100 SHOT Z CAKE

By Dean (portfire)

Picture 1

Cakes come in all different shapes, sizes and forms .This tutorial will show you how a ‘Z
cake’ is constructed, it may not be how commercial ‘Z cakes’ are made,(although I feel it
could be close) but for the amateur pyrotechnician this is a good starting point for fervor
development.

Why ‘Z cakes’ get their name is the way in which the cake is constructed, and the way
the cake is fused. As you can see from picture 1 the shot tubes are arranged in an arc, and
internally fused with blackmatch or a fast burning visco fuse. When the cake is fired the
shots will move from right to left-left to right, and so on. This rapid pace (usually, on
average, 2 shots per second) of shots will produce a Z shape pattern in the sky, and hence,
the name ‘Z cake’.

Before this cake the only other cakes I made were only 7 shots. I could have made a
simple 100 shot “box” cake and simply fused the tubes with visco, but me been me I
went for an ambitious Z cake.

Once I decided to build a Z cake, I first thought about layout, and so made a simple jig to
hold the tubes in the right place. This is important for two reasons. The first reason is
simply to make all the rows look exactly the same, giving you a professional looking
cake. The second one will be made clear later.
 .
Picture 2
The jig is simply a board with a straight piece of wood glued to the bottom edge. Once
that’s done mark a center line down the middle of the board. Next cut small pieces of
10x10mm wood and glue one piece of wood in the center of the center line, but before
you do this, check that it’s not going to end up been past your tubes. You want the
noggins to be around 25mm from the top of the tube and around 25mm up from the
straight piece of wood; this will give you an even arc. (The tubes I rolled were; 15mmID,
19mmOD and 110mm long). Now place two tubes on either side of the small noggin and
make sure the two bottom points of the tubes line up with the center line on the board.
Now proceed to glue noggins on the board on either side of the tubes, and repeat this
process until you have 5 tubes on either side of your center line, then glue longer pieces
of wood against the outer two tubes. Once this is done make sure all the tubes follow a
nice arc, and carefully mark on the board where the bottom of each tube is, now remove
the tubes.

The next step is to join all the marks up so you have an arc shape on the board. Using
tracing paper copy this shape on to a piece of wood, also marking the center point of the
arc and cut it out.(the wood wants to around the same thickness as the OD of your tubes)
Mark this one as this is the main template, then proceed to cut 10 more out of your
chosen piece if wood . Now glue the main template to the board making sure the two
center lines line up .The jig is now complete.

NOTE; this jig was made to suit this cake, jigs can be made for any size tubes, cakes etc.
 Making the ‘Fire-All’ rows
The first and last sequence of this cake is to have all 10 tubes fire at once, and so I will
show how they are made first.

Picture 3
You first need to start by marking where the end-plug is on the tube. Place 10 tubes
against a straight surface then mark where the plug is on the outer two tubes. Place a ruler
over the tubes and move it 3mm towards the open end, this is to allow enough space for
the fuse. You can do this process every time you make a row (as I did) or mark 100 in
one go.

The ignition point of the cake will be coming from the right hand side. Start by drilling
4mm holes straight through the tubes, but on the last one only drill a 4mm hole in one
side and a 2mm hole in the opposite side of the tube. This is to allow for a piece of visco
to be inserted as the sequence allows for a 4.5 second delay before the cake go’s into Z
mode.

Once you’ve drilled the holes thread a standard piece of blackmatch through the tubes.
When I say a standard piece of match, I mean simple BP coated string; you will need a
much thinner, well impregnated match to fuse the rest of the cake. I will describe the
process later.

.
 Picture 4

Once you’ve threaded the match carefully place the tubes in the jig and push them on to
the wooden arch, then glue the bottoms with a hot glue gun to hold them in place. Once
this is done place a thick piece of cardboard (around 5mm) which roughly matches the
arc of the tubes. Make sure the grain of the cardboard runs horizontally, this will make
the row ridged and minimize the chance of the row bending. Then cover the bottom of
the tubes with strips if gummed tape on both sides, as show in pictures 5 and 6.
Picture 5

Picture 6
 Picture 7

As you can see all the holes more or less line up, and so the principle behind these ‘fire
all’ rows is that the flame from the first tube instantly ignites the lift charge in the next
one. It basically acts like a length of quickmatch. The blackmatch is there for two
reasons; one is to give extra insurance that you get flame propagation but, the main
reason is to stop the lift charge migrating between tubes.

Repeat this process for the last row, but remember the flame will be coming from the left
hand side. This completes the first and last rows.
 Making the ‘Z-Rows’
The next step is to construct the 80 shots in between. The fusing between each shot tube
will require a thin well impregnated blackmatch, and so I will describe how I made it.

First take a 1 meter length of 100% cotton string, (the type used to wrap parcels) then
take 4 single strand from this,(which can be quite difficult at times) and slightly twist
them together. Finding single strands of cotton at 0.5mm think will make this process
easier.

The next step is to prepare a 50/50 solution of alcohol/water, then saturate it with
potassium nitrate. Then soak your 4 cotton strands for 5 minutes to make sure the
potassium nitrate is absorbed into the strands.

Next prepare a thick blackpowder slurry with 5% dextrin added in a suitable tub. Once
that’s done remove the strands of cotton from the solution, and drain the excess off with
your fingers, be sure ware latex gloves. Once you’ve done that, place the strands in your
blackpowder slurry and leave it soak for 5 minutes. NOTE: I’ve found that if you try to
coil the strands as you’re placing them in the slurry; it minimizes the chance of knotting
the strands together when pulling them through the hole, also do not submerge all the
cotton in the slurry, leaving around 50mm out of the tub, this will make it easier to thread
the strands through the hole.

Once the strands have been left to soak take a 10x10mm piece of wood and make small
groves in different direction in one edge, this will help work the blackpowder slurry into
the strands. Now proceed to work the slurry into the strands. Once this is done take the
untreated end and pull it through a 2mm hole, which can be made in the tubs lid .Now
hang the blackmatch to dry.

It’s important to rigorously test the match, nothing less then perfect will do. I’ve found
that this match can really stand up to been bent in several places, twisted and still has a
consistent burn rate.

Picture 8
Once dry cut many pieces of the match 30mm long, this will allow a 15mm bridge
between the tubes and around 5mm into the tube.
Now place 10 tubes in the jig and mark the center of the tube. Using calipers set them at
10mm and Mark two points either side of the center line on the tube, so you have 5mm
either side of your line, these will be the marks to drill for your fuse. You can measure
this, but I find it quicker to judge this by eye.

The next step is to drill the holes, drill them at a slight angle. This will minimize
excessive bending of the match. NOTE: do not drill holes in the end of the outer tubes.

Picture 9
NOTE: Once you’ve marked the first 10 center lines on the tubes, mark the points on the
arc. This makes it easier for marking future tubes.

Now place a small dap of hot glue at the bottom of the tubes, and glue the cardboard
support to the tubes. As show in pictures 10-11
 Picture 10

Picture 11
NOTE: Picture 11 was taken from the first ‘fire all’ row, but all supports are the same.
You will need 8 of these ‘Z rows’, so make them as describes earlier, remembering not to
drill holes in the outer ends of the tubes.

Once you’ve done that you’re left with a stack of rows, all support boards glued, holes
drilled and ready for fusing.

Picture 12

Once you’ve made all the rows mark them from 1-10 and arrows pointing in the
direction the shots will be firing. (As seen in picture 13) I mark the first row ‘1- all’ then
an arrow pointing left and the second- 2 with an arrow pointing right, and so on. These
numbers and arrows help keep track of where you are with regards to fusing.
 Fusing the cake

Picture 13
Once you’ve made the 8 rows, you now need to fuse them. Now take pieces of match and
insert them into the holes, been careful not to bend them to much. This match is quite
resilient to excessive bending, but it gives extra insurance and minimizes the chance of a
hang-fire. I find the best way to insert the match is by bending it in the middle. As show
in picture 14

Picture 14
 Picture 15
You will find that some of the match will get bent in a few places, but this will be
remedied later,

Once that’s done you need to apply a black powder slurry around the hole that will be
receiving fire, and on the match to patch up any cracks, chips from the bending process,
as seen in picture 16. NOTE; this shot is going right to left. The slurry serves two
purposes; one to secure the match and the other to create a small delay between shots.

Picture 16
.

Picture 17
The wooden arch is then glued to the bottom of the tubes each time you make a row, and
before Appling the gummed tape. This gives the cake stability and prevents end-plugs
from blowing out.

The next step is to cover the match with gummed tape. This will slightly restrict the
flame/hot gas giving a slowed down quickmatch effect.

Make all your ‘Z rows’ this way remembering to apply the black powder slurry only to
the holes that are receiving fire.

When all 10 rows are complete, the next step is to glue them together. You can use PVA
and stack them with a weight on top, but it’s much quicker using hot glue.

Once all the rows are fused, glued together you’re left with something that looks like this.

Picture 18
The next step is to fuse the rows together with quickmatch NOTE; after the first ‘fire-all’
row as fired the sequence requires a 4.5 second delay before the cake go’s into Z mode,
which uses visco, the rest of the rows will use quickmatch.

Diagram 1

The colored circles are inserts, and the white are stars.
Green=Hummers w/charcoal tail. I will describe their construction later.
Red=Nitrate flash Titanium salutes. I will also describe their construction later.
The stars are D1 Glitter. Chrysanthemum#6 w/20% 100# MgAl added

This firing sequence shows how the cake is fused. When you build a cake first decide
what style of cake you want to construct. Then think about layout and then fusing. What
ever you fill the cake with is up to you.

NOTE; It’s a good idea to draw a firing sequence diagram before commencing
construction.
The next step is to link the rows with quickmatch; this is where the sequence diagram
comes in.

Picture 19
Picture 19 shows the visco fuse from the first ‘fire-all’ row. This is to allow the 4.5
second delay. The visco was cut at a 45 degree angle and primed with blackpowder
slurry. The idea for the delay is that it gives enough time for the hummers to burn out
before the cake go’s into Z mode.

Picture 20
Now drill holes at angles just from the center point of the tube, this minimizes excessive
bending of the quickmatch. You can see this more clearly in picture 21.

Picture 21
NOTE; Make sure the strand of blackmatch is longer then the match-pipe, and that the
match protrudes into the tube at least 5mm. Now secure the match-pipe with a dap of hot
glue. Repeat this on the other side of the cake, consulting your sequence diagram if
needed. This completes the fusing of the cake.

Picture 22
 Making the Inserts
HUMMERS
The first ‘Fire-all’ row contains hummers, but with a twist, (My own concept, I think)
and so will describe there construction first.

Picture 23

The idea behind these hummers is you have a rising effect on the way up e.g. colored star
or a rising tail, then the hummer. Construction now follows.

The first thing you need is a board with a protruding plug to create a cavity where your
chosen rising effect will go, and a support sleeve

Diagram 2

NOTE; there should be a 1mm clearance gap all the way round to allow for expansion.
This will be made clear later.
First place your tube over the cavity former, then ram the clay end-plug. Next ram your
propellant, then your top end-plug. NOTE; if you are using a sensitive composition, press
the propellant. NEVER ram sensitive compositions.

Before pressing in your chosen rising effect, you need to drill the jet hole. This is drilled
tangentially in the side of the tube, as show in diagram 4.

Diagram 4

The reason the hole is drilled this way is the hot gases are forced out at such a speed, that
it courses the tube to rotate on its axis, generating a humming sound. The reason why we
hear this sound is as you observe the device you are actually hearing lots of little
alternating “fizzes”. Imagine a fountain; you get one constant “fizz” as the fountain burns
away, now imagine if the nozzle of the fountain was facing you and rotating slowly on its
axis, you would get a fizz-fizz-fizz sound. Now imagine if a hole was drilled tangentially
in a tube sealed at both ends with a fierce burning composition, the fizz-fizz would be
happening 1000’s of times a second, generating a humming sound.

This section so far has described how a standard hummer is made, with the exception of
forming the cavity for the rising effect. I now want to go in to detail as to how they are
made with regards to dimensions, pressing the rising effect, priming and the principle of
firing them out of shot tubes.

The shot tubes for this cake have an ID of 15mm, and the hummers have an ID of 10mm
with an OD of 13mm. This gives them a wall thickness of 1.5mm, which is uncommon
for hummers, as they usually have a wall thickness approaching the tubes ID, which stops
the flame/hot gas burning the hole away stopping the humming sound. This is how I got
round this problem.

Drill a 2mm jet hole, but when drilling the jet hole, drill a small core, this will give them
an initial burst of thrust getting them up to ‘humming speed’ quicker, which prevents the
hole been made larger from the flame/hot gas and thus stopping the humming noise
before the propellant has burnt-out.
With the OD of the hummer tubes been 13mm, this leaves us with 2mm gap. The reason
for this is to allow 1mm expansion when ramming/pressing, and the other 1mm is for
fusing and the way in which the device is ignited out of the shot tube.

Once you have made the hummer (formed a cavity, drilled the jet hole and core) you first
need to fuse them before pressing the rising effect. This is done by taking a thin piece of
blackmatch (as described earlier) and inserting it in to the jet-hole and into the core, and
then cutting it almost flush with the tube, protruding about 1mm. You now need to make
a ‘delay paste’, but first you have to consider the burn-rate of your rising effect. If you
have a slow burning effect then a slower delay is needed and vise versa, as the idea
behind these hummers is you have an effect on the way up, and once the rising effect has
burnt out, you then have a hummer.

For my rising effect I chose chrysanthemum #6

Formula
Name: Chrysanthemum #6
Source: Takeo Shimizu
Potassium Nitrate-58
Charcoal- (Pine, Airfloat) 35
Sulphur-7
+ 5% Dextrin
The ingredients were ball-milled for 30 minutes, and then pumped into 15x15mm
cylindrical stars. On testing these stars were quite fast burning, approximately 2 seconds,
but you need to consider that the cavity in the hummer is 10x10mm, so the star will burn
faster, and thus a delay of around 1.5 seconds was needed. The delay does not have to be
that precise though as hummers take a little time to get going, even with a core.

The delay I chose was actually powder left over from the corning process used to make
the lift charge, I then added 5% Dextrin. This was then made into a very thick
blackpowder slurry, and using a narrow decorator’s scraper, force the slurry into the jet
hole. This will also slightly flatten the blackmatch and you will notice that this creates a
“lump” of slurry over the hole. Be careful though not to force the slurry too far into the
hole, you don’t want any in the core, the “lump” of slurry forms most part of the delay.
Now roll the hummer in dry meal powder, as show in picture 24
 Picture 24

Once the delay is dry you now need to press the rising effect, depending on your effect,
this is very easy. The first step is to mill another batch of chrysanthemum #6 and taking
20g out to use for the hummers. The other 80g will be mixed with 20g of 100# MgAl, for
stars in the cake.

Now dampen the 20g (remember we already have the dextrin mix in, so don’t add
anymore) and press the composition into the cavity just as if you were pumping stars,
then dip the end of the tube in dry meal. This completes the hummers.

Picture 25
 Principal of firing the Hummers

Once the hummers are complete they look something like this

Diagram 5
NOTE: the delay, prime will protrude from the tube about 1mm, which will hold the
insert in place.

Diagram 5
The principle of firing side-fused inserts is that when the lift charge is ignited, the
pressure generated from the combustion of blackpowder forces the insert out of the tube.
And as a result the flame/hot gases ignite the rising effect, and pass the prime/delay on
the insert, igniting, and lifting the insert high into the air.
 Making the salutes
The tubes for the salutes have an ID of 12mm with a OD of 14.5mm

Picture 26
The first thing you need to do is make some simple tooling, as show here.

Diagram 6

I wanted the delay to be around 1.5 seconds so I drilled a 2mm hole to a depth of 10mm.
The end-plug when rammed is 5mm, which should give me my required delay. As you
can see the rammer has a recess formed, this is to guide the visco into rammer. Now
remove the tube from the tooling. NOTE: that the visco was cut at a 45 degree angle at
the bottom end before inserting it into the base.

This tooling was made to suite my needs, but you can make them to suite your own.
Once you’ve done this you now need to prime the visco with a blackpowder slurry and let
it dry before you load the tube with flash powder, and cap the top off. This diagram will
show you the finished salute.

Diagram 7

As you can see there is an end-plug just above the powder, then tissue paper, end-plug
and hot glue. The idea of the end-plugs and tissue paper is to give enough distance from
the hot glue and the flash powder. This would considerably reduce the risk of the powder
igniting.

This completes all aspects of the cake.

Picture 27
 Loading the cake

Loading of the cake is simple. The first step is to load the lift charge, I used 1/4tlb spoon
of 10-20 mesh blackpowder, using a small funnel will make this process quicker
NOTE: that blackpowder production differs from one person to the next, so experiment to
find the amount you will need.

The next step is loading the cake with stars, inserts. Again consult you sequence diagram
if needed. When loading the hummers you may find that the prime prevents the hummers
from been inserted into the tube. This can be remedied by carefully scraping a small
amount off until they fit, you want them to slide down the tube with a little force been
applied, but not to much, as they can jam in the tube coursing the tube to explode. Next
load the stars, it doesn’t matter which way, but I alternated them. Now load the salutes,
this is simple as they should just fit and slide down the tube with very little force.

Finally, you need to apply PVA glue around the tops of the tubes, making sure not to get
PVA down the tube, as this could stop a star or worse an insert from firing. Now cover
the top of the whole cake with tin foil pressing down over the tubes. You can now garnish
the cake with colored paper and labels, but the chose is yours

The cake is now ready for firing. Make sure you have an appropriate, SAFE area to fire
it.

Although I have mentioned some compositions, I want to give a full list of formulas used.

Formulas
Name: Chrysanthemum #6
Source: Takeo Shimizu
Potassium Nitrate-58
Charcoal- (Pine, Airfloat) 35
Sulphur-7
+ 5% Dextrin
Name: Nitrate Flash
Source: Unknown
Potassium Nitrate-6
Pyro Aluminium-3
Sulphur-1
Boric acid + 1%
Titanium + 5% (optional)
WARNING! ALL flash powder is dangerous. It’s sensitive to static, friction, shock.
Take ALL safety measures before commencing work. DO NOT! Screen any type of flash
ONLY use diapering method. If you have not gained enough experience,
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE FLASH!!

Name: D1 Glitter
Source: Unknown (although I suspect Baron Eric von Baum)
Potassium Nitrate-53
Sulphur-18
Charcoal-(Airfloat) 11
Aluminium-(Atomized, 300#) 7
Sodium Bicarboate-7
Dextrin-4
Boric acid +1%
Dampen with no more than 6% water, although 4% is preferred. Over wetting the
composition will reduce or destroy the glitter effect.
NOTE: Boric acid is added to the composition as it acts as a buffer against the NO3/Al
reaction. It’s also advised to dissolve the acid in water, (or a solution of: 70/30
H2O/Alcohol) this will greatly improve the buffering action of the Boric acid.
Name: Chrysanthemum #6-MgAl
Source: Unknown
Chrysanthemum #6-80%
MgAl-(50/50, 100#) 20%
Dextrin- +5%
Hummer Propellant
Meal-95%
Aluminium-(Atomized 300#) 5%
The meal was milled for 1 ½ hr. This was also used as the lift charge, delay, priming.
 A final word
Fireworks and the energetic materials used in them are obviously inherently dangerous. It
is unwise, and irresponsible to “jump straight in” and start mixing chemicals and
constructing fireworks without first READING, to gain an understanding of what you are
dealing with. You should know what chemicals do what, and what there incompatibilities
are with other chemicals. Start by reading as much as you can, then start small,
Blackpowder, fountains etc. Learn and maintain a good safe working practice, and stick
to it. Take notes of your experiments, and remember, a clean workshop is a safe
workshop.

I would like to thank the following, because they have all played some apart in the
construction (not in the actual construction itself) of this cake
www.passfire.com
www.pyrosociety.org.uk/ The UKPS. Join and support the course!!!
Karlfoxman
Paul (pyromaniac303)

LEGAL DISCLAIMER!
This tutorial is for academic and research purposes only. You
must abide by government, state, and federal laws. I will not
beheld responsible for other people’s actions!

Stay Green
Dean