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Visco Fuse Machine


Blaf

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Hi, I,m new here but I,ve been really impressed by the Visco machines your building. I did notice though that a few of you were having problems with the powder feed funnels clogging and were going to put vibrating units on them to help. I think a better, simpler solution might be to use the same as the commercial machines and feed 2 additional strings into the top die through the powder funnel. This should prevent bridging of the powder.

WR

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Erniz, you cant use Imageshack or photobucket here. Please use the forum uploader.

(Bladeren is dutch for Browse)

Edit:
@Paplu, yes that's true, but i'm using the English lang pack, (just like everyone lol) and I still see 'bladeren' instead of 'browse'. That's why I mentioned it.

Edited by mr.stijntje
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Good day folks,
I jus tried to edit my recent mesage but it said "you dont have the right..." neverless I was logged in.
So I will corect my mistake with uploading pictures here:

Edit:
Pictures removed in request of poster. People seem to be reposting them on other boards and stating them to be their own work. T.

Edit part two:
5 tutorials for making a Visco-fuse machine.
http://[B][ GEBRUIK MAKEN VAN EXTERNE UPLOADERS IS NIET TOEGESTAAN, UPLOAD BESTANDEN DIRECT OP HET FORUM ][/B]files/88129149/tutai.exe.html

You will need a password to unRAR the file. You can get that password by sending a PM to Erniz.
Gr33tZ. T.

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  • 1 month later...

very nice work Erniz! looks like the machine works great, giving out relayable fuse.

I downloaded your "movie tutorial" and thinking on using this as a base.
Before starting I would like to ask you a few questions:
1) why do you make different pulleys? you need to find the best ratio between the length of fuse you are making and the amount of spins the "spool spindle deck" makes, and use that pulley, I don't see when you need to change this ratio.
2) continuation for the first question, What is the ratio between the length of fuse you are making and the amount of spins the "spool spindle deck" makes? (I hope I wrote it clear).
3) Did you had any problems some use of this machine? problems with BP flow, fuse stuck in the small 2.5 m"m hole...

quest

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very nice work Erniz! looks like the machine works great, giving out relayable fuse.

I downloaded your "movie tutorial" and thinking on using this as a base.
Before starting I would like to ask you a few questions:
1) why do you make different pulleys? you need to find the best ratio between the length of fuse you are making and the amount of spins the "spool spindle deck" makes, and use that pulley, I don't see when you need to change this ratio.
2) continuation for the first question, What is the ratio between the length of fuse you are making and the amount of spins the "spool spindle deck" makes? (I hope I wrote it clear).
3) Did you had any problems some use of this machine? problems with BP flow, fuse stuck in the small 2.5 m"m hole...

quest

OK, I got your point, Ill try to explane,
I investigated original chinise fuse.Original fuse has got turn step of 10:8cm (inner layer). Simply talking tread makes 10 revoliution in 8cm.
Lower spool spindle deck must have always less spools becouse the angle of how it wraps/winds around inner thread must be steeper .Steeper winding angle of outher thread lay makes more reliable. Most reliable probably would be just with single one thread , but it isnt necesary. Since it wraps much thicker area and there are less threads ( 8 !) it must twist two times faster then upper deck (actualy lower disk does twist same speed as driving axle, upper disk rotates two times slower then driving axle).

Problams to avoid: damp BP, if it is slightly damp it will not go in. It must be Sahara desert dry! BP must be meshed , particles not biger then 0.2-0.3 mm or it will jam it.
First time try to make on upper and lower dies same 3 mm holes. It will give you 3 mm fuse. If you will be lucky to finde smaller/thinner threads ( they used to have some kind of "calibre" or size) then can try to make tinner fuse. Remember, if you wanna make two times thinner fuse then 3mm you gotta find two times tinner threads. You will not solve this by using less threads.

This machyne is possible to make out from killed angle cutter gear head, or car windshield motor. I gues car junkyards can be found all around the world, so just go to nearest for VW Golf2 windshield motor.

I will give a clear clue how to bild it , and it definatly work: find car vinshield motor with worm gear 1: 54 ratio and rip it of for worm gear, mount on it pulling spool with neck of 7.5 cm . Then mount 12 thread on upper disk cotton spools, on lower 8 spools. Make same size two pulleys for lower disk and driwng axle, and then two for upper ( one biger 2x for driven disk ). If you got any other worm gear kind, let say 1:30 ratio, then make pulling spool neck 3.75mm thick or make driven pulleys two times biger then they were.


P.S. One more tip, as much as you wind more fuse on pulling spool, as much pulling speed gets faster.But thats OK. Just dont wind hundrets of meters of it. Once you got there 50m. Take it off an coat it with NC laquer.

If gotta any Qs , go for it.

Sorry for my English , this is not best writer competition, aint it?
Ernis Edited by Erniz
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Hello guys!

I've got a few intimate thoughts and conclusions regarding production of the fuse in our home-shops:

a.) Die holes shouldn't exceed reasonable diameter for the intended fuse thickness. If you want to make 2mm fuse then upper die should have 2mm hole given that you use appropriately sized yarns. If you make say 4mm upper hole, it doesn't make 4mm thick fuse, no way. It would only mean you have powder spilled around. So, upper one should be carefully sized as well as lower one.

b.) If you take a look at commercial Chinese fuse, the green one, you should notice that it burns with almost no residue. We can therefore conclude that they use mixture other than meal powder. It burns really nice, producing lots of sparks and smell is not an distinctive sulphury smell of BP. Yarns are made of pure cotton but I suspect that it's been treated with Potassium Nitrate (or so) solution and dried before winding it on spools.

c.) Now as we touched cotton yarns, there's another aspect of quality fuse production. I noticed that slightly „hairy“ inner yarns do much better job at collecting the powder and thus making richer powder core. Definitely, they mustn't be silky smooth!

d.) Erniz mentioned a test with powdered sparkler mixed with meal to make a fuse core. It leaves a slag for sure as he said and I believe this should be avoided at any cost, especially when making explod.... ehm, deflagrating devices. We must strive after maximum safety of the end user, don't we?

e.) As the fuse is being collected, diameter of the drum increases and consequently stretches the fuse and makes winding steeper. If you check any of proffessional Chinese machines, you should notice that drum diameter is rather large and positioned at fair distance from last pulley. It's done intentionally because larger quantities come out of more consistent thickness and reliability. Also, before it's collected on a big drum, fuse goes over several additional pulleys to keep fuse under certain tension.

f.) Application of NC lacquer is done in wide open place so that fuse has time to dry, Chinese usually stretch it across entire yard. As for me, I do it on my balcony which is 7m long and quite sufficient for small lenghts I make.

Any comments or ideas?

Blaf

Edited by Blaf
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whether it is true or not, but ive found an uncorfirmed info about fuse core composition. It says core mix must be made of 80/10/10. Those +5% KNO3 goes to burn threads. Once we are using traditional 75/15/10 mix, the oxigen balance is equal. But equal just for its self BP . BUT WE ARE FORGETTING thread layer!!! Its as well fuel as S or C!! So thread layer makes fuse with negative oxygen balance. The thread layer is using atmosphere oxygen in order to burn.So it makes burn proces slow if compare with BP burning. In order to make it burn instantly, same fast as BP, we must add excess of KNO3.

Hmmm, this info made me raring to check it out. BTW, the info is referenced to WW2 time Bickford fuse core mixture.

So I agree with Blafs idea to tread yarns with saltpetter. But how to do? Soaking and drying spools will make them rock hard. Shoud I soak it after?

Erniz

Edited by Erniz
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Methinks that would yield some kind of thread covered blackmatch instead of visco. I think wetting the threads with a not too concentrated potassium nitrate solution and letting it dry will work better. When using not too concentrated solutions the problem of getting a hard block of cotton string is avoided, and since there are no salts in solution present in your visco machine, the metal parts won't corrode very fast and last longer.

Personally I don't see the point in trying to avoid residue from fuses. It's more something cosmetical than practical from my view. Using synthetic treads prevent a lot of residue as well, since the residue isn't as voluminous as the residue from burned cotton.

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I think erniz made a good point about the mixture, increasing the amount of KNO3 wouldn't harm.

I also found a shop that sells "rijggaren" and is much softer (fluffy?) than traditional cotton and cheap as well (Brandname is Visco, :) ). The tensile strength is poor but that really doesn't matter, the outer layer will be traditional cotton.

Soaking the treads with KNO3 is something i will not do, much to inpractical.

About the sparks. is it possible that it is the residu from the cotton that is blowing out?

Edited by Piet
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Guys, I don't think that adding extra oxidizer would enhance burning properties of fuse cotton layers. It would only tune the burning properties of the fuse core, i.e. fuse would burn slower or faster but we'll still have residue problem. KNO3 should be somehow embedded or soaked into threads...soaking came first into my mind as it sounded logical. Anyhow, I'll try to do it and post my experiences afterwards.
I tried once to use synthetic yarns and it worked nicely but leaving rich glowing residue. I didn't like it for obvious safety reasons.

Blaf

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A few observations:

1) It appears that in the Chinese fuse manufacturing setup, the take-up spool runs independently of the tensioning pulley. To clarify: a FIXED DIAMETER pulley draws the threads through the machine, as it has a full wrap of the "finished" fuse around it. AFTER this pulley, the fuse is wound onto a take-up spool (which probably uses very little tension so as to not interfere with the pulley).

2) Chinese manufacturing process has two "tracer lines" which run through the funnel and ensure that the powder flows evenly into the first die. Perhaps in an amateur setup, these "tracer lines" could be slightly DAMPENED with a saturated KNO3 solution. This would likely pull the dry powder into the center of the first die.

(My machine is up and running with an icing sugar test. I'm just waiting for my BP to dry before I crank out my first length of visco!)

-Ahri

Edited by ahriman
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  • 5 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I've read a lot about making this machine, but I'm a bit in a lack of time (who isn't). This morning I've found a so called wormgear, called "haakse overbrenging" in Dutch. This wormgear has a 29/4 ratio, witch I think is very usefull. I actually want to begin at building a visco machine, so I'm collecting the parts. I don't think I'm going to make that much of the parts myself, only for the spindles maybe, but the pulley's and bearings are very common to me, so nothing to worry about.
I'll keep posting updates if there's something advancing at the machine(or what it is going to be).

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi folks, long time been on forum. Last week I again used my Visco Fuse Machine. I wind up aprox. 100m of it. Some observation- you can make as large as you want lower die hole. It doesnt affect winding quality of outer layer.

Edited by Erniz
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi guys!

You might remeber your old member which once upon a time started all this mess....well, whatever the case is, I'm here to check how things're going. How well or bad your machines work? Any new designs on horizon? This corner of the forum has been forgotten for some time which fills my heart with unrest somehow. As for me, one of these days I'll start my machine again (I still have plenty of fuse left from last production) to make some fuse with yarns soaked in KNO3...we'll see how it burns this time...

Regards to all!

Blaf

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You bet it makes a nice fuse! You can see it within the same topic. You asked if it's profitable to make your own machine...well, to be honest, I'm not a big consumer of fuse as I do things in small scale and quantity. And I made my own machine just to see if I could do it, it was a techical challenge of a kind and I loved making it and seeing it working well. Hope this makes you happy for some time. If you have any specific questions then send me a Personal Mesage, OK?

Blaf

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