- Joined
- Jan 19, 2009
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I am thinking it is how I did my charges. Instead of a charge well, I take some plastic tubing. I check the ignitor continuity. Insert the ignitor into the tube and seal with a hot glue gun. Let cool. Insert BP into other end of tube. Pack extra space with dog barf. Multiple wraps of tape end to end. My bulkhead just has a bolt sticking out that I tape this tube to. Below is a picture of the apogee charge. You can see the tube split along the length. What I suspect is the main charge got pushed to the side by the laundry and against the body tube. When it let go, the blast may have been directed at the body tube causing the damage. The blue tape was what I secured the charge to the bolt.
View attachment 315911
What type of plastic tubing? I'll bet you ran into a situation where the tubing contained the pressure long enough for all the BP to burn and then fractured leading to what amounts to a mini explosion inside the base. Have you considered moving to brass or copper tubing?
The shear pin that did not shear: was it elongated and deformed?
Are you suggesting a copper tube so it will be stronger and have the taped end blow out first?
I did not notice any deformation of the screw. I unscrewed it from the rocket without any problems
And the two that "sheared" - the heads sheared off but I had to drill them out as they were still securing the cone.
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