Wire wool

air for the wool
the more air you get the hotter, brighter, and more sparks you get.....

I see... well the paint pot is open on the top, so there should be enough air I thought... anyways, i punch some holes in the can and add some kevlar tomorrow and wirewool and swing with it... so ill see then

any other tips? the size, shape?

ill use a whole bag of wool...each cage...longest burn so far has been about 5 min...after my gig this weekend i should have enough time to take pix and post details..

5 min... thats long

finally... this is the final design... ill be testing it this weekend i hope...

http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhoutappel/plaatjes/poi/finishedwirepoi.jpg

5 minutes.... That's a v.long time!
I would be very interested to know the design of your cages if your willing to share. Or if you get much buildup after your finished spinning.
Let me know and I will PM you if you aren't willing to post the designs up here for any 'punk kid' to see.

Doesnt the Kevlar get destroyed by the wool?

All the cages I've seen have been well just cages,

guess not... i basically stole the idea of telpeva isil... as far as ive seen the action with his design it works fine.

tonight im gonna try my design... a friend of mine is going to assist with a bucket of water and a towel if anything goes wrong. i also bought a pair of swimming-glasses just to be absolutely sure... full covered natural fiber clothing... im ready for the ultimate pyromania.

*boy oh boy...* im very curious if its going to work!

soooooo...

first testrun behind my back. everything worked but only for like... 5 seconds. the only thing left after 5 seconds was a small amount of goop-like stuff still glowing but not burning anymore.

I guess I need much much much more wirewool, though it was filled to the top. do I need to push the wool more together so less air can get between it? this because the wool more or less all ignites at once.

what did i do wrong??!

5 seconds..?
surely all the wool wasn't used up after 5 seconds...
My personal opinion after looking at your cages: I wouild say the wire mesh isn't a 'good' idea, as the holes are very small & when the wire burns, the molten metal will collect in the mesh & you'll end up with a large lump of molten metal in your cage. You need some space for the metal 'sparks' to fly out of.
But too large, and the unburnt wool will escape...

Written by: darkpoet

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those holes are ginormous.......and by having that metal thing(looks like a paint can)...up top it limits airflow......however...using a cylindrical shape seems like something to toy with....

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I don't see how... please explain? don't you get heaps of buildup if your holes are smaller than that? The purpose of the paint can IS to limit air flow. The wool at the bottom burns, while the wool higher up doesn't. As the wool in the cage dissapears, the wool higher up moves down, and replaces the wool burning in the cage , and keeps going till you have no wool left.

anonomatos, how did you pack the Wire wool? I generally pull the wool apart from the way it was originally bought, and repack it into the cage, as it is generally packed in the box too densely...(sorry about the bad language)

5 seconds... not with those large cans!
I would say you put in waaay to little Wire wool & it was all used up super fast.
Or, heaps of unburnt wool flew out of the cages, which i don't see possible with gaps that small...
I might find a picture of the cages I use if i can get my hands on a camera...

Aw Fluff Don't worry, your efforts are appreciated by most

Pitman we're Meeting in Cardiff on Friday 8th for a spin, I'll have two Wire wool heads with me so you can have a look at them before and see them in action too. Should be able to answer any questions that you might still have.


anonomatos - I'd say dump the paint can if you're inexperienced, I've never seen them work well and will take a fair bit of knowledge and experience to build them and make them look good alight.
Just fill the wire cage with wool and spin away, the holes in the chicken wire are plenty big enough to let everything in/out.
Wire wool rarely lasts more than 30 seconds, it's the nature of the beast, the better and bigger it looks the more wool you burn every second it's alight so just ram the cages full of as much wool as you can and enjoy. It'd be worth while adding a second layer of wire mesh to increase the safety aspect and reduce likelihood of it flying off. The cages will only last a few burns tho, don't expect to be using the same cages for ever. Depending on the quality of the wire you use they will only last 10-15 burns as absolute maximum before they need replacing.

"do I need to push the wool more together so less air can get between it?"

No no thrice no. If you cram it all into a can and no air can get in none of it will burn, it's simple physics really. You need good airflow through the can which is quite tricky to get spot on but trial and error will give you something decent

In my gallery:
I took a photo of 2 different cage designs (ones i had on me) using a really, REALLY bad camera. So bad, you cannot see the wire cages at the bottom, but it's all i had.
the middle can is a 3-ball tennis-ball can. using a combination of thick & thin wire for the cage... you cannot see the thin wire in the picture. Or the thick wire for that matter. >_<
the one on the right i haven't used since i made the tennis-ball cage. the thin wire on that only lasts a few times before replacing.
I change the design of the wire every time... to try & see what design works best, with the least buildup.
If anyone has any hints as to cage designs they've used that create little or no buildup would be greatly appreciated!

I tried Wire wool a few weeks back and it was pretty cool but i noticed if i fray out as many fibers of the wool as possible i get an insane amount of sparks. Fray the fibers with a fork or something so its really fuzzy but well secured.

3rd test: over 10 seconds with very very nice sparkles ^_^ I wasn't using enough Wire wool and needed to pack it more.

like draghkyre said: the airflow needs to be stopped. If i have some spare time this week ill add another paint pot to the length and give it another try with different grades of wirewool.

seriously dude, dumpt the paint pot, just use the wire cage and fill it up completely with wool, set fire to it and spin as fast as you can. It's as simple as that.

"the airflow needs to be stopped"
Yeah cuz reducing oxygen intake is great for burning things, and the available airflow isn't good for sending the sparks further at all

(PS that's sarcasm in case it's lost in translation)

You really should read the links Fluff posted

i find metal bird feeders are the best cages ive used.

to set up the spin i loosen up the Wire wool and then just push the wool into the cages ove full but now packed in i just dunk the cages quickly, in and out of some paraffin to help light it and then move to an area to spin in of about 100ft.

the key is to spin them as hard and as fast and as long as you possibly can!

I've just decided to give up my Wire wool spinning...for those who think it looks good it is but if you screw up any more you are totally screwed.

Wednesday night I screwed up one of my moves doing the cages with Wire wool and now have a third degree bun on my shoulder and some nice burns on my foot too.

Please anyone who decides to take this on make sure you know all the risks as it is VERY dangerous and painful.

Sorry to revive an old topic. I just made two types of cages and will test them out soon. I've read a whole lot and still want to know more about 1. Safety and 2. Packing

1. What should I wear? I have goggles and gloves and a jacket with a hoodie and a winter-facemask and long pants and shoes... Is there a sort of material I should buy? Like, polyester gloves or something? Is leather alright? How hot/long does Wire wool burn?

2. To pack my wool I just took the sponges and stretched them out, then coiled them into my cages. I'm not planning on using any fuel, so I'm just gonna light it with a hand lighter. I have images below of my two designs. They are both packed the same way. The grades go from 0000 (closest to end), 00, and 2. Is this gonna work? (there are only 3 sponges in there).

And the fraying out, well I guess that's a little late now since it's already packed in and opening my cages takes forever. But, is there anything I can do to make sure the burn is crisp and complete?

Cage 1:
http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=5571L9QPJ&i=929531
Cage 2:
http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=5571L9QPJ&i=929532

BTW I am a glowstringer so the second cage has a pretty short leash.

Jesus God Furinax,
stay away from polyester whatever you do.

if you are mainly a glow stringer and haven't done fire before I would strongly suggest that you get used to doing regular fire spinning before jumping up to do sparkpoi.

Leather is probably the best bet, the sparks travel for up to 30 feet in front and behind you, only do this far away from people, preferably somewhere that it has just rained.

Weave only, NO BUTTERFLY !!!


STAY AWAY FROM SYNTHETIC MATERIALS!!!!


Good luck, M

only use the 0000 or 000, the other stuff doesn't work.

handlighting with a regular lighter may not work, if it doesn't, use a 9V battery

what is the cage on the first image? ceramic or metal?

overall they looked pretty tightly packed, which isn't necessarily a good thing
after you unroll the wool, you need to pull it into strips

have you read the threads made by mint sauce and myself? there's some good info in there

I've read like every thread so far that fluffy napalm posted... I've never done poi so yes that's why I'm trying to take all the precautions (just don't have an interest in fire). I'll be spinning in a parking lot at night most likely.

Umm yeah I have leather gloves. But, isn't cotton (for like clothes) easily ignitable?

Mmm both cages are metal (ceramic might break). I'll probably use a 9V battery since I really don't like playing around with fuel. You just press it on there and wait like a minute right?

Tightly woven cotton is actually quite hard to ignite. Fluffy and loose woven fabrics go up more quickly. Denim and heavy wools take the least easily. I think there is a comparison table in the articles here. Above all else avoid synthetic fabrics, as they don't simply burn, they melt and heatshrink into your flesh. Lovely!

Mmm okay.

Soo, I tried to light up Steel wool by itself on the ground and was... extremely unimpressive. Is it really possible to start up the burn by just lighting it? (I've seen videos of people lighting it directly) Even with the battery, only a few of the fibers burned, but no chain reaction/full burn. It would just stop after the heat source went away.

You need to make sure it's loosely packed... but if it's not going up, try blowing on it. I find it only really goes crazy when you start getting a good load of air going through the stuff.

LoL thanks guys. I just spun an hour ago in a parking lot. It wasn't bad, I'll get a video soon. What you said about the air is really true.

There was a little problem though. I only got about 20 seconds of burn. My first set-up was okay but there was about half of the Wire wool still in there. The second set-up was great! I only had about 10% Wire wool left and it was probably just the medium coarse wire (which I won't use anymore). The stuff was still glowing at the end but very dimly. It basically went 1. Sparks fly, 2. Bright glow, 3. Dim glow.

Here are pics of my first set-up after the spin:
http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=5571L9QPJ&i=932711
And my second set-up: http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=5571L9QPJ&i=932712

So how do I set-up the wool so it burns and flies better? Someone said fraying it with a fork? Keep in mind my Wire wool comes in sponges.

Oh yeah by the way the first set-up: I think the paint was boiling off or something. Apparently the texture of the metal changed. It became really rough and started changing color (looked bronze).

Here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5omM8JFZg

The sparkly poi footage is at the end.

Check out this video for all you sparkies.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=725459987
Lemme know if this is what you're looking for... then ask the dude who's site it is where he got/made em.