Thrusting the Throne...450 LB Porta Potty Project LOL

legranddudu said:

....love that thread, please more pics !

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See, this is more along the line of the reaction I thought I might get from people once I started posting pictures of this silliness. Sure there's been a little interest but for the most part it's been smart aleck comments and well...crickets. I just want to know, do you people think we're not serious?

Oh, we're serious alright.

Just curious, has anyone ever flown a porta potty successfully? Didn't think so. Ky jumping up and down on the flight line screaming about how amazing a giant power prang was will not qualify a flight as successful IMHO.

-Dave

Any more details of the construction? Looking... Uhh.... Like a porta potty.

This is why I love rocket people. A flying poo-can is always going to make their day. I sure hope this works like you've planned!

Yeaaaaa!

I don't mean to be smart-alecky. I think this is hilarious and awesome! I just couldn't handle the pun. =p

DAllen said:

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CCotner said:

View attachment 124788

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Sorry, but it only gets worse...


Have you got a volunteer to be Spam on the Can?

awseiger said:

Any more details of the construction? Looking... Uhh.... Like a porta potty.

This is why I love rocket people. A flying poo-can is always going to make their day. I sure hope this works like you've planned!

Yeaaaaa!

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Details...where to start. First off many will note that this a porta potty on an aluminum frame. We debated a looooong time over whether or not to use metal vs. wood. While none of us are materials engineers the conclusion was that while wood might be cheaper and easier to work with in order to maintain the strength and what not this project would be MUCH heavier. If something went wrong what would you want to have coming down on you? A 600# rocket made of wood framing? Or a 300# rocket made of AL framing? We think that in this case the use of metal is not only required but is more likely to hold together in the event of a catastrophic failure and thus safer. We have the good fortune to have two people on the team who are expert welders and we also have a ready source of aluminum. Another factor to using AL is we have no indoor place to store the porta-potty so it needs to be made of materials that can stay outside for long periods of time. Things like the chute canon will be removable.

I mean, heck, a snowmobile "flew" at LDRS 31 so I think we are well within the rules here.

Next is the chute canon. This is a 10" Uline tube with a costume made piston. I hate pistons by the way. I glassed 80% of the outside with 2 wraps of fiberglass. The piston is also glassed on the inside. I did some ground tests with what I think was a reasonable facsimile to the 28' chute since we don't have the chute yet - 2 bricks wrapped in a old bedsheet. 4g sent the mess about 35' across the yard with a very minimal 10 degrees or so off of horizontal. :y:

Another thing to note here is that we removed the tank and seat inside. While it would be cool to open the door of the john to see all that stuff in there that's just dead weight. Probably another 200# by my estimation. We're fighting weight issues here so we decided early on we just aren't going to have it in there. I really don't think having the tank and seat inside really adds any technical challenge other than wasting an incredible amount of AP and structural supports.

We have a lot to do yet...electronics, hard point for the recovery, figure out how we want to attach the plastic john walls to the AL frame, install attachement points for the chute cannon, motor mount, what the heck are we doing for the launch rail....:eyeroll:

CCotner said:

I don't mean to be smart-alecky. I think this is hilarious and awesome! I just couldn't handle the pun. =p

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No no no, I don't mind the comments I'm just surprised that's all I am getting...at least that's what I was getting at. Heck I can be a smart a$$ too:

DAllen said:

Ky jumping up and down on the flight line screaming about how amazing a giant power prang was will not qualify a flight as successful IMHO.

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By the way, before anyone says ANYTHING, we've done extensive scale flights on various sizes, fin configurations, CG locations and usually with a minimum 5:1 thrust to weight ratio and we are very confident that this is a stable design. I've lost count how many scale flights we've done - something like 15 or so and we will probably do more.

-Dave

DAllen said:

See, this is more along the line of the reaction I thought I might get from people once I started posting pictures of this silliness. Sure there's been a little interest but for the most part it's been smart aleck comments and well...crickets. I just want to know, do you people think we're not serious?

Oh, we're serious alright.

Just curious, has anyone ever flown a porta potty successfully? Didn't think so. Ky jumping up and down on the flight line screaming about how amazing a giant power prang was will not qualify a flight as successful IMHO.

-Dave

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I think it's an interesting and hilarious project. I think to get more serious consideration, you need to post more serious details about how you are building it. Also, the thread name is super obscure until you actually open up the thread and get the joke. Maybe tack on something to pique the interest like "Number Two --- High-Power Port-a-Potty Oddroc."

I wish you the best of luck. Although, you've now given me a new paranoia that the next time I go to take a dump in a part-a-potty I may get an unexpected trip to orbit...

Edit: And the second I post asking for details, there they are, one post ahead of mine... I think this might help spark the interest you are looking for.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

I think it's an interesting and hilarious project. I think to get more serious consideration, you need to post more serious details about how you are building it. Also, the thread name is super obscure until you actually open up the thread and get the joke. Maybe tack on something to pique the interest like "Number Two --- High-Power Port-a-Potty Oddroc."

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Okay...you make a reasonable observation and I was wondering if that may be the issue.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

I wish you the best of luck. Although, you've now given me a new paranoia that the next time I go to take a dump in a part-a-potty I may get an unexpected trip to orbit...

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:grin:

No witty toilet humor here..Different, yet cool project..What motor(s) do you plan to propel it skyward?

Pantherjon said:

No witty toilet humor here..Different, yet cool project..What motor(s) do you plan to propel it skyward?

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That's a good question and the jury is still out on that. We are going to weight the entire thing - somewhere - when we are closer to finishing it and that will determine which motor(s) we use. One guy wants to use 4x L900 DM motors but I think it's going to be way too heavy for that. We need to hit at least 1500 or more just to have PLENTY of time for that chute to open.

-Dave

Where and when do you plan to launch this project?

DAllen said:

That's a good question and the jury is still out on that. We are going to weight the entire thing - somewhere - when we are closer to finishing it and that will determine which motor(s) we use. One guy wants to use 4x L900 DM motors but I think it's going to be way too heavy for that. We need to hit at least 1500 or more just to have PLENTY of time for that chute to open.

-Dave

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Look into the CTI L3200 vmax. 4 of those should give you plenty of thrust to propel this thing skyward, but not too high. The other option is to use two L3200 motors, and airstart others (L900 DM maybe).

Polyalcoholic said:

Where and when do you plan to launch this project?

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Another good question, we are currently aiming for out launch on either 4/27 or 4/28 in Three Oaks BUT if that means hurrying the construction just to make a deadline then probably not. We would rather wait a while to make sure we get everything right. Whenever we do it I think it's been settled that it will be at a Michiana Rocketry launch in Three Oaks.

Eat said:

Look into the CTI L3200 vmax. 4 of those should give you plenty of thrust to propel this thing skyward, but not too high. The other option is to use two L3200 motors, and airstart others (L900 DM maybe).

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Excellent ideas but our motor supplier and sponsor (Red Arrow Hobbies) does not carry CTI so it either has to be Loki or Aerotech. I am thinking 4x L2300 green ought to do the trick but we'll see. Maybe we could talk Loki into a demo motor...It's a matter of final weight at this point and since none of use have ever built anything like this we have really no clue what to expect other than we *think* it will be 250 to 300#.

-Dave

DAllen said:

I am thinking 4x L2300 green

-Dave

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That motor tends to go bang, very often.

Eat said:

That motor tends to go bang, very often.

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Still? I knew that was an issue a few years ago and I thought Aerotech had the problems fixed. AFAIK, the L2300 used to be an M and got knocked down to an L as part of that process.

DAllen said:

Still? I knew that was an issue a few years ago and I thought Aerotech had the problems fixed. AFAIK, the L2300 used to be an M and got knocked down to an L as part of that process.

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That's a different one. The L2300 is the KBA Animal-compatible 54/2550, and it's barely an L. I hope they don't go bang because I have fourteen waiting to be used. (I'll bond the grains in just in case because that seems to help liners survive better)

The L2200 is the one that used to be an M2050 and got split into the L2200 and M1500.

CarVac said:

That's a different one. The L2300 is the KBA Animal-compatible 54/2550, and it's barely an L. I hope they don't go bang because I have fourteen waiting to be used. (I'll bond the grains in just in case because that seems to help liners survive better)

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I have heard of, and seen them go bang, but have also seen them work. I don't know if aerotech has solved the problem.

CarVac said:

That's a different one. The L2300 is the KBA Animal-compatible 54/2550, and it's barely an L. I hope they don't go bang because I have fourteen waiting to be used. (I'll bond the grains in just in case because that seems to help liners survive better)

The L2200 is the one that used to be an M2050 and got split into the L2200 and M1500.

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OOPS! Yeah...the L2200 is the one I am thinking of.

I was just thinking, 4x L2300's will look cool, but that's not enough impulse for a 300# rocket.

The L2200G is by all accounts an excellent motor.

too bad you didn't have CTI. using N3400 skidmarks would be uber cool. Plus a couple of those should wake everyone up within a 2 mile radius!

After dozens of test flights at scales ranging from 1:10 to 1:4 it's finally happening.

Three Oaks,MI
11/22/14 ~1:00pm
See "Thrusting the Throne" on facebook for more details.

Hope you guys get a chance to fly the C**P out of it.

Any special high end technique to get all four to ignite at nearly the exact same time? Any white streamers for additional recovery effects?

Daddyisabar said:

Any special high end technique to get all four to ignite at nearly the exact same time? Any white streamers for additional recovery effects?

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Not sure. I'm really not the fella to talk to about that but if I find out I'll post it. I imagine it will be some "special" ignitors.


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Well, we are going for special white streamer recovery as a backup in case the chute's fail. There has also been talk about some special fluid to be released.. but I don't know that anything has been done towards that idea.

And for what it is worth, 7 motors. One N and 6 L. It adds up to 40,660 Ns as I recall. A central N3300, then two sets of 3 L motors clustered in a delta pattern (offsetting deltas) 3 L1040 and 3 L2200

https://www.facebook.com/thrustingthethrone

And we're going to be on the radio at 7:30 this morning on 107.1 WIRX.

Check it out. The AP has picked up on this story and there have been articles run in papers as far away as Miami. AP photographers have asked about attending. The local rock station is showing up for a live broadcast.

This event has turned into a monster.

DAllen said:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0M2pN1msaxQ

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Why not just use the video link to post this? When it's in the forums, you don't get the annoying ads...

[video=youtube;0M2pN1msaxQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M2pN1msaxQ&amp;app=desktop[/video]

Great Flight BTW... What did it land on? How does it look after the flight?