My Mom is a seamstress and she is making my parachutes for me. What are your thoughts on 100 lb Dacron braided line for a parachute shroud line on a 5 lb rocket ? Do I need higher strength or is 100 lb test enough. Thanks in advance.
What kind of Dacron line do you have? Several years ago I bought a 3000 ft spool of 150 lb Dacron line from a kite store. It's a wholesale spool of the line used to raise and lower those 1" blinds you buy at most home stores. I've used it on chutes as large as 53". Those chutes were actually the skin from a golf umbrella. They have eight lines about 75" long and I've been using these as the main chute on a 10 lb rocket for about 10 years now. So far I haven't had any issues with them.
If you're going with six gores on a chute for a 5 lb. rocket, those 100 lb Dacron lines should be just fine.
What design are you using for the canopy? Is it just a hexagon flat sheet or are you going to make gores for a hemi or semi-elliptical?
BTW, I highly recommend you get a hot knife or even a soldering pencil to cut rip-stop nylon with.
Another trick for cutting individual gores is to use a template made of 1/8" plywood the shape of the gore and a rotary cutter on a cutting mat. Make sure and put something like self-adhesive neoprene on the cloth side of the pattern to keep the nylon from trying to move, I don't and sometimes one edge of the long seam is longer on one side, not a big deal the chutes still turn out great.
Thanks. What kind of thread works best for rip stop nylon?That looks like it should work fine. You may want to try this site. Twice the length for only $2.50 more. Ebay isn't always the best buy. https://goodwinds.com/line-winders/braided-dacron.html
Thanks. What kind of thread works best for rip stop nylon?
I'm no expert, but I have heard that you should size the strength of your recovery system to handle a 50G shock. So 5*50=250lbs...
I suggest 100 G minimum. That's a fast opening +/- 5 seconds from apogee. So for a 5 pound rocket that's >500 pounds total...
Well... If you're going by the 50 gee rule then yes, you're fine with 6 lines of 100 lb. test. But if you look at the 100 gee case, you're using 600 lb. worth of line for a 500 lb. load. That's not much design margin, and basically zero redundancy. Maybe you want to consider 100 gee as having margin build in, but if it's really the load you expect then I'd suggest going to 8 lines.I will be using 6 lines so I am good to go on the 100 lb test
Well... If you're going by the 50 gee rule then yes, you're fine with 6 lines of 100 lb. test. But if you look at the 100 gee case, you're using 600 lb. worth of line for a 500 lb. load. That's not much design margin, and basically zero redundancy. Maybe you want to consider 100 gee as having margin build in, but if it's really the load you expect then I'd suggest going to 8 lines.
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