1 post tagged “how to”
Boards can be very useful for shows, they can make setup and planning easier, and make the show easier to shoot by requiring you to light fewer fuses. You could even fuse multiple boards together and do a "one fuse show" so you can watch it yourself instead of running around lighting things and missing most of the show. There are many ways to make a board, but they are all pretty much just cakes (usually, other stuff can be used) attached to plywood and fused together. The method described below is far from the only one, and others may work just as well or better, but here is how I do it.
Vox is being very difficult with inserting pictures in with text at the moment, so just click each step for the relevant picture...
Step 1 - Gather all your materials; plywood (or other similar flat surface), cakes, visco fuse, stickymatch, tape, ruler, cutting tool, glue (optional, more on that later).
Step 2 - Figure out your preliminary firing sequence and arrange the cakes so they fit and are set in the order you want them to fire. Picking your cakes and firing sequence is a whole different topic, so we'll assume that is already figured out.
Step 3 - If you are gluing with something like Liquid Nails, you need to cut the paper off the bottom so you are gluing to the wood base or it won't do anything. The cake on the right has a thin sheet of laminated wood (or something, not exactly sure what to call it) and the other has a base of particle board.
Step 4 - If using glue, spread it on the bottom of the cake. You don't need that much. Once you have some on the cake, press it down onto the board and twist it around a little to spread the glue and get a good hold. If you use too much glue, it might hold too well, and be difficult to remove later.
Step 5 - If using tape instead of glue (or in addition to), make sure it is sturdy, don't just have an inch on the board and an inch on the cake, it won't hold anything. However you attach the cakes to the board, be sure to fuse each row/item before attaching the next ones to the board, or you will have a hard time getting to the fuses to connect them.
Step 6 - Cakes that are supposed to fire at the same time are stickymatched together. Even if I am only igniting a single cake at one point in a board, I use a bit of stickymatch on the cake fuse because it is easier to connect the main visco fuse to the sticky than reliabily connect it to the skinny visco of the cake. I also like to tape cakes together for extra stability, although it is more useful for 200g than 500g with large bases. I make a cut in the stickymatch and insert the fuse directly into the powder as far as I can get it. Some say this isn't necessary, but I think it provides extra reliability, and I've had 100% ignition so far. Once the stickymatch is connecting all the fuses you want to ignite at the same time, I cover each of these points with a piece of duct tape to protect it and keep it tight so it is more reliable. Any exposed stickymatch is then covered in duct tape to prevent early ignition from sparks, as I am doing in this picture. Be sure to leave a point to get your visco in, don't cover everything just yet.
Step 7 - You should have already figured out how many seconds you want between cakes or rows of cakes igniting, and know the burn rate of your fuse. With those bits of information, you can measure out how much fuse you need between cakes/rows. As I measure, I mark each point with a bit of making tape and then measure from that point to the next. Try to use one long piece of fuse if possible, every time you have to join fuses you create another point that must sucessfully ignite, reducing reliability and also possibly affecting timing. Another picture of this step can be seen here.
Step 8 - With your measured and marked fuse, you can now connect each measured point to the stickymatch of the cakes. Be sure you left some extra visco on the end to start the board! I prefer to run the visco between the stickymatch and the cake, so it has full contact and is held in place. These joints are then covered with duct tape. Another picture of a fused board can be seen here. In the second example I ran the stickymatch out to one side on each row so it is easier to attach the visco, but it depends on how your particular board is arranged.
Step 9 - The finished board! The paper is cut off the top just to make less cleanup, otherwise it just gets little bits all over. Be careful because removing the paper may make the cakes internal fuses more exposed and vulnerable to early ignition from other sparks.
Step 10 - The messy dissasembly. Liquid Nails was tougher than I thought, and removing the cakes was something of a chore, which left bits of the cake bases still attached with glue. This was particularly bad in this case beacause I wasn't able to use to board, so I had to remove the cakes without damaging them so they could be saved. Easier said than done. The glue can be very useful, but it seems in most situations that duct tape is enough.
So that is it for the basics of board making. Angled boards can also be used, and many other variations. A great way to learn more about making boards is to just look at how others have put them together. The setup galleries on PyroReview and PyroU are great places to start. They will give you ideas of cake combinations and physical layout that can be readily modified to whatever fireworks and materials you have available.
Step 2 - Figure out your preliminary firing sequence and arrange the cakes so they fit and are set in the order you want them to fire. Picking your cakes and firing sequence is a whole different topic, so we'll assume that is already figured out.
Step 3 - If you are gluing with something like Liquid Nails, you need to cut the paper off the bottom so you are gluing to the wood base or it won't do anything. The cake on the right has a thin sheet of laminated wood (or something, not exactly sure what to call it) and the other has a base of particle board.
Step 4 - If using glue, spread it on the bottom of the cake. You don't need that much. Once you have some on the cake, press it down onto the board and twist it around a little to spread the glue and get a good hold. If you use too much glue, it might hold too well, and be difficult to remove later.
Step 5 - If using tape instead of glue (or in addition to), make sure it is sturdy, don't just have an inch on the board and an inch on the cake, it won't hold anything. However you attach the cakes to the board, be sure to fuse each row/item before attaching the next ones to the board, or you will have a hard time getting to the fuses to connect them.
Step 6 - Cakes that are supposed to fire at the same time are stickymatched together. Even if I am only igniting a single cake at one point in a board, I use a bit of stickymatch on the cake fuse because it is easier to connect the main visco fuse to the sticky than reliabily connect it to the skinny visco of the cake. I also like to tape cakes together for extra stability, although it is more useful for 200g than 500g with large bases. I make a cut in the stickymatch and insert the fuse directly into the powder as far as I can get it. Some say this isn't necessary, but I think it provides extra reliability, and I've had 100% ignition so far. Once the stickymatch is connecting all the fuses you want to ignite at the same time, I cover each of these points with a piece of duct tape to protect it and keep it tight so it is more reliable. Any exposed stickymatch is then covered in duct tape to prevent early ignition from sparks, as I am doing in this picture. Be sure to leave a point to get your visco in, don't cover everything just yet.
Step 7 - You should have already figured out how many seconds you want between cakes or rows of cakes igniting, and know the burn rate of your fuse. With those bits of information, you can measure out how much fuse you need between cakes/rows. As I measure, I mark each point with a bit of making tape and then measure from that point to the next. Try to use one long piece of fuse if possible, every time you have to join fuses you create another point that must sucessfully ignite, reducing reliability and also possibly affecting timing. Another picture of this step can be seen here.
Step 8 - With your measured and marked fuse, you can now connect each measured point to the stickymatch of the cakes. Be sure you left some extra visco on the end to start the board! I prefer to run the visco between the stickymatch and the cake, so it has full contact and is held in place. These joints are then covered with duct tape. Another picture of a fused board can be seen here. In the second example I ran the stickymatch out to one side on each row so it is easier to attach the visco, but it depends on how your particular board is arranged.
Step 9 - The finished board! The paper is cut off the top just to make less cleanup, otherwise it just gets little bits all over. Be careful because removing the paper may make the cakes internal fuses more exposed and vulnerable to early ignition from other sparks.
Step 10 - The messy dissasembly. Liquid Nails was tougher than I thought, and removing the cakes was something of a chore, which left bits of the cake bases still attached with glue. This was particularly bad in this case beacause I wasn't able to use to board, so I had to remove the cakes without damaging them so they could be saved. Easier said than done. The glue can be very useful, but it seems in most situations that duct tape is enough.
So that is it for the basics of board making. Angled boards can also be used, and many other variations. A great way to learn more about making boards is to just look at how others have put them together. The setup galleries on PyroReview and PyroU are great places to start. They will give you ideas of cake combinations and physical layout that can be readily modified to whatever fireworks and materials you have available.
