MAC Performance 3" Villain (REBIRTH!!!)

I'm not advocating blowing rockets up... and this is far beyond rebuilding. But, everything failed, the MMT is shattered, rings blew, retainer is blown off... and the fins are still on. even where the MMT is gone. Point is this... You are not going to fly the fins off this kit.

I don't know what blew where.... but the bulkhead hit there av bay at some point. the whole avbay and everything north of it survived.



A good portion of the booster however? Confetti.

Damn, sorry about the rocket Dave. May it RIP

Sincere sympathies - lovely build and a great rocket.

Nice fins!

Dave.... appears you have had an "October Sky" experience. That is an amazing photo sequence. Will you build another?

Jozef said:

Dave.... appears you have had an "October Sky" experience. That is an amazing photo sequence. Will you build another?

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After I finish up a couple builds I think I have an idea for a rebuild

DavidMcCann said:

short version- i made mistakes. more to follow.

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Any idea what happened yet?

timbucktoo said:

Any idea what happened yet?

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Some. It was a 54mm 4 grain ex motor. To avoid the post getting pulled, the short version is my propellant sucked, and I need to step back, change a couple things and do it better.

Grains look to have lots of air bubbles......sure way to over pressurize.

That was a nice rocket...heck just build another.
You know by now, if ya fly long enough, it's bound to happen.

Just a sacrifice to the "Rocket Godz" hopefully that will keep them happy for quite awhile!!

Thanks for the comments on the rocket guys...it was a fun one...Yea. They were bubbly. The packing on the 38s were better, I packed them in 3 and 4 grain sticks. The 54s I packed as single grains, and the compression difference was enough to tip the balance.

I can write up more details in the research forum if there's interest, but basically bad processing on my part led to boom.

Hey Dave, Where's the bottom of it?

Where isn't it?

DavidMcCann said:

Where isn't it?

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True. The whole field was a slightly lighter green after the bits landed. Too bad buddy... it was a sweet rocket.

Can you post in the research forum what happened to the motor?

blackbrandt said:

Can you post in the research forum what happened to the motor?

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sure. gonna take a day or so to put it all in order, but I'll post it.

Bubbles are bad.

Barkley said:

Bubbles are bad.

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My kids love bubbles!

blackbrandt said:

Can you post in the research forum what happened to the motor?

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[youtube]Uwzg7SYZKF0[/youtube]

DavidMcCann said:

[youtube]Uwzg7SYZKF0[/youtube]

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[video]https://gph.is/2cdQL9Q[/video]

...

So....we all knew I'd be rebuilding this some day.

We've got the fins. Can we save them? lets find out. This also gives me a rare opportunity to smash apart a rocket and see how well it was built.

What's in your rocket? Lets find out




Many hits with a hammer produces this-


I'm pretty happy with the epoxy coverage internally. During the build I filled the slots with epoxy, buttered the fins and pressed them in. I did try using bamboo skewers from the rear to add more epoxy, and this shows that was semi successful, but I think mostly ineffective and unnecessary.


Fill, butter and press got some nice beefy fillets to the MMT.









This took several full swings with a hammer to break free. The first few hits would bounce off the tube By the end I was considering switching to an axe, but didn't feel like walking upstairs.




Now.... To clean these up carefully and in a little while I'll order up a new booster tube and MMT in between finishing off my L3.

The av-bay survived taking a shot from the forward bulkhead. everything north of that is fine, so... just need to rebuild the booster and off we go. I'm thinking I'll go stock length this time too.