What did you do rocket wise today?

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Yesterday, it seemed like I did a lot of priming/sanding/priming. As I was somewhat stalled on the ATD-70 and Prometheus, I sanded the nose section of the Astron Cobra, then set that aside. On each of these, I'm fighting the temptation to attach the fins by eye, when I know I've got the Apogee fin jig coming in a few days. I can do a pretty good job by eye, but if I can actually use a jig, why add error? Anyway, I resanded the second Estes V-2 and primed it, sanded it again, etc. I'm trying to get the tapered fillets for the fins to my satisfaction and the build up is slow. I also pulled out the PS2 Nike Smoke and resanded and primed that one again. The high part of all of it was that I laid down a nice gloss white on Binary Star, which came out pretty well. Once that's dried well, I'll mask it to spray gold on the front 1/4 or so of its length...
 
Only one update all day...because of the holiday? Or are we growing tired of this thread after 10,683 posts?

Well, I drilled out a vent hole in the October Skies XP payload section, sanded the glassine of the tube, taped the ends to prevent overspray from fouling the interior, and laid down the first coat of Rusto Primer/Filler.

Sanded the 3m Glazing/Spot putty on the Polecat Aero 5.5 Goblin and laid down two coats of primer. Hoping these will be the last and I can shoot some white primer over the gray as a final step before the fluorescent pink.

Pulled out five long Initiators and drilled out the ends of some 2.0ml centrifuge tubes to make up some lower deployment charges for the DD tubefin rocket's booster section. Everything is ready to go for tomorrow when I will epoxy the Initiators into the tubes and hopefully do some ground testing.

Inventoried my motor box to see what's on tap for the DD flight. Looks like the I255 Red Lightning should do the trick.
 
GDJ said:
Designing and building a 29mm avionics bay around a Perfectflight StrattologgerCF........not the easiest size to deal with. Rocket will be a very small dual deploy.View attachment 255217
Click to expand...

A liPo might make things easier. The ones Missileworks recommends are pretty small and cheap.

Nate
 
nute said:
A liPo might make things easier. The ones Missileworks recommends are pretty small and cheap.

Nate
Click to expand...

Thought about it, but the lithium 9v was a good compromise between higher voltage and reasonable current output from the battery (energizer rates the advanced lithium 9v at 1 amp max continuous).
 
Started shopping around for a kit that can eat Loki H motors for breakfast, leaning towards a Madcow 4" Kit of some type...
 
Yesterday, I installed the MMT into my Estes Ventris and sanded down body tubes, nose cone and transition. I updated the weights from the Rocksim file I downloaded from Rocket Reviews.

Today, I cut off the nose cone and transition just below the angles. I'm going to use the space in the payload bay for something. I'm going to attach it with push-lock pins.

Looked at my shipping notice from Wildman and saw that my "Black Friday and post Black Friday" stuff arrived in Point Roberts, WA today. Since I am off this week so I can go to Seattle for NARCON, I was able to go pick up my loot. :)

Loot includes 2 different 54mm Aeropack retainers, a Shapeshifter Mini and a 54mm Patriot. No progress on any of that until after NARCON.
Heading towards Seattle tomorrow. I'm looking forward to NARCON!!
 
I got to visit mine in the shed. I had to cleanout the rocket room in the house and that really slows things down for me. Good thing is Mark and I are making plans for a new bird at Springfest!
 
Finished my Guillotine Fin Jig I made from plans available from Ted Macklin. I also, posted a review of the plans here.

fj_withfin_side.jpg fj_withfin_straight.jpg
 
I received my fin jig from Apogee today and just finished building it. I also received a packet of 1010 and mini buttons today, so I started installing those. They're both a bit smaller than I'd pictured. First up, a pair of mini buttons on Binary Star, then I drilled Prometheus for a set of buttons. I was also debating whether I should upgrade the rail guides on my Astron Cobra clone, since a cluster of three 18mm engines could be a bit much for a 1/8" rod. I'd been thinking of simply using 3/16" lugs, but mini buttons seem to make a lot of sense to me (even if not original). And I hacked the 1/4" lugs from Der Mean Max. I made up a pair of small pads of 1/8" plywood and epoxied them on in place of the lugs, in part to cover the paint damage from the hacking and in part to give me something solid to thread the buttons into. I needed a slight stand off anyway, to get the rod far enough away to clear the Estes plastic motor retainer. Pics to come.
 
Launched 9 birds on Monday, repaired a broken fin and small parachute tear today. Bought a quad copter/drone with a Go-Pro to do some launch pad filming from the air. (Someone brought one to Monday's launch and it was really cool).
 
Finished (or at least nearly finished) my presentation for NARCON this coming weekend.

Kit - if you haven't smashed the Jolly Logic units, drop John a line and tell him what you have. Chances are he'll get you back up and running.
 
Today, I primed finish primed the Goblin 5.5 nose cone but I may have to do it again tomorrow as white primer makes you "snowblind" and there look to be a few holidays. Sanded and primed the October Skies XP payload section. Drilled out a few more centrifuge vials for Initiatiors...I may as well make more than just five while I'm at it, amirite? And finally stowed all the launch gear in the cabinet under the rocketry workbench.

BEC said:
Finished (or at least nearly finished) my presentation for NARCON this coming weekend.

Kit - if you haven't smashed the Jolly Logic units, drop John a line and tell him what you have. Chances are he'll get you back up and running.
Click to expand...
John quite often flies with LUNAR at Snow Ranch so it's not like I won't see him at some point in the future. I'm converting my fleet to dual deploy so the Jolly Logic units are simply relics from my past. Along those lines I still have a Hayes 1200 baud modem from when I ran an Atari BBS back in the dark ages of the early 1980's. It's a sickness I tell you!
 
Designed a really cool Rocket. It will be a "Fantasy" style, but like a fantasy scale, and the Idea will be that it is a futuristic D-Region Tomahawk based Sounding Rocket.
It is three BT-20 Tubes mounted 120 degrees from each other around a central BT-60, which will have a 29mm MMT.
It can be flown as a single 29, a single 24 with adapter, a cluster of 3 24s, or, within the Regulations to keep propellant weight below 125g, as a full cluster of whatever weighs less than that but fills all the holes, even if it's a 4 C11 Cluster.:)
It will have a payload bay, so that when I get an Altimeter or learn electronics I will have the most versatile platform to mount them in.
Perhaps some day I'll learn the Art of "Airstarts".
Anyhow, it will be called the D-Region Superhawker Clustercane, and I have almost all the stuff I need to begin building it today!!!
I just need 2 more BT-20 Nosecones for the outer Pods. They will be permanent, as I will route the gasses to the central fuselage.
This will also mean that to fly it in different configurations I'll have to plug some of the MMTs to contain the Ejection gasses.
I'll be using D-Region style Fins, but only three.

Concept Mock-up:

D-Region Superhawker Clustercane 004.jpg
 
Last edited:
TopRamen said:
Designed a really cool Rocket. It will be a "Fantasy" style, but like a fantasy scale, and the Idea will be that it is a futuristic D-Region Tomahawk based Sounding Rocket.
It is three BT-20 Tubes mounted 120 degrees from each other around a central BT-60, which will have a 29mm MMT.
It can be flown as a single 29, a single 24 with adapter, a cluster of 3 24s, or, within the Regulations to keep propellant weight below 125g, as a full cluster of whatever weighs less than that but fills all the holes, even if it's a 4 C11 Cluster.:)
It will have a payload bay, so that when I get an Altimeter or learn electronics I will have the most versatile platform to mount them in.
Perhaps some day I'll learn the Art of "Airstarts".
Anyhow, it will be called the D-Region Superhawker Clustercane, and I have almost all the stuff I need to begin building it today!!!
I just need 2 more BT-20 Nosecones for the outer Pods. They will be permanent, as I will route the gasses to the central fuselage.
This will also mean that to fly it in different configurations I'll have to plug some of the MMTs to contain the Ejection gasses.
I'll be using D-Region style Fins, but only three.

Concept Mock-up:

View attachment 255244
Click to expand...

Neat! 😊
 
TopRamen said:
Designed a really cool Rocket. It will be a "Fantasy" style, but like a fantasy scale, and the Idea will be that it is a futuristic D-Region Tomahawk based Sounding Rocket.
It is three BT-20 Tubes mounted 120 degrees from each other around a central BT-60, which will have a 29mm MMT.
It can be flown as a single 29, a single 24 with adapter, a cluster of 3 24s, or, within the Regulations to keep propellant weight below 125g, as a full cluster of whatever weighs less than that but fills all the holes, even if it's a 4 C11 Cluster.:)
It will have a payload bay, so that when I get an Altimeter or learn electronics I will have the most versatile platform to mount them in.
Perhaps some day I'll learn the Art of "Airstarts".
Anyhow, it will be called the D-Region Superhawker Clustercane, and I have almost all the stuff I need to begin building it today!!!
I just need 2 more BT-20 Nosecones for the outer Pods. They will be permanent, as I will route the gasses to the central fuselage.
This will also mean that to fly it in different configurations I'll have to plug some of the MMTs to contain the Ejection gasses.
I'll be using D-Region style Fins, but only three.

Concept Mock-up:

View attachment 255244
Click to expand...

That's really cool. The design just looks right! It would be even cooler though if the side pods came off in flight like strap on boosters...
 
Thanks.
I got to making the parts, and during my research of the D-Region, I decided to just make one of those in 24mm first, and simply wait on cluster version for today.
I already had the MMT Assembly ready to go, and got to feelin' nostalgic about the one I used to have, which much to my enjoyment came up in the first page of Image Search Results. The Pic' is one I posted of my Estes #1944 D-Region I had back in like 88'. Sadly, lost to a low Fog.

D-Region Thawk 001.jpg


D-Region T-Build 002.jpgD-Region T-Build 003.jpgD-Region Mock-up 002.jpgD-Region Glass 004.jpg
 
Last edited:
Purhcased a Mini Honest John and a Mini Fat Boy at Hobby Lobby in WA.
Oh, and I grabbed a PSII Booster for $4.99. Seems like fun. I hope I can find E-15-0's when I get home.
 
Got my Bench cleaned up and put new Paper on it, then glassed up the Tubes and Fins for my Scratch Built BT-60 D-Region Tomahawk.:D

D-Region Glass 006.jpg
 
Sanded and primed the October Skies XP...again.

Laid down a second coat of white primer on the October Skies XP nose cone and on the Goblin 5.5 nose cone. White paint makes you "snowblind" so the second coats were necessary to give an even flat white base for the fluoro pink that will follow.
 

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