Another BALLS project

Although not as ambitious as David's awesome project, I do have an Ace up my sleeve for BALLS this year. A couple days ago i was sitting out in my workshop (garage) thinking about what I was going to launch at BALLS on such short notice. (I found out I could go only an hour earlier). I was in the classic "thinking man" pose when I noticed a couple pieces of fiberglass gas pipe that one of our club members had brought out to a launch a couple of months ago. It was an odd ball size; the outer diameter was slightly under a standard 2.6". The inner diameter was too large to fit a 54mm motor by itself. It was too large to simply insert a 54mm motor tube both phenolic and paper. After a bit of thought I realized that i should just take a LOC paper tube and peel the outer layers off untill it did fit. This worked like a charm! I did the same thing with a short piece of tube for the nosecone so a standard 2.1" cone could fit. The fins are 0.062 G10 that will have carbon fiber and fiberglass laminated tip to tip. dual deployment is being implemented. total length is approx. 7' 4". Lastly, I am planning to flyit on a Kosdon L "afterburning" engine. If you have not seen or heard of what one of Frank's Afterburning motor are about. Basically, he takes the fast burning load for whatever case he doing it to ( in my case, the 54/2550 L1860) and subs out the top grain of the motor with one of his Dirty Harry grains. with the slower burning grain added in, the average impulse is expected to drop about 350 ns to make this motor more like an L1400-1500 The effect can be seen in the pic below.

Pics of the rocket will be up soon...

whoa...that is awsome. That is the weirdest flame I have ever seen

Eric, that's gonna be awesome to see. Nice choice of motor too Then again -- you kick it, you buy it :kill:

So... in true TRF fashion... GOT ANY PICS????

I do have pics, the problem is that I cant crop them to a managable size for TRF. I have editing programs, but this stupid blaster worm is causing problems with my computer. Did anyone else get this thing?

I have tried to remove this thing but all my efforts have failed. I guess it serves me right 'cause I had just disabled my firewall for something.

To David, I guarentee this motor isn't going anywhere! Also, what size bolt is screwed into the forward closure (1/4" i hope)

Sorry buddy... 'em 'r 1/2" pipe threads on the end of that sucker... and I trust you not to lose my precious hardware, don't worry

bummer, well, then again, i can still work with that.
David, when you see this, go on AIM. I would email you, but this worm wont let me.

Here she is in all her unfinished glory!!!

a close up of the tubing and fins( carbon fiber yet to be applied)

A view showing the LOC motor tube installed:

I have gotten a bit more done in the past week. I decided that carbon fiber was going to be overkill given the max velocity of the rocket. I decided to use two layers of 6oz. glass instead. First, I made fillets with 30 minute epoxy a chopped glass. Then the glass was applied. While the epoxy was curing i decided to go ahead and prime the main chute compartment and nosecone. the tube looks good, but the nosecone needs ALOT of work. I HEAVILY scuffed ip the cone to make sure the paint would stick.
enough of me droning on, and on to what you all really want to see...

THE PICS!

another pic of the glassing

mmmmm, smooooth!

upper section primed:

closeup of nosecone:

Looks great! Hey - what's that in the background? Love the fins!

Loopy

looks great rocwizard, keep up the great work

sweet, I Wish i could see it fly...make sure you get vids

That looks like the booster of a PML Hydra with a nosecone stuck on top. I like the hydra, it's pretty cool.

Yeah, it is a Hydra that has been shortened. I have a sock over the nosecone to protect the "smooth as a baby's bottom primer coat I have on it. I would recommend the Hydra to anyone, but you must make sure you attach the fins well because fin flutter is unavoidable.

I will have to get David (daveyfire) to video it for me as I don't have a digital vid cam. Should be fun! I am counting down the days. less than a month away!!!!

24 days, actually...

and that thing is gonna be moving so fast I doubt I'll be able to catch it on camera! You could ask the Gates if you could use the 1D... that would get it

sounds like a plan, david!

Good progress has taken place since the last update, but it is going to be tight as far as getting it done in time. The nosecone is primed and painted, it still needs to be clear coated though. the main chute bay is done, primed, painted. and polished. the aft section (booster and drogue compartment) has yet to be primed (will be tomorrow however). it may have to fly without the being polished the electronics bay is nearly finished. I discovered a slight setback today. when i epoxied in the motor tube, epoxy oozed down into the interior of the tube blocking the motor from being inserted fully. So after a few hours of grueling work with the dremel, it shoud all be back to normal. All this work is having to be done on top of 3 school projects!!!!! what the heck are they thinking giving so many projects the third week of school!!!!!:kill:

Now i have vented thoroughly

Ok, move along now people nothing to see here

Pics will come soon!

Super Unleaded is finished! I thought I would never get it done in time, but I did. The paint job is crap, but I am going to refinish it after the launch sometime. Will post launch pics after this weekend.

Here she is all finished:

Nice man...the green is sweet!

so, has it flown....I heard Balls has come and gone

Super Unleaded is toast! It went up fine, but came in ballistic from an estimated 15-18,000 feet. I have come to no conclusions at to why it happened. Everything, (including the motor which I borrowed from David) was ruined. The only usable parts are a 1/4" nut and a barrel connctor. the fin can also might be salvagable. Of the rocket's 7+ foot length, only a foot stuck out of the ground.

pics to come soon

Man, it was cool going up. Lotsa dark smoke, really fast, really straight, and out of sight. I was tracking it with a RocketHunter, and I heard "blip...blip...blip...blip...blip...blip...silence". We saw the tracking powder, but no signs of the rocket... that was too bad. Hope you rebuild Eric! We gotta do it again at next BALLS, on some of our propellant

i am all for that idea!

You know when it mangles the end of the motor case that it was a SERIOUS lawn dart... Mike Hobbs had one of his P motor rockets lawn dart on Saturday at BALLS... they said they found an 8" diameter hole and the rocket was about 10 feet down... they just kinda kicked dirt in the hole, said a little eulogy, and left

I had a pic of it in the ground, but I cant find it anywhere.

Here is a pic of the carnage::kill:

Here is some of the altimeter: