Dremel 1

[Bone Daddy]

It's snowing in Mansfield Texas so I thought I'd post my Dremel 1 build. The design goal of this project was to use the dremel to make a tail cone from a Bertha nosecone and build a rocket around it.

The Dremel 1 was inspired by U812. On his incredible website he has pix of him using a Dremel tool to cut a plastic model sub kit in half lengthwise.

The tail cone

First I cut off the the bottom of the nose cone. It was sized so a BT-50 would fit flush from the inside, but not pass through.

Next the base of the nose cone was cut off leaving only the sides to attach the tail cone to the body tube.

So far so good. Started with 10 fingers. Ended with 10 fingers.

[Bone Daddy]

The motor mount is a really a motor mount within a motor mount.

The inner motor mount is a 5.5" (corrected from 6.5" in original post) piece of BT-20.

Two BT-20 to BT-50 spacers were used with one glued flush to the end where the motor goes.

[Gillard]

So far so good. Started with 10 fingers. Ended with 10 fingers.

are your toes webbed as well - inbreeding can cause some interesting extras on people.

(sorry could not help myself)

looking forward to the rest of the build.

(from a 8 fingered 2 thumbed dremel user)

[Bone Daddy]

The outer motor mount is a 5" length of BT-50 with BT-60 mounting rings.

A kevlar shock chord is attached to the upper ring.

The inner motor mount is glued in placed, flush with the bottom of the outer motor mount. Approx 1/2" of the BT-20 protrudes from the top.

[Bone Daddy]

Nope, all of my 13 toes are perfectly normal. Not even the slightest bit of webbing between them.

[Bone Daddy]

The body is an 8" length of BT-60.

I got lazy on the fins and used some left over Baby Bertha fins. These will most likely be modified before the dust settles.

[Bone Daddy]

The motor mount is glued in place with approx 2" protruding from the bottom of the body.

[Bone Daddy]

The tail is glued in place.

[Bone Daddy]

This is what it looks like today.

The nose cone is from Estes. It came in a BT-60 nose cone assortment pack (NC-60a Nose Cone). What an incredible bargain. The nose cone used for the tail came from the same pack.

More to be added and posted as it is.

[powderburner]

Lookin good so far!

Something about a tail fairing just gives an extra special look.

[Bone Daddy]

Thanks Powderburner.

Maiden voyage at the first club launch?

[accooper]

All I can say is WOW!

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders

[Bone Daddy]

Thank you, but I not yet worthy Dark Lord of the Scratch Built realm.

[accooper]

I think from what I have seen you are.

I love my son, but I wish he wouldn't have put that tag line on there. I can't figure how to get it off!

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders

[Bone Daddy]

I've started working on the electronics for Dremel 1.

So far I've completed the wiring harness for two LEDs. One blue and one white. More to follow.

[Bone Daddy]

This project is starting to look like mold growing on bread. The longer it sits, the more strange things start growing on it. Case in point is the addition of a booster pod. Dry fit pix below.

The nozzle is a modified version of the same nose cone used here. I used some sand paper to rough it up a bit. Flat black spray is patchy. There is little doubt in my mind that this thing has been around the universe a few times.

[Bone Daddy]

This little beauty is incredibly bright.

[Bone Daddy]

The booster pod is completed and waiting to be mounted.

[WDG]

Nope, all of my 13 toes are perfectly normal. Not even the slightest bit of webbing between them.

So do you have the 5 - 8 combo or just the normal 6 and 7? I think the term "flip-flop" originated with a whole family with the 5- 8 toe combo. When they walked bare foot that's what it sounded like: flip-FLOP...flip -FLOP.

Hey, don't blame me. I didn't start this. :)

[Bone Daddy]

Oh come on, there's always more than enough blame to go around.

Can't you just count your own? I have 6 on my right foot and 7 on my left foot just like everyone else. Unless of course you have some kind of weird toe mutation thing going on ............................

Still working on Dremel 1. More soon.

[Bone Daddy]

Cockpit has been glued to the fuselage.

1/2 a ping pong ball (single edge razor blade for this one) sanded to more or less fit contour of fuselage and some super glue.

[Bone Daddy]

Got more done tonight than I thought I would.

Nose cone painted and leds installed.

Blue led at front and white underneath.

Last post for tonight.
My beautiful bride is sleeping quietly.
Time to spend a little quality time with my x-box.

[Bone Daddy]

Had a fantastic Japenesy New Year's party at the house last night. I met my friends when I joined a hobby robotics club (www.dprg.org.) I'm trying to get them to build rockets.

Anyway, the work continues.

Decided to run my wiring chase inside the body tube. Had a piece of carbon fiber tubing on hand. A little heavy, but perfect for the job.

[Bone Daddy]

Only 1 full day of winter break left.

Started painting the fuselage. I not very good at painting. The distressed look will help me out here. I found that by sanding off primer in small places you can get a nice worn look. All the other unintentional surface blemishes now become a valuable part of the whole been around the universe a few times conceit.

[Bone Daddy]

First look at color scheme.

Finishing and painting continue to be a weakness. I hope practice will eventually make better than before.

[accooper]

Don't worry. I have the same problem.

I have no problem designing rockets, or even putting them together, but when it comes to finishing them, I have no imagination.

They either come out with terrible stripes or just one solid color.

How about if we both keep working on it?

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders

[Reed Goodwin]

Sweet looking rocket! I read the title and had hopes for what this thread might have been, maybe someone else will jump on this: anyone made a rocket to resemble a Dremel to honor the great service they have given rocket-builders?
Just throwin' that out there...
Reed

[Bone Daddy]

Don't worry. I have the same problem.

I have no problem designing rockets, or even putting them together, but when it comes to finishing them, I have no imagination.

They either come out with terrible stripes or just one solid color.

How about if we both keep working on it?

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders

I hear you brother. I've used a lot of flat paint ostensibly to give my rockets a more military look and while this is true, it's just much easier to use flat paint.

Taking baby steps, this one uses - drum roll please - matte finish.

[Bone Daddy]

Sweet looking rocket! I read the title and had hopes for what this thread might have been, maybe someone else will jump on this: anyone made a rocket to resemble a Dremel to honor the great service they have given rocket-builders?
Just throwin' that out there...
Reed

Thanks Reed.

An intriguing idea............................. I wonder how a metal cutoff saw would look as a nose cone?

[Bone Daddy]

This is it for tonight.

Got my first look at the final color patter. Needs a lot of touch up before I can even look into adding details.

[Bone Daddy]

Adding more details. But as you can see in the pix so much more to do. I'm really pushing my finishing ability here. But hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Black stripe is drafting tape. Not sure I like the crepe look, but it's what I had on hand. It's starting to grow on me. I have until the clear coat to decide if I want to use smooth tape instead.

[Bone Daddy]

Still working on the leds. I have them expoxied in place. I bought the real, real , real slow cure time JB Weld (the old stuff) by mistake so I am waiting for the epoxy to set .............................

My original design had them being used in a staic display only, not in flight. This made power easy. A 9v battery for display at field events and wall wart for display at home.

As she started taking form I gave in to the realization that the leds had to be flight ready. So back to the drawing board. The flight battery pack is going to be 6v delivered by two CR2025 button cells.

Luckily I have a battery carrier and all that I'll need to make it easy to swap the power supply.

This looks like a task for tomorrow.

[Bone Daddy]

Oops. Forgot to attach image.

[Bone Daddy]

The led connectors (male) on the battery carrier are soldered in place. Two pins for (+) and two pins for (-). Have the female ends soldered onto led leads.

Decided against a switch. Easier to just unplug the connectors then add another level of complexity.

The removable pin connectors will let my change out power supplies as dictated by the situation. Each pin protected with shrink tubing.

I must say I am fighting the urge to just fly her, but I'm being patient and finishing her first. My track record for flying before finished and then actually finishing it is a bit iffy.

[Bone Daddy]

Finally have the booster pod in place. The wires for the led run though the external wiring chase (launch lug) and through a hole in the fuselage. Not sure yet what color if any to paint the nose and nozzle of the booster pod.

Next step is a wiring harness to connect the booster pod led to the boat tail (is that the right term Powderburner?) led. That way a only single set of wires will be routed through the fuselage.

Not really sure yet how this whole thing will work yet. The trick will be keeping the rear end leds lit when the chute is deployed if the battery is in the nose. Have to think about this.

[Bone Daddy]

Added a set screw to the boat tail. In case anything goes wrong in the tail end I can now access it without tearing the rocket apart.

Used my favorite tool to drill the pilot hole. It's a small plastic hand drill I bought from Radio Shack about 25 years ago. It's been repaired once or twice, but it's amazing how long it has lasted. I've been looking for another as a back up, but no luck at any RS I've checked. Seems if it can't be used with a cellphone then RS doesn't carry it anymore. Anyway...

[Bone Daddy]

Rear wiring harness is completed.

Test glued carbon rod to BT with superglue. Nice strong bond.

Dry fit the motor mount with the harness inserted in the carbon fiber wiring chase. Going to be tricky to line up and glue. Feeling good about the decision to use a set screw to hold in the boat tail.

It feels like the end is near. The goal is to have her ready to fly by the 16th for DARS club launch.

All this building makes me want to fly.

[Bone Daddy]

Tested the idea that the wiring harness could be used as a shock cord. Rigged a rocket with wire harness shock cord and launched it. Wire held up with no visible melting. Chute deployed. So it is possible to use the wire harness running from the tail end to connect the leds to the battery in the nose cone and serve as the shock cord.

But, since this rocket will rarely be flown at dusk/night I decided to add quick connects to the rear harness. This way it can fly with a standard shock cord or the wire shock cord.

With this solved it's time to finish her up and get her in the air.

[Bone Daddy]

The end is almost here.

Since I needed to use the rear harness only when required, I modified the battery holder by adding the green terminal block. The twist in the wires made it easier to glue the terminal block to the battery holder.

When the rear leds are needed, the wire harness threads through the chase and the ends are screwed into the terminal block. I tinned the ends to make this easy.

First pic shows rear harness only connected. The next shows both harnesses connected. The battery fits nicely into the nose cone. Easily inserted when needed and removed when not.

[Bone Daddy]

The carbon fiber chase is glued to the motor mount. The kevlar shock cord was threaded though the chase. The wire harness still easily slides in when needed.

I must admit I was nervous about gluing the motor mount in place. So much to go wrong. The wire from the booster led had to be threaded though a notch in the mm. The motor mount had to be inserted perfectly for the boat tail to fit properly. The chase had to line up with the bottom of the rocket (held horizontally).

I dry fit the motor mount a few times. When the proper distance was hit I rigged a jig made of a piece of dowel and a clothespin. Now the mm would stop where I needed it to when it ran into the dowel.

All went as planned. It still needs quite a bit of detailing, but it is ready to fly.

[powderburner]

Decided to run my wiring chase inside the body tube. Had a piece of carbon fiber tubing on hand. A little heavy, but perfect for the job.

Try a plastic drinking straw from your favorite local fast/junk food emporium?

Or, you can always roll your own with a little paper and glue (use a plastic straw as a tool to roll the paper)

Where are you painting? It's too blankety-blank cold outside!

[Bone Daddy]

Hey Powderburner

In the relative comfort of my garage and then bringing it inside to dry. Ambient is within allowable temp with the added bonus there is like 0 humidity. As bad as it is, this is my best finish yet.

[Bone Daddy]

Dremel 1 has been on hold while I earn enough money to continue building her. I was able to get a decent flight on a C6-3 by adding some nose weight.

Updates to follow.

[Bone Daddy]

Well, Dremel 1 has been sitting by the workbench pining for attention since January. I was never happy with how she flew. On a C6-3, she had a low, arcing flight. Suspecting it might be a CG/CP thing, I went back and modeled her in Open Rocket. Boy was I right. For a flight of approx. 100 ft on a C6-3, she would need around 154 grams of nose weight. About 100 grams more than I used!

Previously, the motor mount had to be surgically removed due to a water landing and a stuck motor. Without a motor mount, I was left with two options to consider. Go back to 18mm and added nose weight, which would limit me to a C or the new Quest D or Change to a 24mm mount and increase the motor option to an F.

I built a 24mm motor mount. It's actually an old mount modified to handle the boat tail. On E9-4 with 300 grams of nose weight, she'll hit a bit over 300 ft. Not bad.

[Bone Daddy]

Decided to take the easy way out of the stability issue by making Dremel 1 longer by about 12". This will also help with routing the wires and mounting the battery for the aft LEDs. The downside is that it no longer looks like a funky little space taxi.

Adding a 12" piece of BT-60 made it look too plain, so I added a coupler made of three BT-20s with some trim for effect. Here it is primed.

The 3 BTs butt up against the centering of the motor mount, effectively sealing in the ejection charge (in theory anyway).

[Bone Daddy]

Forward bulkhead is attached to the coupler. I used my Dremel tool to round out the holes (hmmm, Dremel building Dremel. Note to self: possible Skynet scenario keep tabs on Dremel tool). Still need to clean it up a bit and reinforce it a bit with CA.

The wire through the bulkhead is for the battery to power the 2 aft LEDs. I'm still puzzling over how to mount the battery. I'm using an A23 battery to power them. 12v but not especially beefy. It weighs only 10.4 grams with holder. It fits easily into BT-20 so I'm heading in that direction. Also enough room for a small circuit board so the lights flash on and off (that's a project for another day).

Deciding whether to mount it inside or outside the main body tube. I'm leaning towards outside.............................

[Pem Tech]

This is it for tonight.

Got my first look at the final color patter. Needs a lot of touch up before I can even look into adding details.

YEE HAA!!
I just love retro....

Excellent work.

[Bone Daddy]

Thanks Pem Tech me too.

Hmm, still need to get around to the touch up work and details .................................................. .........

[Bone Daddy]

Here's a dry fit of Dremel 1a.

I'm bummed out she is no longer a little space taxi, but another, better and bigger space taxi will rise from the wreckage.

She is now more like a battle cruiser. Needs some armament. And another turret (previously a cockpit) or two. She should scream though on a D or E.