Tacky Match the Hard Way

What the heck is tacky match, you ask? Well, it's just plain old Sticky match, but I can't use that name or I'll get sued. (see note below) Anyway, it has become very popular as a replacement for quick match in set pieces where fire must be passed quickly to a lot of different pyrotechnical devices. I even use tacky match as leader for my mines. The problem is that both tacky and quick match can't be purchased through the mail like visco and common pyro chemicals. Thus, the amateur pyrotechnician is often left with the prospect of making his own. The effort of making quick match is considerable, but tacky match is relatively easy. This is why I have designed this simple method to make it. This method is a little tedious, but the tooling is very easy to make. A better way is illustrated on my other page entitled "Tacky Match the easy Way".

Note:The name "Sticky Match" is a Registered Trade Mark of Four-D Enterprises, Inc. Patent Number 5,662,719.

This design uses 3 foot long strips of material to form masks that aid in accurately placing black powder grains on 2 inch packing tape. Acrylic was chosen as the material in this case, but many other alternatives are possible. The 3 foot length was chosen because most of my 3 inch shells, comets and mines use a leader fuse about this long. However, this contraption can be used to make sticky match of any desired length. The first step in building it is to cut two strips of 1/16 inch thick acrylic. They are 3 feet long and just a whisker less than 1 inch wide. A table saw or radial arm saw is recommended for making these cuts very straight and accurate. The cut edges are sanded gently to smooth and clean them from cutting burrs. They are then mounted down the center of a very straight foundation board as shown. The board, in this case, is a plastic surfaced, 10 inch by 3 foot shelf board, like the one used for the star cutting board. It costs about $6.00 at most home improvement and hardware stores. The two strips of acrylic are mounted such that the space between them is about the width of a utility knife blade. The function of the space is to guide the knife blade as it is used to split a two inch wide strip of packing tape into two 1 inch strips of tape.
Two 1 inch wide strips of 1/8 inch thick acrylic are now cut to the same length of 3 feet. Next, two more strips are cut for the masks which have a width of 2 3/4 inches. (These are also from 1/8 inch acrylic stock.) Finally, 4 stop tabs are cut to a size of 1 inch by 2 inches. You are now done with all the acrylic cutting required for this project. You may sweep up the floor and brush the acrylic shavings out or your hair. The two long 1 inch wide strips are mounted beside the first strips on the mounting board. You should now have 4 strips mounted on the board which form a 2 inch wide recessed track down the middle of it.
The masks are now made by gluing the stop tabs to the 2 3/4 inch mask strips. The picture shows the placement of the tabs at one end of the mask strips. The other stop tabs are glued at the opposite ends of the masks. Instead of two separate tabs, a single 3 foot long strip could have been used to attach along the edges of the mask strips. The placement of these tabs (or complete strips, if used) determines the distance that the masks will overhang into the recess mentioned above. If the tabs are glued flush with one edge of masks, as shown, the overhang will be 3/4 inch. This results in a 1/2 inch wide portion of the 2 inch packing tape being exposed for the placement of powder grains. Finding the right glue for these steps might be a challenge. Hot glue and epoxy will not adhere to the acrylic very well. I finally settled on something called "Zap a Dap a Goo II". It is a sealant and adhesive that is a little less viscous than silicone sealant.
Next, some method must be contrived to mount a roll of 2 inch packing tape at the end of the mounting board. The roll is mounted below the working surface of the board to achieve a little tension in the tape as it rises and folds over the end of the board into the recessed track. This helps assure that the tape will lay very flat inside the track. The tape mounting system shown is built from 2 inch PVC parts. The pipes are attached to the board with bolts which hold them very securely in place. The elbow joints are not glued together, but rely only on the friction fit of the joint, which is considerably strong. This way, the mount can be disassembled to add a new roll of tape. In actual use, the end of the mounting board, where the tape roll is mounted, is suspended over the side of the table or work bench surface so that the board can lay flat.
The tooling is completed by making a nifty little shaker to evenly distribute the grains of black powder on the packing tape. This one was made from a short piece of 2 inch PVC pipe. An end cap serves as a lid. A piece of acrylic with 1/8 inch holes was glued on the other end. Small, cardboard baffles were installed inside the pipe section to constrain the black powder grains to fall through the holes, but this is probably not necessary. If you don't want to be this fancy, the same function as the shaker can likely be accomplished by using a small scoop or spoon to sprinkle BP grains on the tape.
Now let's take a look at how this tooling is used to make "perfect sticky match." First, a 3 foot length of 2 inch packing tape is drawn from the roll. Unfortunately, the clear packing tape used in this demonstration doesn't show up in the photos very well, but I prefer the clear tape over other varieties. It is placed inside the recessed track and held down at the free end by one hand. The other hand is used to run a utility knife along the groove in the recess to split the tape into two strips of 1 inch wide tape. This split section of tape is cut from the roll and the two separate pieces are hung from the edge of the work bench by sticking one end to the edge. There are several reasons for going to this trouble. The first is that 1 inch wide tape is hard to find. The second is that it's handy to only have to purchase one size of tape to make your sticky match. In other words, your inventory management is simplified. This splitting procedure is repeated until the desired number of strips has been made.
Now another 3 foot length of tape is drawn from the roll and placed in the recessed track. The free end is attached to the take-up cylinder which, in this case, is a piece of 5 inch PVC pipe. The pipe is placed in a cradle at the end of the match board. This cradle is merely a piece of 1/2 inch plywood with a 1 inch wide groove cut in it to hold the cylinder stationary. If I were to build another sticky match board, I would make it about 6 inches longer and just cut the cradle groove into the board itself, rather than make the cradle from a separate piece of wood. The pipe in the cradle with the tape attached at the bottom is rotated until the tape has a little tension to hold it very flat in the recess. Now, the masks are put in place. The shaker is used to evenly sprinkle black powder grains along the exposed sticky portion of tape. I use powder which ranges from -10 to +20 mesh. This is roughly equivalent to 3FA commercial powder. The entire exposed sticky surface of the tape does not have to be covered with grains. It's surprising how sparse the dispersion can be without affecting the performance of the final product. A wide putty knife is then used to wipe any grains which are laying on top of the masks onto the tape. Now the masks have performed their function and can be removed.
If this is the first section of a long length of match, a length of visco is placed with one end overlapping the grains and the other end protruding out where it can be ignited. The length of the visco depends on the desired "retirement time" when the end user conforms to the age old counsel to "light fuse and retire." A section of the 1 inch wide tape is now applied over the visco and the 1/2 inch wide train of powder grains. There should be about 1/4 inch of overlap on each side of the powder train as the top strip of tape is applied. Positioning should be done carefully because you only get one chance to get it right. A section of the powder train about 1/2 inch long is left uncovered for the joint to the next section of match, if desired.
If a piece of match longer than 3 feet is desired, then the finished portion of match is rolled up on the take-up cylinder. A new section of match is started by drawing out more tape and placing the take-up reel back in its cradle. The cycle of drawing out tape, applying powder and placing the cover tape over it, is repeated until the final desired length is achieved. I seldom make a length of match more than 9 feet long but, theoretically, it should be possible to make any length needed.
A few final tips are in order before this page is finished. When using this sticky match as a leader for a shell, I insert a short length of black match or home-made thermalite in the end to maintain the fire a little longer in the vicinity of the lift powder. Where the sticky part of the leader match is not needed, I fold the sides over on the powder train to form a fuse that is much narrower than the original match width. If loading and lighting a single item at a time into a mortar, I use the match as is. When I pre-load several items at once in a mortar rack, I don't want sparks from one to unintentionally ignite the leader of its neighbor. In this case I use a single layer of paper or foil sleeve to add protection to the portion of the leader match that protrudes from the mortar. Well, there you have it... I have completely revealed the secret of making perfect sticky match. It's so easy, I sometimes make up a bunch just to light for fun. A 10 or 20 foot length of match going off in a split second is an impressive effect all by itself.

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