Homemade Logo Rocket

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bradycros

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I saw this logo rocket on the home page of www.performancehobbies.com and liked what I saw. I drew it out and started building. Because of the perspective of the logo rocket drawing, I had to make some guesstamations. If you bring up performancehobbies from the above web site, leave the frame small, scroll down to bottom of page and slide the whole frame over to the left, you can compare the logo drawing and the picture of my build side by side.
Every tube was cut by hand. Every slot, centering ring, bulkhead, nose cone, fin, baffle and tail cone was made by hand. I did it, and you can do it to.

Length: 20.5 in
Width: 3 in
Fin Span: 12 in
Motor Mount: 29 mm
Nose Cone: Balsa
Tail Cone: Card Stock
Weight: 10.7 oz

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Nice looking design. What are the nose and tail cones made of?
 
I'm not sure why but that design somehow looks good. If that rocket is a logo, can you say who uses it?

Nice-looking build, BTW. Good job on the NC conic shape and the tail skirt, they look smooth and even. Is the NC made of balsa all the way to the tip or did you extend the mounting dowel out through the nose? Do you have any tips for rolling cardstock to make those tail parts turn out so well?

It looks like it will be a high-power rocket.... what sort of motors are you planning to use in this thing?

Any ideas yet for colors or decoration?
 
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If that rocket is a logo, can you say who uses it?

I 'm waiting to hear back from the person that uses the logo. I'll be more then happy to tell you if he gives the OK. Can't see why he would object, it will probly increase sales.

Nice-looking build, BTW. Good job on the NC conic shape and the tail skirt, they look smooth and even. Is the NC made of balsa all the way to the tip or did you extend the mounting dowel out through the nose?

In the first picture with the nose cone on its side you can see the shoulder is a piese of coupler glued to the balsa. The coupler is soaked with thin CA and sanded down to fit smoothly into the body tube.

In the second picture find there are four balsa squares glued together, which were then shaped into a rough cylinder with my very sharp fish fillet knive. So, yes the balsa goes all the way to the tip.

The third picture showes the arangement of nose cone, spacer, mandrel and sacrificial body tube.

Fourth picture showes the nose cone templet. Sand, check...sand check...ect...
This would be much easyer with a lathe, but we ain't got no stink'n lathe.

Do you have any tips for rolling cardstock to make those tail parts turn out so well?

I'll need to start another post for that.

It looks like it will be a high-power rocket.... what sort of motors are you planning to use in this thing?

Rocket was built with a 29mm motor mount, so it could handle a H motor. But it was built for the high end of Mid Power.

Any ideas yet for colors or decoration?

Yes. Turquoise nose cone, body and tail cone.Black glue rivets with fine pin stripes in several equaly spaced places on the body, burnt orange fins.

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Wow, I thought it LEGO in the title! What an idiot I am!:y:

Nice rocket!
 
In the second picture find there are four balsa squares glued together, which were then shaped into a rough cylinder with my very sharp fish fillet knive. So, yes the balsa goes all the way to the tip.

......................

Fourth picture showes the nose cone templet. Sand, check...sand check...ect...
This would be much easyer with a lathe, but we ain't got no stink'n lathe.


That NC must have been a lot of work, but it looks like it turned out great!

You know, you don't have to buy a full-blown $1000 lathe setup. There are a bunch of posts in the archives about small home-made lathes made out of scrap materials and old electric motors. You can build your own for a few bucks and it will be good enough to spin some balsa.

Also, Sandman (here on TRF) does an excellent job of turning custom balsa orders. He is very reasonable on price, fast to finish your order, and very serious about getting your order right. (No, he's not my brother-in-law or anything like that, I get no kick-backs for posting an endorsement, he's just GOOD at turning balsa, basswood, and other stuff)
 
That NC must have been a lot of work, but it looks like it turned out great!

You know, you don't have to buy a full-blown $1000 lathe setup. There are a bunch of posts in the archives about small home-made lathes made out of scrap materials and old electric motors. You can build your own for a few bucks and it will be good enough to spin some balsa.

Also, Sandman (here on TRF) does an excellent job of turning custom balsa orders. He is very reasonable on price, fast to finish your order, and very serious about getting your order right. (No, he's not my brother-in-law or anything like that, I get no kick-backs for posting an endorsement, he's just GOOD at turning balsa, basswood, and other stuff)

I have seen people on Junkyard wars make a rocket nose cone using a lathe that consisted of an electric drill and a long drill bit.
 
I have seen people on Junkyard wars make a rocket nose cone using a lathe that consisted of an electric drill and a long drill bit.

People do that here too. Well, generally they drill a hole, glue a dowel in place, then spin the balsa with the drill. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks fun.
 
People do that here too. Well, generally they drill a hole, glue a dowel in place, then spin the balsa with the drill. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks fun.

Try that set up with a chunk of balsa 3 inches plus, let me know how that works out for you.
 
I got the idea for this baffle frome "Model Rocket Design and Construction".
I modified it by making the top removeable to suit my purposes. For anyone unfamiliar with baffles, here's a brief description on how this one works.

Two basswood posts are glued to oppoite sides of a section of coupler, this will hold up and suspend the inner cup over the exhaust tube. When the ejection charge goes off, the hot gas is forced up and into the baffle chamber. The ambient air already in the baffle chamber is forced out, which inturn forces out the parachute and nose cone. So, the parachute is out and gone before the hot gas ever gets to where the parachute WAS. The benifit of using a baffle is the need for wadding and/or a heat sheild is eleminated.

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Try that set up with a chunk of balsa 3 inches plus, let me know how that works out for you.

Can work out fine, you've already build two hand tool powered mounts, a very nice lathe can be fashioned with one and a few pieces of scrap 2x4 and plywood, will turn 4.5" x 32" cones with ease;)

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Yesterday I had writen a much longer description of a "how to" about the baffle. I finished writing and editing, clicked submit and was told I wasn't logged in. When I begain I had made it a point to be logged on ( I would think you wouldn't be able to start a post without being logged on). I logged in again and all my work had just disapeared. Has someone else had this happen to them?
Is there a time limit? Nothing told me I was going to time out. I wasn't happy, but I did rewrite a much shorter "about" paragraph.
 
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OK, move'n on.

Here's my method of using JB Weld or: "How to make JB Weld work for you".
Picture one shows needed supplies and tools:

Disposable plastic coated paper plate (Dixie)
Paper towel
Kraft stick (one end flatend)
Round tooth pick
Rubbing alcohol, (Isopropyl)
Q tips
Spoon tool from Spatula set, www.hobbylinc.com/htm/squ/squ10705.htm

Picture two, two equal beads of JB Weld.

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First picture showes using the tooth pick to start mixing parts one and two. Just swirl the tooth pick around until you get a gray color.

Second picture, switch to the kraft stick with the flat end, you can scrape the bottom of the plate with this and really get it mixed up. There's no hurry with JB Weld, I've found you can work it for more then an hour after mixing. And that's a good thing, if you like to get things just so, you can take your time doing it. Use the tooth pick to scrape off the kraft stick and get the JB Weld back into the mixed pile. I like to wipe off kraft stick and save for future use.

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Picture one shows a tooth pick being dipped into the JB Weld and it comes out all strechy and gooey.

Picture two shows that if you roll the tooth pick between your thumb and finger you'll roll up that strechy and gooey tail in to a useable ball on the end of the tooth pick.

Picture three shows the placement of the ball into the tube and centering ring joint. Lay the ball into the joint and slowly pull to the right (I'm right handed) while twisting the tooth pick. The JB Weld will come off the tooth pick and lay in the joint, right where you want it with no slop or mess. Repeat until joint is filled.

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First picture shows using the spoon from the spatula set. Lay the spoon into the joint and lightly pull a centimeter or two, slowly remove the spoon ( because there is going to be a gooey, sticky tail on the bottom of the spoon when you lift it) and wipe excess onto a paper towel. Do not push the spoon all the way down into the joint, just remove a little at a time until you've gone all the way around the joint. This may or may not take a couple of turns around the tube. It will depend on how much JB Weld you put down. Once you see that all the excess has been removed, the spoon can be pulled all the way around the joint for a smooth finish. If you've done this right you'll see two beads of JB Weld have been left by the spoon, one on the centering ring and one on the tube. This will also be removed.

FYI, if you turned the spoon over and used the concave surface for scraping, you will produce a smaller fillet. If you want a fatter fillet, put on a rubber glove and use your finger, or use the round edge of a dowel as scraper. Dipping your gloved finger in alcohol will allow you to get that smooth finish.

Second picture shows joint smoothed out and the beads left from using the spoon to make the fillet.

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Lay the tip of a tooth pick flat on the tube and scrape off a small amount of the bead, then wipe the tooth pick on a paper towel. Srape, wipe, and repeat...
until bead has been removed. Enlarge picture to get a better look.

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To remove the residue from scraping I pour some alcohol into the bottle cap and dip a Q tip into it. Then lightly rub off the residue being careful not to touch the fillet. Q tips are cheap, don't try to get the job done with olny one. Do not redip a used Q tip into the alcohol, toss it and use a new one.

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How's that for a smooth, finished fillet? Enlarge picture to see better.
To bad it's going to be coverd up with the tail cone.

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Looks like the link for the Spatula Set is now working. If your interested in looking at it you'll need to go to hobbylinc .com, click on hand tools and then put part # squ10705 in the search box.
 
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