What did you do rocket wise today?

timro said:

Congratulations! Do you think you will take it?

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Probably.

This hobby likes money, and I like this hobby.

Put primer on my almost-40-year-old Estes Saturn 1b, under reconstruction.

I'm going to prime and sand the three big pieces separately, then partially assemble it (second stage, shroud, CM) and paint the two halves separately, then assemble everything.

I do NOT look forward to painting and masking those darn tanks!

Zeroignite said:

Z-Machine?

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Nope! The first declassified photo of the World Domination Machine (pat pending)* taken with the covers off. The cover is cleverly designed and painted to look like the biggest Valentine's chocolate box offered by Russell Stover. We don't allow that to be photographed because we here at WDM headquarters are responsible, sympathetic future rulers. Plain and simple- it would be inhumane to chocoholics and we don't want that rep. It's hard enuff to get street cred while walking around with a rocket over your shoulder......

*for new comers, it's the Master Plan to convert all non-rocketeers to our Agenda. Once we have a common interest, all other concerns will pale by significance to the latest offerings from Rocket Vendors, suppliers and related interests. Only then will we have Whirled P's. Maybe some M's, O's, and N's, too!)

fyrwrxz said:

Nope! The first declassified photo of the World Domination Machine (pat pending)* taken with the covers off. The cover is cleverly designed and painted to look like the biggest Valentine's chocolate box offered by Russell Stover. We don't allow that to be photographed because we here at WDM headquarters are responsible, sympathetic future rulers. Plain and simple- it would be inhumane to chocoholics and we don't want that rep. It's hard enuff to get street cred while walking around with a rocket over your shoulder......

*for new comers, it's the Master Plan to convert all non-rocketeers to our Agenda. Once we have a common interest, all other concerns will pale by significance to the latest offerings from Rocket Vendors, suppliers and related interests. Only then will we have Whirled P's. Maybe some M's, O's, and N's, too!)

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I KNEW IT!

I have laid out 11 projects: 4 are repairs, 2 are facelifts for ancient models, one upscale, one scratcher, and the other 3 are mid-power scale. I have no time line in mind for which gets done in which order, or by any deadline. I work on them "as the spirit moves".

Today I sanded and primed my 2 facelift projects: a Big Bertha and an Estes Honest John (the 18mm one from the 80s/90s). I got one of the fins replaced on my Cluster-R Sargent. And I worked on my scratcher, the Pulsar Probe. It has 4 tail rings. I masked off the future glue lines and have been priming the interior of the rings. Tonight I expect to finish beveling the fins on my TLP Phoenix.

And I got all this done in between mowing, weed-eating, raking, and burning trash

Oh, and an interesting thing happened. Ordinarily, my home office trash goes in with the regular trash. But since I was burning boxes and yard waste, I figured I'd burn all those papers as well. As the trash burned down to ashes, there was suddenly the familiar hiss of a black powder motor. I had forgotten that I had found a D12 motor that one of my dogs chewed through, and tossed into my office wastebasket. I find it interesting that it was in the fire for a good 15 minutes before it ignited.

The other day, a friend gave me no less that five new-in-bag Estes Hi-Fliers.

I do not need five Hi-Fliers.

Bits from three of them are now on my bench, getting epoxied together into... something.

Build thread to come.

Went to the LUNAR Snow Ranch launch today. Didn't launch a single rocket.

I am quite upset with my investment in CTI hardware and "reloads". After several hours of attempting to fit a couple or "reloads" into several different 38mm CTI cases. So I sought the help of the club's CTI gurus who were stymied as well. The "reloads" were simply too tight to fit into the hardware and the gurus applied force in amounts I would have never considered. In the end I gave up and bought a boatload of of Aerotech 38mm reloads but by then the wind had picked up so that was that.

The good news is that LUNAR will be having another launch next Saturday. Aerotech will be my friend.

Have the payload version of the Vagabond assembled.

Made this Tool to use for making the Holes for Miniature Screws. It will work much better than a Thumb Tack.

I did a repair on an Estes "Meteor Masher" that had never flown. The central "spine" of this unusual model was a "squish-tube" BT-20 that was totally not up to the job. I inserted a length of BT-20 coupler stock (thank you BMS!) and then wrapped a split piece of tubing over the ripped / buckled portion, using plenty of yellow glue.

Also cut out a centering ring from balsa, for an upscale Centuri Astro. That's a down-the-road project; just getting the parts ready.

Started repairs on a MPC "Moon Go," an ancient, ancient kit I built maybe 35 - 40 years ago! Its motor mount was in sore shape.

Finishing repairs on a Centuri SST Shuttle 1 from the same period. Some of the outboard rudder / fins had snapped off. It is still missing a jet pod.

Wrote (and passed) my HPR certification exam. Now all that's left to get the cert is finish building and fly the rocket!


Sent from my iPod touch using Rocketry Forum

finally decent weather got some painting done and more painting

I epoxied the 8 fins onto my Z-Machine. Then I started planning for Red Glare. My hoped for N10,000 flight in the Vulcan will have to wait, but I have a few other interesting flights to consider. ... unless I want to do the N10,000 as a maiden flight ...

I JB Weld'ed the t-nuts to the rear centering ring of my 5.5" Goblin for the Kaplow clip motor retention system.

Spent some time today wrestling with a CTI 38mm 3G case and reload as a follow up from yesterday's fiasco at the LUNAR Snow Ranch launch. After an hour of messing with it, I discovered a pair of small dimples in the case wall that were preventing the reload from fully seating in the case. Rats! Now I need a new case.

About 1/3 of the way through re-reading High Power Rocketry 2.

Received all my motors for this spring's and summer launches. Now it just needs to RAIN!

paint and more paint

last day of sale at Ace Hardware $1.99 ea picked up a different yellow

I'm slowly working through my pile of photos from the SEVRA launch last Saturday. Here is a shot of my daughter's flight of a Formula 75 on a CTI H160 SkidMark. This is a nice 5-grain 29mm motor.

Worked on getting the Goblin 5.5 motor mount and body tube ready for epoxy. If all goes right, tomorrow will be the day.

Also played around with my Steppin' Razor II tube fin rocket which I'm converting to dual deploy with a sort of but not really a nose cone av-bay. Cut out a pair of bulkheads by hand (coping saw and sanding block). Cut a 5-1/2" long length of 3" LOC tubing to join the open-ended nosecone and av-bay. This will be for a Cable Cutter set up so all the pyro will be run from the aft end of the bay.

Priming and sanding my 1976 vintage MPC Moon Go, and an FSI Nova built by someone else around 1968 and bought at auction a few years ago.

Finally got some Primer on my LOC Viper III.

It's 62 Degrees out!!!

I spent the afternoon going through the 400+ pics from Saturday's SEVRA launch and just uploaded 64 of them to flickr.

JMZawodny said:

I spent the afternoon going through the 400+ pics from Saturday's SEVRA launch and just uploaded 64 of them to flickr.

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Nice job!

submitted an apogee news article.

Put the decals on this bird

Went to Home Depot and stocked up on Rusto 2X. Did some Bondo patching on my ancient Big Bertha and Honest John. Then I started re-attaching the fins on my micro V-2 since at a prior launch, somebody stepped on it before it had a chance to make its first flight.

o1d_dude said:

Worked on getting the Goblin 5.5 motor mount and body tube ready for epoxy. If all goes right, tomorrow will be the day.

Also played around with my Steppin' Razor II tube fin rocket which I'm converting to dual deploy with a sort of but not really a nose cone av-bay. Cut out a pair of bulkheads by hand (coping saw and sanding block). Cut a 5-1/2" long length of 3" LOC tubing to join the open-ended nosecone and av-bay. This will be for a Cable Cutter set up so all the pyro will be run from the aft end of the bay.

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What motor are you running? LOVE the Goblins!


Later!

--Coop

Busy rocket day for me!

I worked on my Mondo Kraken build: got the canards mounted, the NC foamed up, the av-bay bulkplates FG'd, and tried my hand at fiberglassing the inside of the av-bay with the front bulkhead already applied. It did not turn out well--suspect the "stiffy" tube in the LOC av-bay kit was soaking up the epoxy before the FG could get wetted out. Wound up using 3x the glass weight in epoxy. Also uploaded a few pics to the build thread in the HPR section outlining the nosecone progress.


Later!

--Coop

Trying to set up launch event for qualifications in the Reach For The Stars competition. Anyone have experience with this event?

Coop said:

What motor are you running? LOVE the Goblins!


Later!

--Coop

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I was thinking about running a J250 in it for my L2 flight. Even with simple motor deploy it will stay under 2000 feet.

Today I measured some 3" LOC tubing to complete the repairs on my zippered tube fin Steppin' Razor II but I cannot find my stash of 3" couplers. Looks like I need to put an order in at LOC.

And I need some plastic removable rivets to attach the nosecone to psuedo av-bay.