Family Drag Race Build

Thanks for all the pictures Chad. I'm following along and trying to picture how I'm going to cobble mine together. I keep staring at the engine casing on my kitchen table and asking myself "What did I do?" LOL. Looking forward to getting mine in the air... waaaaaaay in the air

Your build brings back fond memories of building rockets with my boys YEARS ago. I hope Tim brings some to Airfest. I want the blue and a red!

CenturiKid said:

Thanks for all the pictures Chad. I'm following along and trying to picture how I'm going to cobble mine together. I keep staring at the engine casing on my kitchen table and asking myself "What did I do?" LOL. Looking forward to getting mine in the air... waaaaaaay in the air

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No problem buddy. As I'm sure you've noticed the kit is a bit sparse on instruction... On the other hand, you've probably built ten times as many rockets as I have over the years, so I'm sure you've got the basic idea down. Another thing I didn't mention about our builds - we are using BSI 5min. Epoxy throughout, nothing special. I'm going to put some stuff together tomorrow for those that bought these kits, let me know how you'd like me to get it to you.

bill2654 said:

Your build brings back fond memories of building rockets with my boys YEARS ago. I hope Tim brings some to Airfest. I want the blue and a red!

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I don't like the thought of these times being memories, guess I won't know for sure till then. Now is a great time, I'm hoping their interest lasts a lifetime! I think the "stable half" is coming along nicely too. She's never been against the hobby, just not much of a builder - until now. After we were done working on these on Sunday, (kids had other engagements to attend), she tore into the FatBoy I gave her for Xmas last year and whipped that out too! Good times.

I'm sure it's been on everyone's minds... Lot's to report on this, guess I'll start with the kids. They're slackin'. It's ok, they have a lot going on this week - I don't. Saturday night we all came to the conclusion that these would be AWESOME night rockets, so the gears started grinding. It was at that time I realized my blue airframe was not going to make the cut, but that's not a bad thing - it will save me some work. I have a couple night-roc's already, so I'll be ok. This idea came up while talking about MWP plans, since my son will be coming this year for the first time. So as we were enjoying the beautiful night outside, I grabbed the hobby knife on the table and a nose cone. The kits come with LOC ABS nose cones, not ideal bat not too bad. I enlarged the hole in the bottom of it and stuck one of the gf's new tea-lite sized multi-color blinky LED things in the hole. I was stunned at how much light still came through!

Rewind about a month - I saw a commercial for dog leashes one morning, dog leashes with LED's in them! Found some on flea-bay and ordered them up. Got three colors, and they have a solid "on" and two blink patterns. These will be great additions to night flight shock cords, and will be incorporated into the night flight configuration. They are a rather heavy woven nylon strap with the lights, wires, and batteries well protected inside. Batteries are replaceable as well - bonus.

Fast forward to today, got the ambition to get it done. The stable half's rocket is done, minus fin fillets - she's trying to pawn that off on me, I'll give in... To the business, I've rambled long enough.

First order was to cut the bottom off of the cone. We now need a place to put lights, nose weight, and shock cord mount. As good luck would have it, 1 1/2" PVC pipe is a perfect fit inside the irregularly shaped cavity, leaving just enough space to sandwich some kevlar strap in for the shock cord mount.


The wires you see are finish nails, through the PVC, ground flush to the OD. This is the forward end of the light compartment, the nails hold it all in.

As even MORE good luck would have it, I found a heavy walled cardboard tube (from plastic wrap I think) that fit perfectly inside the PVC - and is also a perfect fit for the lights! At this point, I'm wondering what's going on - this is going waaay to easy! Within the cardboard tube is one light facing forward, one light facing backward, and a few ounces of washers in between. Had to run to the hardware store to get the washers. On the way home I saw one of the kids' "Baby Bottle Pop" candy lid on the back seat. Earlier I had been trying to come up with a way to protect the rear-facing LED from the ejection charge, that cap just might work. As it turns out, it couldn't be more perfect! I almost ran out for some lottery tickets.

Two #6 wood screws, 180 degrees apart, hold the works into the nose cone.


I stuffed the red leash into the tube, turned on the LED's and headed to the basement. WOW. The video kinda sucks due to the bad lighting, but It get's the point across.
[video=youtube_share;v8kH-Q_Ze_s]https://youtu.be/v8kH-Q_Ze_s[/video]

Chad,

Absolutely fantastic! Based upon our discussions with a certain someone at the last Woosh launch, I believe that adding "nightlights" to the Jart is a very good idea. I have get my Jart one of these days.

Love reading/seeing you build these as a family; that's awesome. For sure, my boys will each have one of these puppies at MWP!

Keep up the good work; I'm really enjoying this thread!

-Eric-

qquake2k said:

Now that is the coolest thing I've seen all day!

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Thanks. I owe much credit to luck on this one, it came together nicely.

ECayemberg said:

Chad,

Absolutely fantastic! Based upon our discussions with a certain someone at the last Woosh launch, I believe that adding "nightlights" to the Jart is a very good idea. I have get my Jart one of these days.

Love reading/seeing you build these as a family; that's awesome. For sure, my boys will each have one of these puppies at MWP!

Keep up the good work; I'm really enjoying this thread!

-Eric-

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Thanks Eric. I think this kit is an awesome "stepping stone" for the intermediate builder. It's perfect for the first timer using epoxy, the parts are all very durable, and the compact size are just a few of the benefits. It comes highly recommended by me, and the price is way right too! This kit has (is) given everyone in my house a very rewarding experience, I can't wait to torture mine...

I forgot to mention - the rocket with the lights installed and running has the red fiberglass air frame, still shines through pretty well.

Now that I have the light detour out of the way, I'll get back to some standard details. I'm very happy with the way the motor retention came out, I'll use this more often if it proves reliable. The bent washer provides a bit more "clamp" area than the nut alone, the bent section rests against the screw threads to keep the washer horizontal. A light friction fit with the case and this should keep everything in place.

Gotta ask...are those 1/8" thick fins?

patelldp said:

Gotta ask...are those 1/8" thick fins?

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Nope they're a scant 3/32". From what I've seen of fiberglass stock in the past, it tends to run big - these mic right at .093".

blackbrandt said:

He doesn't have them on his site. He only has the LDRS special.

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Tim will be updating the web site soon so you can purchase them. He announced in a Wildman email that he was going to stock them from now on. He offered the first 100 kits at the same LDRS special price. He said they sold out in a couple of hours!

She and I just eye-balled our fins into place, double-buttering them with epoxy. I figured I'd make it a bit easier on the kids, so I cut out two guides using the payloadbay.com tool. Glad to see I can still see square. If anyone wants these when we're through, let me know.

Did some external fillets today. I started with mine, should've practiced on the ol' girls first. Tried something a little different then usual (for me, at least). Since there will be very little, if any, painting involved with these, I wanted to keep things rather neat. So I poured epoxy into the fin/tube joint and pulled the fillet with a gloved finger. At the four minute mark, just as they're starting to set, I rubbed them down with a rag dipped in denatured alcohol. This did nothing to smooth the fillet itself, but it cleaned the excess from the tube and fins, and left the transitions to both very neat and smooth. About five minutes of wet sanding with 400 grit smoothed the fillets to my liking. I'll try to get a pic or two of them in the morning, might be tough though.

chadrog said:

Now that I have the light detour out of the way, I'll get back to some standard details. I'm very happy with the way the motor retention came out, I'll use this more often if it proves reliable. The bent washer provides a bit more "clamp" area than the nut alone, the bent section rests against the screw threads to keep the washer horizontal. A light friction fit with the case and this should keep everything in place.

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I like that. I never thought of bending the washer like that. I'll have to try it!

qquake2k said:

I like that. I never thought of bending the washer like that. I'll have to try it!

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Seems like the setup should work - keep in mind it has not been used yet. I don't know if I'd trust this type of retention without the swept back fins to protect it on landing. Though if it did pop off on landing, you'd probably be able to find the motor.:wink:

Alcohol rubbed fillets.

I was very excited today to get a chance to work on my own rocket! Because I want the option to fit the 29-360 case, as well as any other 29mm, adjustable nose weight is a must. First step - Chop the cone, for more reasons than one.


I then heated and bent a length of 10-32 rod to reach to the tip and back. A hole was drilled through the cone near the tip to trap the rod with a length of 1/4" dowel that will be sanded flush later. The empty rocket had almost exactly one caliber stability (thanks again Rex!) with the additional hardware, so I added 3oz. of weight to the very tip of the cone as a starting point, that makes it stable with any hobbyline motor. The ballast consists of .177 cal. pellets and epoxy. Seems it's enough of a twisted intertwined mess of components up in the tip to keep everything in place. The bulkhead must be recessed a minimum 1 1/2" past the edge of the shoulder to clear the 360 case, but can sit anywhere on the threaded rods otherwise. a small eye bolt will be placed off to the side on the bulkhead, as soon as I remember to pick some up. Now that I know where the holes NEED to be in the bulkhead, I'll make one that's not so ugly.

chadrog said:

Seems like the setup should work - keep in mind it has not been used yet. I don't know if I'd trust this type of retention without the swept back fins to protect it on landing. Though if it did pop off on landing, you'd probably be able to find the motor.:wink:

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The only thing I might do differently, is leave the threads a bit longer and use a locknut.

qquake2k said:

The only thing I might do differently, is leave the threads a bit longer and use a locknut.

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You're exactly right, I should have accounted for that.

chadrog said:

You're exactly right, I should have accounted for that.

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You might be able to find an all steel locknut at a hardware store. They're a little shorter than the nylon locknuts.

I'll check into that, Thanks!

Wow have not checked the post in a while. 4-5000ft. My mistake

DANLK66 said:

Wow have not checked the post in a while. 4-5000ft. My mistake

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Close enough.

Remembering that the rear closure of the AT hobbyline case is a bit slimmer than the high-power type, I threw a nylon insert lock-nut on. Waa-laa. Stud is plenty long enough for almost all of our flights.

The wonky holes in my bulkhead ended up not bothering me as much as I thought they would, so I used it. A simple kevlar loop will provide shock cord attachment, and the brass nuts cover the ugly holes nicely.

chadrog said:

Remembering that the rear closure of the AT hobbyline case is a bit slimmer than the high-power type, I threw a nylon insert lock-nut on. Waa-laa. Stud is plenty long enough for almost all of our flights.

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Looks like it should be long enough for the other closures as well.