What did you do rocket wise today?

More Broken Arrow 54 work: Built an Eggtimer Quantum. Epoxied some bulkheads, a switch band, and a rail button weld nut. Finished the fillets.

jlabrasca said:

Still, I am pleased with the way these came out and will not burn another piece of plywood hoping for better.

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Those look like furniture. I would be surprised if all that doesn't show through the paint. Should be nifty, I hope you post more pictures as you go on with that one.

Sanded down the seam-filling CWF on 27" of BT55 for a new build. Since I've started applying the CWF with my index finger, this process is so much easier since there is much less excess CWF left to sand off.

Still, remind me never to build a Mean Machine.

Finally getting some paint on my Quicksilver. Final colors will be Createx Wicked Silver and Wicked Blue. This is first coat of Wicked Silver over the Silver Sealer. I'm spraying one side of two fins at a time then hitting it with a heat gun to keep it from sagging. It's cold here and I need to get a few coats on this week to be ready for our March launch.



I really love the way this stuff sprays. I'm using an Iwata Eclipse CS airbrush which normally has a 0.35mm tip, but I converted it to the 0.50mm tip from the Eclipse BCS. Sealer coat was sprayed with a Harbor Freight HVLP touch up gun. I've noticed after a few uses that the needle is already starting to corrode so I'll be looking for a new gun with higher quality stainless parts fairly soon.

neil_w said:

Those look like furniture. I would be surprised if all that doesn't show through the paint. Should be nifty, I hope you post more pictures as you go on with that one.

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Thanks. After I posted I started sanding -- after getting the burrs off the edges I remeasured the fins; it looks like the faces of the sheet were pretty much parallel. One corner of the sacrificial spoiler board lifted some time after I mounted it. The aesthetics aren't a big deal but -- now that it looks like I can get it -- I want tighter tolerance on the fin tabs. So I will try again.

The current design needs about 100 grams of nose-weight to be stable on a J270. I can get it down to nothing by increasing the fin area by about 25%. -- which means increasing the linear dimensions of the fins by about 12% -- I think I can probably still get that out of a single 12 x 24 inch sheet of plywood.



Or, I could make it a 5-fin design. That would look very cool, but I am mot sure I want increase the chances of a broken fin by 25% <grin>

AeroAggie said:

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Dude, that is yummy! Can&#8217;t wait to see it done.

Made time for rockets for the first time in weeks and weeks... Too long.
Finally finished building my modified Mac Performance Arcas (54 airframe, 38 hole). I won it at MWP back in November. Now I just need painting weather to finish it. It's going to be NICE... Basically all I did to modify was ditch the payload section and build it HED since the booster is long enough to fit the longest 38mm motor anyway. Maximum altitude with a simple setup that can fly single deploy or HED if I want to. I'm going to love flying the heck out of this thing. And damn, I really miss working on rockets. Friggin work gets in the way too often.

Did a few MPR's today.

This is an Estes Mammoth that I cut down to give it better proportions.

Easy launch on a BP E16 with a JLCR set to 200ft.

No altimeter but prolly hit 800 feet-ish

https://youtu.be/6bw-jQ1SfyY

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Homework! Peterson AFB just happens to have a BOMARC, Nike, and Minuteman on static display and I was handed an assortment of body tubing so I stopped by to get a few pics... I see a BOMARC this Spring after I finish the Big Daddy and 50s sci-fi rocket

Knuckledragger said:

Homework! Peterson AFB just happens to have a BOMARC, Nike, and Minuteman on static display and I was handed an assortment of body tubing so I stopped by to get a few pics... I see a BOMARC this Spring after I finish the Big Daddy and 50s sci-fi rocket

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any other pictures?

Today and yesterday I busted out a few projects. Tamiya putty on the nose comes for the KSR -420 and the 2.6 Loc Patriot. Sanded the nose and wood parts for the Patriot. Dry fitted the Patriot. Basically Finished the Estes Red Nova except for primer/paint. Epoxied the motor mount and nose coupler for one of the kits from my secret Santa this year the 1.6 FB Mad cow Black Brant my first build of an all Fiberglass rocket. Tried fixing the PS Nike Smoke I&#8217;m having trouble with that and it&#8217;s all my fault. Glued fins and basically finished the 1.6 Estes Nike Smoke. It was nice having the entire weekend to work on rockets.

Nike Hercules. Strap that to your roof and see if your tires will last :jaw:

Launch rail sliders were external instead of internal like our buttons and fly-aways.

solid_fuel said:

any other pictures?

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a few more of the BOMARC. The Minuteman I'll grab this week. There was an exercise of some sort in the area this afternoon.

I have all the external epoxying done on my Broken Arrow, so here she is all stacked up. Paint & internal work still to go.

Took a rocket home from work to do some mods to, so I put in something a little bigger in its place for now...


BTW, if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing

Added the rockets I got at NARCON to my build pile. Build pile is embarrassingly overflowing its box. Moved pile to new larger box. Doesn't look like I have so many rockets in the queue now.

Ordered harnesses and chutes for my Drago. The epoxy should be delivered today, so I should be able to finally start work on the Drago after I get home from this trip. Also went on Ebay and ordered enough ematches to get me through the summer.

Decided to apply some wood filler to some fins because I'm trying to convince myself that sanding and sanding and sanding is relaxing.

I think I've finally (mostly) kicked this cold I've been nursing. It's amazing how much snot one human can produce. Also, I should really own Kleenex stock.

More Broken Arrow work: designed/made/mounted a new-fangled nosecone harness thing, checked the pre-paint weight & balance, fit checked all the avionics & chutes.

Also: got a new GPS module in for a little side project of mine.

GrouchoDuke said:

I think I've finally (mostly) kicked this cold I've been nursing. It's amazing how much snot one human can produce. Also, I should really own Kleenex stock.

More Broken Arrow work: designed/made/mounted a new-fangled nosecone harness thing, checked the pre-paint weight & balance, fit checked all the avionics & chutes.

Also: got a new GPS module in for a little side project of mine.

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I feel your pain.....

It&#8217;s one after another this season. I had the flu a couple weeks ago, got better, then caught a cold. It&#8217;s greaaaat.

Large box from Balsa machining showed up at the door. Had two of my AT motor orders from December in it... perfect timing for this weekend's launch.

(I spoke too soon on the cold. It got worse last night. Grrrr.)

I hit print on my 3d printer 3 times today: drill guides for various holes around my Broken Arrow 54. I also soldered on a TXLog & OpenLog onto an Eggfinder.

Early to bed...

Getting my next supersonic aspire up and running.

I have a question on where to put the conformal rail guide if anyone wants to weigh in:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?142536-A-supersonic-Apogee-Aspire&p=1768301#post1768301


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Started printing another batch of 36 nylon rail buttons...

Started sanding my Broken Arrow 54. Sand...sand...sand...keep going until you can't feel any bumps & don't see any shiny stuff. I just dabbed some epoxy in a couple places so I can make the fillets perfecto. More sanding to go. Then primer. Then more sanding.



Working on the bottom half got me wondering. Has anyone flow just the bottom half of a Broken Arrow plus the nosecone? It works out to a 41" long, 54mm diameter rocket with a 38mm motor mount. I think it looks great and it sims well. I could shove some electronics in the nosecone & use a JLCR. Could be fun...

Picked up a tail cone retainer for a punisher 3 build I'm going to start and 8 sets of rail guides to finish up a few projects.

Nate

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Order some motors..
Q-Jet A3-4, & Q-Jet B4-4.

It'll be fun to try those suckers out!!



Thanks,