ROCKET ABUSE "REHAB"

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"ONE LAST SHOT"

This might be a slow rebuild do to how hot my garage is this time a year. First a little history. I built this rocket back in 2012 as a motor deploy using the 38mm motor. One day I used to much grease on the forward closure O ring that wicked into the BP and didn't allow the BP to do it's job and ended in a lawn dart sad ending. The fin can survived so I was able to rebuild it again. At that time I decided to rebuild it with DD. This has been one of my go to rockets for every launch I go to. In 2013 I was at a out of state launch and on the last day I lost the rocket to the tree gods due to the main coming out a apogee. At some point it was found and February of this year I went to the GRITS launch and a very nice fellow rocketeer handed it back. So I stripped it down checked the altimeter that check out good and have test flown it. Now it's time to get off my butt and get it flying again. I picked up some more BT that is all I have to replace. I will use the same avbay that survived the weather. Here are some before and after pictures of this abused rocket.

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Can't wait to see the finished product Bill - you do some really nice paint & detail!
 
Rebuilding a rocket from parts that did some hard time in the tree lock up is a most rewarding experience as I've recently learned.:wink:
 
Bill - Glad you got your rocket back and looking forward to seeing pics of it getting flight worthy again.

I plan on flying next month and then taking a few months off due to the heat. Hope to see you there! My wife won't go with me July/August/September. The heat is just too brutal!

I do have some rockets on the build pile I can start building on during the summer launch break, but it will be pretty brutal working in the hot garage.
 
Bill - Glad you got your rocket back and looking forward to seeing pics of it getting flight worthy again.

I plan on flying next month and then taking a few months off due to the heat. Hope to see you there! My wife won't go with me July/August/September. The heat is just too brutal!

I do have some rockets on the build pile I can start building on during the summer launch break, but it will be pretty brutal working in the hot garage.

Hey Jeff. I'll be at Bunnell next month, it will be good to see you. It's been a while.
 
At first I thought it was going to be a hard job to get the AvBay screw holes transferred over to the new Bt it wasn't I used some copy paper and wrapped it around the old payload tube and punched the holes then transferred to new BT. It was not to bad in the garage so I did some grinding to the fin can and fitted the BT to the fin can. I need to get some more Epoxy and 3/4 oz cloth to glass the tubes and finish glue in the fin can. Then I can glass the fins to the BT again. Looking like a rocket once again.

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Sick as it sounds, sometimes I actually enjoy resurrecting a rocket from a pile of shattered wreckage. Oft times I have to figure out how to outsmart all my cleverness in building something bullet proof. There seems to be a somewhat perverse joy in figuring out how to undo all my over engineering (and stupidity in the crash-n-burn) then ending up with a flyable rocket again.
 
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Through the years I have learned to keep it simple as possible just for the reason you have said. I have two rockets that I would like to make some changes to but It's more work then I want to do as they fly fine now. It just takes longer to prep.
 
Pretty bird. Glad to see it getting back in flying condition.
 
One day I used to much grease on the forward closure O ring that wicked into the BP and didn't allow the BP to do it's job and ended in a lawn dart sad ending.
It's such a long, sleek rocket, that must have been a spectacular lawn dart. One of my choir directors used to say "If you're going to make a mistake, make it big." I think that goes for rocketry too. (But not too big.)
 
Resurrecting this thread to update where I have gotten to with this project. I painted it with the Hydroplane race boat OH Boy Oberto Beef Jerky paint scheme. All I need now is to have the lettering made and put on.IMG_20151011_101836_292.jpgIMG_20151011_101501_174.jpg
 

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Oh wow, nice looking rocket! I was planning to machine a conical tail cone with a really big length:diameter ratio similar to yours. I even thought about using a 5:1 conical nose cone instead of making one from scratch but I want an even higher ratio. Can you enlighten me how you made this tail cone??? I'm going from a 3" air frame to a 54mm MMT. Thanks in advance!!!
 
Oh wow, nice looking rocket! I was planning to machine a conical tail cone with a really big length:diameter ratio similar to yours. I even thought about using a 5:1 conical nose cone instead of making one from scratch but I want an even higher ratio. Can you enlighten me how you made this tail cone??? I'm going from a 3" air frame to a 54mm MMT. Thanks in advance!!!

I shaped some foam on my drill press and made a part then dug the foam out.
 
Man, the joint between the boat tail and air frame looks totally homogeneous. Did you glass that entire section with one big piece of cloth? How did you finish it from there? It looks really, really, nice.
 
Yes it's glassed to the BT. I have a motor tube ring right there and I split the difference with tube and boat tail.
 
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