What did you do rocket wise today?

had a full build bench, with conformal rail guides setting with West System thickened epoxy, 2 nose cones (one with both West and Bob 5 minute) and 4 new fins on my son's little missile called "Foo Foo":

Inspired by Cl(VII)'s L3 build thread, I made a circle cutting jig.

20151113_070109 by chuck fauser, on Flickr

I just finished soldering together an Eggtimer Quark. The only soldering I've done before this is plumbing. I put it together at a lab at my work that has a good soldering setup and got a bit of help from the guy who runs the lab, but I did all the work myself.

Hooked it up to a 9v for testing and it worked on the first try. Holy cow. I almost fell off my stool.

The quark will be going into a Mini Frenzy DD that is on order.

Even better news is that after putting this quark together I'm going to take advantage of the Eggtimer BF sale and order a GPS starter kit to add to the Mini Frenzy!

chuck5395 said:

Inspired by Cl(VII)'s L3 build thread, I made a circle cutting jig.

20151113_070109 by chuck fauser, on Flickr

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Nice! You will get much use out of it.

Bought a couple of 'mini's at Madcow today. Still working on my Eggtimer TRS and cursing at my 3d printer.

CrazyOB said:

Bought a couple of 'mini's at Madcow today. Still working on my Eggtimer TRS and cursing at my 3d printer.

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I'm currently cursing my Eggfinder TRS, no fault of anybodies, just the pretest didn't go like its supposed to, Cris is being very helpful in getting me through the issue, awesome customer support. Other than that I organized the build pile onto a peg board so that the piles of kits are not in my work area.

Latest addition to workshop, a 60" wide shelving unit, 6 feet tall, 18" deep. Got it to hold a LOT of boxes of various models, had run out of shelf space to store more. Have not even started to use it for real, the ones shown are test fits. Need to sort and organize models and boxes and do some labeling.

- George Gassaway

georgegassaway said:

Latest addition to workshop, a 60" wide shelving unit, 6 feet tall, 18" deep. Got it to hold a LOT of boxes of various models, had run out of shelf space to store more. Have not even started to use it for real, the ones shown are test fits. Need to sort and organize models and boxes and do some labeling.

- George Gassaway

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That appears to work better than my method of stuffing the totes under the futon in the guest room - which only works to a limited extent, due to clearance issues. I do have a similar shelf/tote arrangement in my actual workshop, organizing my bicycle parts. However, I do little rocket building in the workshop. So, the rocket supplies are not down there...

georgegassaway said:

Latest addition to workshop, a 60" wide shelving unit, 6 feet tall, 18" deep. Got it to hold a LOT of boxes of various models, had run out of shelf space to store more. Have not even started to use it for real, the ones shown are test fits. Need to sort and organize models and boxes and do some labeling.

- George Gassaway

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I like the idea George, just checked with the wife and we have a couple of bins similar to the purple handled ones which would be perfect for my LPR models.

rharshberger said:

I like the idea George, just checked with the wife and we have a couple of bins similar to the purple handled ones which would be perfect for my LPR models.

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I use the same shelving... we have 3 of them and they are awesome. Rockets on the top shelf

To borrow a quote from Haddon in the movie "Contact":

Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

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Yeah, I liked how the first turned out, so got another 60" wide unit today while a rebate was still available. Left a 24" gap, not sure yet if it will be used for storing some things vertically, or to span the gap with custom made 24" wide shelves that attach to the shelving unit posts (will see how things go).

Will definitely span the gap at the top with a "bridge" to hold some R/C models. That'll make for 12 feet of Plane/Rocket Glider storage width along the top, probably double-decker PVC rack. There's already storage for R/C models but I sacrificed some of the older R/C model storage space along this wall to make room for the shelving units.

BTW - There's other shelving units being used for other stuff, indeed a wall of other units facing these (behind and to my right when I took these pics). Just that these are the latest.....

- George Gassaway

Final measuring and balancing of my Shredder... Can't wait to get this one up!

Two more pics...

CzTeacherMan said:

Two more pics...

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So that's another of those see-through airframes from Wildman??

georgegassaway said:

To borrow a quote from Haddon in the movie "Contact":

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Love that quote. Shelves look good, makes me a little jealous of the space you have in your workshop.

But into what I did today, prepped my punisher for a flight tomorrow on a K740. Should be a nice high flight where I won't see it for a while.

Once I was done with that, got working on my first T2T job, putting carbon onto my 4" Frenzy XL:

dixontj93060 said:

So that's another of those see-through airframes from Wildman??

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Ya. Automotive enamel. Black accent paint on bottom

Attended the SARG rocket club meeting this morning which was followed by an impromptu session in the planetarium parking lot of setting up the launch gear for function testing.

Came home and messed with my altimeter bays as it looks like the first launch of the 2015/2016 Fall/Winter Rocket Season is about to begin in less than 30 days.

Upgraded the workbench; Fire Extinguisher (It's been an extra floating around the garage, so I figured what the hell), peg board, cork tile for posting instructions and top shelf.

o1d_dude said:

Attended the SARG rocket club meeting this morning which was followed by an impromptu session in the planetarium parking lot of setting up the launch gear for function testing.

Came home and messed with my altimeter bays as it looks like the first launch of the 2015/2016 Fall/Winter Rocket Season is about to begin in less than 30 days.

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Good to put names with faces. I was the one in the back with the kids that wouldn't let me go to the meeting without bringing their rockets.

Purkeypilot said:

Upgraded the workbench; Fire Extinguisher (It's been an extra floating around the garage, so I figured what the hell), peg board, cork tile for posting instructions and top shelf.

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Good idea. There are two extinguishers in the workshop. One right next to the main entry/exit door, so available if the other one is unavailable due to a fire, or coming inside thru the door to find a fire in progress (smoke alarm). The other (most likely to be used if need be) next to where LiPo batteries are charged, in-between and close to the main area I do soldering (most likely areas for an accidental fire to begin).

For the LiPo charging area, some 18 x 18 ceramic tiles on top of the bench (Lowe's had a clearance of a couple of opened boxes for $1 each tile), and making sure there's nothing above the area that could catch fire (some wire shelving that originally had cardboard and plastic boxes above the LiPos, till during the safety upgrade of adding the tiles. I realized the silliness of having a fireproof base, yet "kindling" directly above a potential flame source). There are, sometimes, as many as four 11.1V 2200 mAh LiPos being charged at a time. Fortunately, never had a LiPo fire, but have seen video of some after R/C electric plane crashes, and a couple of safety videos that purposely made them catch fire. And photos of a guy's garage/workshop after a LiPo fire started his garage on fire. He saved the garage, but lost at least $2000 of R/C model stuff (all toast) and IIRC car damage as well as garage damage.

For some reason I'm on a fiberglass rocket kick lately... I just finished tacking in fins for my WM Punisher and RW Rapton 38. This makes the fifth in progress build which includes MC 2.6" DD Screech, MC 4" V2, and RW G3. I really have to stop starting builds and get them all finished!

I assembled my second Quark. Even easier the second time around. I did manage to lose one of the .1uf capacitors, but Eggtimer is good enough to include spares, so no problem there.

I went from this (processor mounted) :


to this in 50 minutes :


Wires are temp mounted for testing with a 9v battery. I plan to power this with a LiPo. I'm looking forward to trying out DD with my Mini Frenzy.

swatkat said:

Good to put names with faces. I was the one in the back with the kids that wouldn't let me go to the meeting without bringing their rockets.

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Your kids are the future of sport rocketry and it was a pleasure to see how attached your daughter is to her SNXL.

Next launch I will bring my SuperDuper Neon 29 and put it up on a G53 or an H97.

Read an email that Madcow has shipped my mini patriot!!!!

Finished the full T2T on my Madcow Frenzy XL:

Assembled the MMT on my Estes Big Daddy, stayed with the stock 24mm but outfitting it with a Estes Motor Retainer so I can put any 24mm reloadable case I want in it, Nose cone will be modded for a Eggfinder TRS. Fins are papered with 110lb cardstock, should survive just fine. Poplar blocking on MMT is for Micro Railbuttons, I still try and block all my MPR railbuttons.

o1d_dude said:

Your kids are the future of sport rocketry and it was a pleasure to see how attached your daughter is to her SNXL.

Next launch I will bring my SuperDuper Neon 29 and put it up on a G53 or an H97.

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She'll love it, so long as it is pink or has glitter. We'll try and make the 29th launch.

Does watching a video from John Coker count?

BTW his site and videos are a great resource! It's pretty much got me convinced to go the automotive paint route

swatkat said:

She'll love it, so long as it is pink or has glitter. We'll try and make the 29th launch.

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Lots of metalflake and glitter!

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o1d_dude said:

Lots of metalflake and glitter!

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Very nice Kit, love the colors kind of a grape theme going on there! What are the colors/brands used?