Back when I was still doing such things, we took old fireworks tubes and nailed them to planks of wood for the larger items, then placed heavy rocks at the ends of the planks to keep them from tipping...
Tried both a planks with a series of holes for classic bottle rockets and also just lining them up against a plank that was propped up at ~80 degrees. Both worked equally well. (lining them up and lighting with a propane torch was VERY effective for larger arrays, although you need to be ready to run and duck if things go south and a group tips over while lighting.
Just make sure not to hold it there too long or you'll burn up the stems. If a few don't light, no big deal...wait until all rockets have launched and come back later to shoot the remainder (after they sit long enough to know they're not going to spontaneously fire with you sitting in front of them!)
The way we did it is to pass the flame along the pre-lined-up fuses (set the fireworks with the fuses pointed outwards) . sort of a running pass...light while moving along the line then hightail it back away from the launch area.
Comments
10 years ago
Aerial... :-)
Back when I was still doing such things, we took old fireworks tubes and nailed them to planks of wood for the larger items, then placed heavy rocks at the ends of the planks to keep them from tipping...
Tried both a planks with a series of holes for classic bottle rockets and also just lining them up against a plank that was propped up at ~80 degrees. Both worked equally well. (lining them up and lighting with a propane torch was VERY effective for larger arrays, although you need to be ready to run and duck if things go south and a group tips over while lighting.
Answer 10 years ago
sounds great. ill hav to try the propane torch aproach.
Answer 10 years ago
Just make sure not to hold it there too long or you'll burn up the stems. If a few don't light, no big deal...wait until all rockets have launched and come back later to shoot the remainder (after they sit long enough to know they're not going to spontaneously fire with you sitting in front of them!)
The way we did it is to pass the flame along the pre-lined-up fuses (set the fireworks with the fuses pointed outwards) . sort of a running pass...light while moving along the line then hightail it back away from the launch area.
Answer 10 years ago
A coke bottle and my dad's cigarette worked for me as a kid but you could get as complicated as you wanted though.
Answer 10 years ago
Sure thing, but what happens when you want to simultaneously launch 40 or 50 at a time? (or even 5 or 10?)