworks last any longer than two minutes each, you have to fuse them to go off shortly before the previous one is done.  Which brings me to my next important point - you do not want to have any "dead time" between the ignition of fireworks on a station.

When this happens, the excitement and anticipation of the audience subsides, and the show doesn't flow as well.  Take a look at my wonderful diagram above if you're still confused.  When the fuse is lit, it travels to the first red fountain.  This utilizes the technique of starting off small, and building up to larger and better fireworks.  As that ignites, the flame travels to the green repeater, which begin going off, followed shortly later by the lavender repeater.  By the time the fuse reaches the yellow cone, the red fountain will be exhausted, but the other two will still be firing.  See?  There will always be something that's going off.  The best type of fuse to use for this is visco.  Black match works, but it is more fragile and burns too fast.  Read my guide to ignition to learn how to attach the fuses together.  By the time the fuse has reached the striped fountain, the other fireworks will have already been burning for several minutes.

It's a good idea to place each item about one foot apart, so there's enough fuse in between the different things to allow each one to burn by itself for a while before igniting something else.  You don't want everything to go off at nearly the exact same time.  You can spice it up a little by attaching packs of firecrackers, strobes, or those annoying whistle things to the main fuse at random places.

Another must is to always use both fountains and repeaters, and always have at least one of each going off at the same time.  When used by themselves, they still look awesome, but they look 10 times better when they're performing at once.  That way you have a nice spray of sparks on the ground with simultaneous aerial effects. To the left are a couple of thumbnails of the stations I built.  The bottom picture shows four stations that last about two minutes each, and the top one shows me working on a station that lasts about four minutes.  Click on the images to see a larger version.

LAYOUT - Another critical "rule" of a display is to always have at least two stations shooting off fireworks at once.  You already know by now that each station should have multiple fireworks going off at once, but a show is much more exciting and beautiful if you have different stations going off at the same time.  Before I explain any more - and confuse you any more - here's a diagram of the layout of the stations used in my firework display.

Ah, the wonders of MS Paint.  Anyways, my display uses 6 fountain/repeater stations.  Notice how it's symmetrical, which is a good technique.  The large stations, marked "1", are the first to ignite, shooting out tons of sparks and effects.  About two minutes later, the stations marked "2" ignite, doing basically the same thing as the "1" stations.  They last approximately two minutes, and the "1" stations continue to fire.  Since they go for two minutes longer, they are bigger than the "2" stations.  Just as all four of them are about to burn out, the "3" stations ignite.  These "finale stations" consist of huge fountains and repeaters which are quick matched to go off at the same time.  This creates a furious barrage of fireworks from all 6 stations, and even when the first 4 burn out, the finale stations continue to fire for about a minute.

The stations with corresponding numbers only have to last about the same amount of time - they don't necessarily need to have the same fireworks on them.  In fact, it's better to have different fireworks on each on to give them a little variety.

Hopefully you understood most of that, and aren't banging your head on the screen in frustration.  But if you've got this far, you're already done with the hardest part.  The stations are the backbone of the entire show.  Don't forget that you'll also be using shells, roman candles, etc.  If you just want your show to consist of only stations and not use any other types of fireworks, that's still fine.  I've done that before a few years ago, and they still make an unbelievable display.  But if you do want to use other types of fireworks, read on...

SHELLS

If you only do one thing besides stations, do artillery shells.  They travel to an altitude higher than the repeaters reach before bursting.  There are thousands and thousands of different types of shells in existence - they come in every color imaginable, some have crackles, whistles, spinners, and loud reports.  And when you ignite dozens of them at nearly the same time from the safety of your control panel, it makes the display extremely intense and bright - combined with repeaters and fountains, they will light up a large field like it was daytime!

NEVER just set the rack on top of the ground when firing shells.  It's best to steady it with rock-free sand bags, or better yet, to bury it to about 1/2 or 3/4 of its height in dirt, then to pack it around.  If you want, you can angle it lengthwise by a few degrees so the shells spread out in the sky a little more.  Make sure the ground is packed tightly around the rack, and put a few large rocks on the angled side to make sure it won't fall completely over.  That would be bad...

When?  Shells are a big finale item, and should be fired near the end of the show - like when the stations reach their most exciting point (when everything is ignited), or when the stations start to burn out.  If you have lots of shells (I have 5 of these racks), you could fire a row or two towards the middle of the show, say, right before you ignite the second or third set of stations.  But once you start igniting shells, then everything that follows them should be large and spectacular...i.e., don't set off a bunch of fountains and crap right after a volley of shells - remember, you want to build UP in intensity.

ROMAN CANDLES

These things ONLY look good when your fire off lots of them at once.  One candle shooting a colored ball ever couple seconds looks dumb.  The most effective and eye-pleasing way to fire them is at angles, using a method I came up with that's explained below.

Use some 2x4s to make a triangle similar to the one above, along with a stake attached the to the lateral piece.  Attach groups of candles (say, 4) to either side of the triangle using duct tape, glue, or whatever.  Attach all 8 fuses to a piece of quick match, and hook up an electrical igniter the quick match.  If you haven't already figured it out, you pound the thing into the ground with the stake.  When they ignite, they'll shoot up flaming balls in a fan-shape.  If possible, use several of these "candle triangles", about 50 feet apart.  When ignited at the same time, their colored projectiles will cross each other and look even more beautiful.

When?  You can fire off roman candles in this arrangement during basically any part of the show.  They're not wimpy, they're just different.  It's a nice and unexpected transition from different elements of the show.  However, the only time I don't recommend lighting these off is during the climax of the action at the end. At that point, the other fireworks would completely overwhelm the roman candles and their effects would be indistinguishable from the rest of the show.  A great time would be to ignite them before anything else.  It's a nice, exciting introduction, which can be followed by stations when they're finished.

This is a complete layout diagram for all of the fireworks in my display.  It's the same as the one above, but in addition to the 6 stations, there's 5 mortar racks, 3 mine launchers, 4 roman candle triangles, and a set piece (it doesn't actually say PYRO, I just put that there as a generic word).

If you're looking for a good place to get fireworks, check out the dealers at my "Online Firework Stand" by clicking here

ASSEMBLING THE SHOW

The best place to get everything ready for the display is inside of a garage.  If you have cars, then just keep them parked outside for a couple of days.  You should only start to put everything together a day or two before the display, and there are several reasons for this.  For one, the longer you leave everything out in the open, the higher the chance is that they will absorb moisture and get ruined.  One year I had about a dozen shells blow up on the ground because I loaded them in their tubes too long before the show, and moisture had got in and ruined their lift charges.  Another reason to postpone preparation is because completed firework stations and racks could easily be ruined by pets and little kids running around.  And lastly, for safety - if one of the items were to accidentally ignite, it could set off the entire show if everything had been fused together.  So when it comes to getting the show ready, the later, the better.  Here's how to begin putting it all together:

Since I'll assume you don't have a workbench big or clean enough to hold all of the fireworks, you'll be working on the floor.  In that cause, use one of those soft gardening pad things to kneel on.  Some basic things you should have on hand are scissors, a knife, electrical tape, masking tape, construction glue (in the tube), quick match, black match, visco, and e-matches (electrical igniters).

Stations:  Lay out all the pieces of wood and arrange the fireworks on each one of them.  Make sure they're the correct distance away from each other.  Then glue each one to the wood, and forget about them for at least a day (so the glue can dry).  When it dries, use a knife to shear the plastic/paper off the device to expose the fuse, and begin using black match to connect them all together in the order that you want.  When you're done, cut and tape a 5" piece of black match to the first firework in the sequence, then attach an electrical match to the fuse.  Tape the wires of the e-match to the first firework to be sure it won't come loose and tear away from the fuse.  Cover the + and - ends of the wires with masking tape to be sure no electricity can get to them prematurely.

Shells:  All you do is attach the quick match/e-match assembly to the strips of wood by the mouths of the tubes.  Do not load the shells until you get the the firing site and the racks are buried.  Tape exposed wire of the igniters.  I'm not going to type that each time, so just remember that when you have bare wires exposed, tape them.  TAPE THEM!!!!

Roman Candles:  Group the candles together that will eventually go on the sides of the triangle and quick match them.  Put an e-match in the end of the quick match.  Don't attach the candles to the triangle yet.

Set pieces:  These obviously have to prepared completely at home.  The instructions for doing so are here.  The only thing you do differently is attach an electrical igniter to the leader fuse (unless you plan on letting if off as a separate item before the show or after it).

Mines:  Just like shells, you shouldn't load these until you get to the firing site.  But you can prepare the quick match/e-match assembly.

Now everything is ready to be taken to the firing site.  Obtain a box that you can use to store the shells/mines until they're ready to be loaded into their racks.

SETUP

You should begin setting up for your display in the afternoon of the day you plan on firing the show.  Make sure it's clear of flammable debris.  First of all, place the control panel in the area where you plan on firing the show from.  It's good to use a small card table so it doesn't have to sit on the ground.  Have the battery right next to the panel, but don't plug it in.  Next, find out the exact places where the firework stations/racks will go, and mark it with something...a spray painted rock, maybe.  Then begin to string out the firing wires to each location, and hook them up to the firing panel.  Don't bring out the fireworks yet.  If you have some wooden stakes and flagging tape, it would be a good idea to mark a line about 30' behind your control box for audience to stand behind.  This will keep them a safe distance from the fireworks, and prevent anyone from running around in the firing area and potentially tripping on the wires prior to show time.  Believe me, having kids trip over your wires is the LAST thing you want when you're stressed.

Take the mortar and mine racks out to the appropriate locations and bury them/surround them with sandbags.  Use a sledgehammer to drive the roman candle triangles into the ground.  Bring out some sawhorses or some other device to mount set pieces on.  The reason you don't want all the fireworks to be out yet is to reduce any chance or premature ignition.  If other people are using fireworks in the area, there's a possible risk of an erratic-flying skyrocket coming down and igniting a portion of your display.  Don't bring out the fireworks till the last minute. 

About an hour before the show, begin getting the fireworks ready.  It's best to have an assistant help you so it goes faster and your don't drop anything.  Make sure all of the control panel switches are off, and that it's not plugged into the battery.  Bring out the stations to the marked locations and hook up the wires.  Load the shells into their racks, and insert their fuses into the quick match leader.  Do the same for the mines.  Attach the set piece to its mounting frame.  If you're using sawhorses, use the method shown below.  You can also build the mounting frame shown here.  Attach the roman candles to the triangles using duct tape, electrical tape, or those little plastic fastener things.

Using a flashlight if necessary, walk around to each firework and double check to make sure everything is hooked up ok.  Make sure the alligator clips aren't touching each other and that they're properly hooked to the e-match wires.  Make sure the fuse connecting the parts of the station is intact and hasn't came loose.  When you retreat back to the control panel, make sure the audience is still behind the designated spot, and that no one is running around near the fireworks.

IGNITION

Now you're ready to begin.  Making sure the switches are all off (they would be in the up position if you mounted them upside-down), plug in the battery to the control panel.  Use a small flashlight or glow stick so you can see the switches, and then, when you're ready, begin the show...

THE END / CLEAN UP

Once every firework has gone out, you should be able to see any lingering sparks or small fires that may have broken out during the course of the show.  Wait about 10 minutes in case there's any hangfires or smoldering fireworks.  Then approach with a water gun or water bucket and douse anything that might be burning.

This is also a good time to pass around sparklers, party poppers, or pop-its (those stupid things have a hundred different names) to the audience to let them participate in the fireworks.

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