Skylighter Fireworks Tips Newsletter
June 28, 2006 -- Issue #76

Here’s your chance to get any and all of colored aerial and paper fused. Even the GN1205 SuperFast Paper Fuse, which sizzles at 3 seconds per meter (for the metrically challenged, that is 39 inches, the same length as your father’s foot when he tried to kick you out of the house after you turned 21 and still didn’t have a job. Remember?)

You can get as many as 20 packages of our fuses, including the expensive crackling colored fuses free with your order. See the ad for Free Fuse at www.skylighter.com.

But move fast, me hearties. It’s over midnight, Monday, July 3rd.




Get up to 20 packs (1920) of almost any of our sparklers free. Minimum order on this incredible offer is only $50. Check out the Free Sparklers ad at www.skylighter.com.


A 40-foot container of products from China arrived earlier this month. Although some products were describe in the earlier newsletter, check all the new products at:

http://www.skylighter.com/mall/what-is-new.asp

Of particular interest to shell makers will be the brass star pumps and our star plates in many different sizes. We even have a new Economy Star Pump in brass, cheaper than American aluminum pumps.

Just go to http://www.skylighter.com/mall/what-is-new.asp

New Tools.
Star Plates are Back. Check them all out on the Tools page.

Brass Star Pumps. We had these solid brass star pumps made for us by one of the toolmakers supplying the 1,000 or so fireworks factories around the fireworks city of Liuyang in Hunan Province in China. We have several varieties, as you can see below. I won’t list all of the sizes here. Just go to the Tools page on the web site and you can see them all there.

These are well made pumps, and quite serviceable. But they are not machined and finely finished as some American tools are. But, our brass pumps cost about the same as aluminum pumps, but will last a lifetime. Why brass? Brass is non-sparking, of course, but it has other properties that I find very desirable in use. Brass has a tendency to be "self lubricating." What that means to you is that the piston slides more easily in the sleeve. And the piston doesn’t get stuck in the sleeve as often as with aluminum. And frankly, I just prefer the look and feel and extra weight of brass.

You cannot beat their price, and I guarantee you’ll be happy with yours.

Economy Star Pumps. As you can see in the photos below, Economy Star Pumps simply use less brass. And they fit into the sleeve in a different way than Standard Star Pumps. They are a great buy for folks just starting out, or if you’re on a limited budget and want to get a complete set of star pumps at a very reasonable price.

Standard Star Pumps. Various sizes. See them on the Tools page.

Crossette Pumps. Various sizes. See them on the Tools page.

2nd Generation Remote Firing System. Check it out on the ignition supplies page. This is a 2nd generation machine - much improved over the GN6020 remote electrical firing system. Great new features:

• Fire multiple field modules
• Time-sequencer
• Better design

Among the added features of this great new system is the ability to fire more than one field unit with the same remote. For instance, you could fire a front of silver fountains, all plugged into Cue #1 on each of 5 field modules spread across 200 feet, with the press of one button. What that really means is now you can increase the size of your displays, by simply adding more field modules. You can scale it up as you grow your fireworks displays in complexity.

Another great feature is a fireworks firing sequencer. The sequencer feature lets you fire all 12 cues at one time if you want. Thinka THAT! Or it will let you fire them 1/2 second apart. Or you can use other time intervals. This allows you to create really dramatic effects-something only much higher priced equipment can do. Use this effect and you will be doing fireworks displays just like the pros.

The whole unit is more streamlined, and compact than the 1st generation system. The antenna is now recessed when stored in the down position. The cue connectors are also recessed to protect them from being broken.

All in all, a much improved firing system over the old GN6020 system.
Remote firing system with sequencer, #GN6021, $299.00


I don't know whether everyone knows this yet, but joining The Fireworks Alliance (TFA) is the single most important thing any of us can do to protect using and making fireworks in this country. Governments from Federal to local level everywhere are trying their very best to stop the use, making, sale, and possession of any kind of fireworks. Even sparklers are being threatened by the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Fireworks are a nearly 400-year-old American tradition. Captain John Smith set them off in Jamestown in 1608. And the second president of the United States actually called for their use on July 4th. President John Adams, wrote that the Fourth of July

"...ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other..."
Today, though, your government wants to stop you from having your own bonfires and illuminations as part of this tradition. They are attacking fireworks on every front.

Enter The Fireworks Alliance (TFA). TFA is actually one big advocacy software program. Software companies charge hundreds of thousands to provide this kind of powerful software. But the programmer of this software is GIVING it to all of us. He has mortgaged his house to be able to continue to create The Fireworks Alliance. Why? Because he loves fireworks and is sick and tired of the increasing insanity of over-reactive, intrusive government regulation of fireworks.

TFA now gives us the muscle to fight back against governments everywhere legislating fireworks out of existence.

We have NEVER had a tool with this kind of power at our disposal.

- We can use it to fight adverse federal, state, or local legislation

- We can use it to find out what fireworks legislation exists or is being proposed in our areas

- We can use it to propose and get enacted NEW legislation that is pro-fireworks.

- Any member of TFA will be able to use to organize and run advocacy campaigns. You will be able to reach any political or regulatory person in the US and get hundreds, if not thousands of other fireworks lovers to send messages to those politicians urging them to take action you want.

Now, while all of these features are not "on line" yet, they will be soon. But the only way any of these tools will be worth a damn is if we join The Fireworks Alliance in large numbers.

We must each take it upon ourselves to get a large database of TFA members built.

My personal goal is to see membership grow to 100,000 by the end of 2006.

This is doable. And five minutes of your time can make it happen. For instance, there are now 1,100 members. If each of you will join TFA, we will show you how within minutes of your signing up, you can add five new members in five minutes.

Every new member is automatically requested to invite 5 new members. This snowball can generate the membership base that we need to be effective in our fight to win. And it can REALLY snowball, if all of us act right now, during this peak of fireworks interest in the US.

Please, join right now. All it takes is no money, and 5 minutes of your time. If you're not already a member, please donate 5 minutes of your time right now and join. It is absolutely FREE.

Just go to http://www.fireworksalliance.org/cgi-bin/register.pl Get 5 new members in 5 minutes. If you are already a member of TFA, here's what you can do right now: Cut and paste this into your browser’s URL address:

http://www.fireworksalliance.org/cgi-bin/tellfriend.pl

There you will see a form to fill out with the names of five people you think should join. Give us their first name and email, and we’ll do the work of getting them to join. These people could be family, friends who like fireworks, fellow fireworks club members--ANYONE who likes ANY kind of fireworks. Whether you like sparklers at your wedding, or fireworks in your backyard on the Fourth, or are a fireworks builder. Fill out all the names on the form and submit it. They'll immediately get an invitation to join TFA.

Finally, keep this in mind. This is THE VERY BEST TIME OF THE YEAR for all of us to get new members. There are lots of things you can do to get new members:

- Hand out TFA flyers at your fireworks stand or retail establishment. There's even space on the back of the flyers or at the bottom for vendors to add their own message. For flyers, go to:
http://www.skylighter.com/Fireworks/Flyers/VendorFlyer1A.pdf



- Put TFA invites on every windshield at July 4th displays, or hand them out to people driving in. Click here for to print them out:
http://www.fireworksalliance.org/cgi-bin/viewpage.pl?p=grassroots

- If you have a web site, put a TFA invite banner on your site: click here for banners (scroll down there):
http://www.fireworksalliance.org/cgi-bin/viewpage.pl?p=grassroots

- If you send emails to people, use this as your signature:
- "Help preserve fireworks in America. Join The Fireworks Alliance. It's free. http://www.fireworksalliance.org" Guys, we can do this. This is not pie in the sky. We are not helpless. The Fireworks Alliance has tripled in size in just 3 weeks. 90 new members joined today alone. It is happening. Jump on this bandwagon and make it happen even faster.