Yes, we bought the igniter and now buy the new shots. No more opening the shot and dumping the lighter colored igniting powder out into the mold. The new shots are a bit more money, but not too bad.
Just put the foil wrapped cup in the mold, close the cover, slide the wiring harness over the metallic tabs and when ready hold the button down for 2 or 3 seconds...Voila!!
The old system often would not ignite for dozens of trigger pulls with the $65 spark gun. This meant opening another $8 shot just for the igniting powder---and sometimes several if you had mixed age shots and did not keep track of their age or store them where dry.
Inevitably you would put the end of the spark gun too close and it would be damaged somewhat by the heat of the flash.
The molds are the same, so the investment is the (under $150)ignitor pack with leads plus buying the new type of molds from then on.
We always take a 30-45 seconds to dry out the molds with a Bernz-o-matic when we set up. Not necessary to do between repeated uses in that session, just once each before you use them for each hour or so long session. You can see the moisture come to the surface and be gone as you wave the torch over the mold. This is an important step.
This investment has been worth its weight in spark guns!!
