Forums > Help! > Melting Metal?! WTF?

Posted: 1st May 2004
What kind of poi were they? Were they home made or bought? If they were bought, where did you get them? What exactly was the attachment? What was it made out of? What kind of fuel were you using? Were you spinning them roughly (wraps/air wraps/spinning fast)?

Normally, no. This is not supposed to happen. If the poi were made right there should be no chance of the poi coming apart mid spin. If they were home made I would suggest changing your design and using a different connector that wont melt/break. If they were bought, I suggest going somewhere else like the HoP shop.

Let's turn those old bridges we crossed into ashes.
We'll blaze a new trail,
and torch the rough patches.

-Me

Posted: 1st May 2004
Where did you buy your poi?

MJ
Flamma Aeterna

That which does not kill me, only makes me stranger.

Posted: 1st May 2004
The clip could have been made of an inferior quality metal that got brittle under heat. Without knowing the source and type of the clip it's hard know what advice to give.

Quicklinks tend to good for connecting wicks to chain.

Posted: 1st May 2004
That's some nice selling there Dom... real sweet...

I can't hear you... I have a banana in my ear.

"You mean I'll have to use my brain?... but I use staff!!!" ~ ben-ja-men

Posted: 1st May 2004
I bought them abroad and they were pretty cheap by UK standards so althoung I don't know what they're made from I'm thinking the problem must be what Dom said about inferior quality metal. I wasn't spinning it at all, just holding it in my hand. Have to say I'm really glad I wasn't spinning it, could of been nasty what with the flaming wick flying off!
How long should fire poi last before they become too battered to use? Like I said, I used them about 6 times.
Thanks for all your hepl!

Posted: 2nd May 2004
How long poi last is down to a lot of factors - but they should last a lot longer then yours did. The metal components of wicks should be able to last a few hundreds of burns if they're good enough. Wick varies on quality, abuse it takes, fuel, etc... but good kevlar generally lasts quite some time.

The problem with just about anything you buy is that there will always be people who make something to sell, and care little about quality. This is probably the story of your fire poi.

My advice is to ask other spinners where they buy from and/or buy from a place that you can go back to as they're a lot more likely to sell you good stuff. As to myself, all the fire gear I've got for the last couple of years has come from Home of Poi, so I'd recommend it, not just because I'm a mod!

Posted: 2nd May 2004
get them from here - they're reliable and not too expensive ( i mine).

I had a dream that my friend had a
strong-bad pop up book,
it was the book of my dreams.

Posted: 2nd May 2004
Whatever you do, dont buy them from here.

Posted: 2nd May 2004
Everyone seems to be telling you what to do about your next set of poi, but hasn't mentioned how to salvage the set you have.



Scrutinize the construction methods on the handle, chain and wicks. If they seem to be perfectly strong, then just pop down to the hardware store and pick up some quicklinks.



I personally won't use anything BUT quicklinks when I'm building poi sets. I either use quicklinks built into the wick, or just build the chain into the wick, foregoing the option of taking the wicks off the chains. Everywhere you have a connection, there is oppurtunity for something to go wrong/open/break midburn. And don't use split rings either, they don't hold up under heat. I had some ridiculously strong ones on the handle end of a set of poi a while back, and I still managed to pull them out of shape in a couple months (without heavy use mind you).

"We can't stop here! This is bat country!"

"Welcome to the U-S-A,
We'll treat you right, unless you're black or gay, or Cherokeeeeee!!"
-Brian Griffin from "Family Guy" (the dog)

Posted: 2nd May 2004
Andy,

On the issue of salvaging, points to you for an excellent...well...point. Popoi, there are several construction methods floating around out there. I don't know if your wicks are cathedrals, tube-cores, or some other design, but they might give you ideas on repairing your set. www.fire-gear.com is a good site for such information. You might try using a search engine to find more. Or, if you can post pictures somewhere, maybe someone can comment (since quicklinks might not be an option depending on the design).

MJ
Flamma Aeterna

That which does not kill me, only makes me stranger.

Posted: 6th May 2004
Thanks for all the help, I'm gonna try mending them with some quick links tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me! What kinds of metal is best? Is there anything I should be looking out for/avoiding at all cost?

Posted: 7th May 2004
The typical QLs are zinc-plated / galvanized and stainless steel

MJ
Flamma Aeterna

That which does not kill me, only makes me stranger.

Posted: 7th May 2004
actually, try to avoid anything plated, as the rigors and heat of fire spinning will generally cause the plating to flake off. especially avoid nickle plated steel chain.



I personally try to stick with stailess steel for as many components as possible (no stainless quicklinks though.. )

-v-

Wiederstand ist Zwecklos!

Posted: 11th May 2004
NO WAY Spanner
The relatively cool flame from a poi (as compared to, for example a blow torch) should never be able to so severly damage the components of your poi as to cause the catastrophic failure described here.

Only if some truely sh*tty materials were used in it's construction, simple as that.

Try dipping you poi, hanging them up and lighting them, if they fall apart after a couple of minutes I'd say you need some new gear.
And quick

Posted: 17th May 2004
By any chance you didn't buy those wicks in Thailand did you? Those little silver clips the Thais use in alot of their poi are pretty lame, I've broken four so far, just in practice though, after I broke the first one, I took them off my fire gear. i've never melted one they all just broke when I screwed up and smacked the poi together. Too bad, they look kind nice but now I double up on the split rings

Posted: 22nd May 2004
one word of advise...or rather a few sentances!! Avoid cheap parts, with steel the price always reflects the quality...guaranteed. Investment is the key to long lasting high quality equipment. The cost of a full set from here is well worth the money.

Always test your equipment before a burn, I usually check along the chain have a look at the links and give them all a good tug to see if there's any seperation before I burn, or at least at the beginning of an evenings session.

I made my own once and regretted it after the poi-head turned flaming comet went flashing across reading camping feild!

Let's relight this forum