This page describes how to make a
cross-arm for the collapsible
stand. The cross-arm can be attached and removed quickly from
its upright pole for easy transportation or storage. Tube fountains
(5-7 inch) can be attached to the cross-arm to produce a waterfall
effect.
MATERIALS
- 1 eight
foot 1"x2" board (pole)
- 1 four foot 1"x2" board (cross-arm)
- 1 1.5"x1.5" corner brace
- 3 screws for corner brace
- 3 #8-32 x 1" Truss head machine screws
- 3 wing nuts for the #8-32 machine screws
- 3 #8 washers
- Latex Enamel Porch and Deck Paint
- 16 5"-7" tube fountains (I like to use Brothers "Stars of
USA" (BP4170), because they last almost a minute and have a lot of
crackle)
- 4 feet of fast visco
fuse (0.5-1 inch/sec) or quick match.
-Duct tape
-Black electrical tape
Procedure
Sand and paint the eight
foot pole and four foot cross-arm. Place black lines on the cross-arm
at 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22 inches from each end. These are your
guide lines for placing tube fountains. Measure 9 inches from the top
of the eight foot pole and place the top of the corner brace at that
location on the board. Mark the location of the holes for the brace on
the board, drill holes and screw the brace onto the pole.
Place the middle of the
cross-arm on top of the corner brace and mark the location of the
holes for the brace on the cross-arm. Drill holes just big enough for
the #8-32 machine screws to be screwed into the holes (5/32"?).
Place washers on holes and push and screw the machine screws into
holes. They should be a tight fit. Write the word "UP" on
the side of the cross-arm where the heads of the machine screws and
washers are and down on the other side where the machine screws stick
through.
To attach the
cross-arm to the pole, place the cross-arm on the corner brace on the
pole. Make sure the word "UP" is up. Use wing nuts on the
"DOWN" side to attach to the pole. The pole and its
cross-arm are then placed in the collapsible stand and attached with
duct tape.
To make a water fall, remove the
cross arm from the pole. Attach fountains to the cross-arm using duct
tape. The fountains can be either be pointing down or laid horizontal
on the cross arm, pointing toward the audience. Center one fountain at
each guide line. Connect the fuse to each fountain using electrical
tape using methods described here.
The fuses of each fountain should point to the center of the
cross-arm. If you are using an igniter, place it in the middle of the
fuse, not on either end. This will shorten the time needed to
ignite all the fountains as both sides will be ignited at the same
time. If you are lighting by hand, you might want to attach a
piece of fuse to the middle of the fuse and hang it down, so it will
be easier to reach once it is attached to the pole. It takes me about
30-45 minutes to make the waterfall.
For a VERY full effect, you can place
the fountains right next to each other on the cross arm, with about 14
on each side. You can also alternate the fountains between pointing
down and pointing horizontal, but this requires more visco fuse. If
you connect all the down fountains with one fuse and the horizontal
ones with another fuse and join them at the middle of the cross arm,
it will ignite faster.
Attach the cross-arm to
the pole and place the pole in the collapsible stand as described
above . You can also attach a bigger fountain at the top of the pole
such as Black Cat Glitter Stars, (BC2084), Ratta tat tat
(BC255) or Pop Goes the Fountain (BC2009).
Here the cross-arm has
horizontal fountains shooting towards the audience.
Here the cross-arm has
fountains pointing down. It also has a fountain at the top
of the pole and 28 fountains on the cross arm.
