STATION DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION

When putting together and fusing a station the first thing to decide is how long you want each station to last - that is, for how long do you want a constant stream of fireworks. Whatever amount of time you decide, you need 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.  Most importantly - you do not want to have any "dead time" between the ignition of fireworks on a station. This causes the excitement and anticipation of the audience subsides, and the show doesn't flow as well. 

micro-displayIn the diagram here, 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.  So 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 the guide to ignition for info on attaching fuses together. By the time the fuse has reached the striped fountain, the other fireworks will have already been burning for several minutes.

micro-display01It'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.  It's also possible to spice it up a little by attaching packs of firecrackers, strobes, or whistling rockets to the main fuse at random places.

fusingAnother 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.

Once you have decided what they should contain, construction of the stations can be started. Begin by laying 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 and make any final adjustments. Once you are sure of the timings and arrangements, glue each one to the wood, and leave to dry for at least a day. Use a knife to shear the plastic/paper off the devices to expose the fuses, 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.