What did you do rocket wise today?

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Assembled the motor mount for my Estes Red Nova. 24mm with wooden centering rings.
Glued the top section on the KSR-420S
finished the fins on the Estes Prowler
Epoxied the chute Mount/baffle in the PS2 Nike Smoke.
Glued in the motor mount for the BT60 Nike Smoke.
 
Built another shelf in my shop. Needed to get some of my larger rockets off the floor.
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Ran out two more sets of fillets on Tweety Bird, despite the inclement weather. Working with Rocketpoxy when it's cold is a pain! I had to dig out a space heater!
Pulled out a PS II Nike Smoke from the build pile and started brainstorming how to make it into a night rocket. Ordered a couple of LiPo batteries from Hobby King that might fit, and some battery connectors that might work with the controller for the LED strip lights.
 
Worked on the BT70 gang and the MDRM some more today.

From Left to Right: MDRM, MIM-23 Army Hawk, Moomba downscale, Cowabunga downscale, Little John and in the fore-ish ground is the AIM-54 Phoenix downscale (of Estes) and the nose cones for the other rockets. The red tipped NC is for the Cowabunga, since the BNC-70AJ from BMS has a rounded tip I added a "witches hat" channelling my inner Launch Pad Rockets technique. The white nose cone closest to the camera is for the Hawk, the white one behind it is for the Little John (just waiting the recommended 48 hours before painting it red), the grey nose cone to the left of the others is the Moomba's. The MDRM's nosecone has its first color coat and has been wet sanded, after the recoat waiting period I will give it its final coat. The MDRM body had lots of primering, glazing putty filling, and sanding today, its now ready for color coat as soon as the recoat time is up.

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Finished an Estes SR-X boost glider.
The thing behind it is a 2X upscale pink foam FG plug...awaiting primer & finishing (don't ask. LOL)

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BT70 version of AIM-54A Phoenix nearly finished, only rail buttons to add. Thanks to Ez2cDave for the decal files, the sharing is what make TRF great. The nose cone is actually shorter than the Estes BT80 version giving it a more scale look, the downscale however was based on the Estes Phoenix. This one has a 29mm MMT and nearly 2oz of nose weight simmed with motors from a D12-3 at 331' to a G138T at 2508'. The D12 and E9 will require very light wind days to fly.

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Nice Phoenix.
2oz of noseweight? Ooph, I can only imagine what my 4" will need for I's.

Just saw a dude's Phoenix do cartwheels, so I want to get it right.
 
Nice Phoenix.
2oz of noseweight? Ooph, I can only imagine what my 4" will need for I's.

Just saw a dude's Phoenix do cartwheels, so I want to get it right.

Total weight of rocket minus recovery is 9.38oz (with D12), actual recovery gear will add less than 2oz more and will add a bit to the margin of stability. First flight will be on a harder hitting motor until stability is verified, something like a E18, E28, F39 or F35. I tend to keep my nose weight to the lighter side and my Margin of Stability to at least .5 calibres, unless the rocket will be going transonic at which point I aim for at least 1 calibre. The sims are based on a 72" rail and wind speeds of up to 10mph
 
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Finished some painting on "Easter Eggspress"

Still needs some final glitter.0219181535.jpg0220181630.jpg0220182038.jpg

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk
 
Nice Phoenix.
2oz of noseweight? Ooph, I can only imagine what my 4" will need for I's.

Just saw a dude's Phoenix do cartwheels, so I want to get it right.

My 4" Sea Wolf took a whole bunch in the nose, it weighs something like 24oz. Still an awesome flyer on I284Ws and I327DMs. So don't sweat the weight, whatever it takes is just fine.
 
All my rocket builds are on hold for a spell so....... I worked on paint scheme for my DarkStar Jr. Started a build thread but it will be slow going.
 
I started my L2 build today!

I asked Loc Precision for a customized Athen-4 or Mystic Buzz and received this kit a couple weeks ago:
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The current plan is to have the rocket ready for Red Glare in April.

The rocket has a 54mm motor mount, 77" tall, should weigh about 100oz w/o motor. With the classic split fin design the rocket will whistle. So I expect to be using a lot of 5 or 6 grain 38mm motors which have a short burn, so that you can hear the whistle.
 
finished reading 'Ignition!' by John D Clark. highly recommend it for all rocketeers.
Rex

Recently reissued, pre-order already in!

Rex, saw your post and Googled the book for more info. First link I clicked on opened a 217 page PDF. Publish date is 1972. Anyhoot, there are quite a few other publications listed on the Sciencemadness library website.

Enjoy.

I officially "launched" a new project today: www.labratrocketry.com

Congrats! Kool name btw.
Best wishes on your new venture.
 
Rex, saw your post and Googled the book for more info. First link I clicked on opened a 217 page PDF. Publish date is 1972. Anyhoot, there are quite a few other publications listed on the Sciencemadness library website.

Hey, thanks for that link! This one caught my eye immediately.

Projects for the Amateur Scientist (rocket content starts on page 447). I didn't start reading the Amateur Scientist column in Sci. Am. until decades after this book was published -- but I was a big fan of C.L. Strong in middle school/high school. Years after I read about it in his column, when I was an undergrad, a classmate and I built a UV nitrogen laser with parts scrounged from the scrap pile in the physics department machine shop. (I am trying to remember how we could have imagined that we had spare time for this kind project, weren't we supposed to be studying?)

What I am doing rocket-wise wtoday -- stealing a few minutes before getting to work at my actual job to work on the L2 rocket (pretty sure I am still supposed to be studying)

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Broken Arrow internal fillets.

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I also put on the rear centering ring and motor retainer.

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Three weeks until (planned) first flight.
 
Been pushing hard on an RC airplane project lately, but got my Estes Sidewinder fins all sanded up. Glue for my big Drago should be here tomorrow!
 
Slipped another K850 into my Drago, and setup the avbay. I'm taking it to Holtville Havoc next weekend with a few other big rockets. Here is a pic from it's last trip to Calif. ROCstock last fall.

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Drag race done in stages to the highest altitude. Although I was behind at the start, my 7614 ft. won the race.
Thanks to David Reese for that shot and putting on a great race!
 
That's a sweet photo!

I've been spinning aluminum. Made a pair of 98mm thrust plates, and (4) 75mm thrust plates. In the box. For multiple airframes for a couple of VHA, staged MD projects. AKA... Super-ARLISS.

Up next is an ISC. Replacing the older one with something a bit more aerodynamic. With a Von Karman curve. :smile:
 
Slopped on two thirds of the external fillets on my Broken Arrow 54. I'll lay the last of them tomorrow.

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Just ordered a decal set for my DarkStar Jr. from Stickershock23. Wanted a different font for lettering and Mark did a fantastic job making sure everything was perfect. Great customer service!

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Received a package from AC Supply. Black powder motors.

Worked a little on the L2 rocket
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I used a small diameter ball-end mill and cut the bevels with a large step-over -- trying to get an art deco fluted effect. IRL the tool marks are not nearly as pronounced as they appeared in the Fusion 360 simulation. I don't expect the fluting will read through the paint after I finish the fins -- unless I do something cleverer than I will have time or patience to attempt; like weathering the fins by rubbing color into the depressions and then wiping it off ridges.

I took lots of pictures of this -- thinking about posting something to the "Techniques" forum about cutting a self-centering jig to bevel both sides of fins with a CNC router. Unfortunately, these were the largest fins I've attempted to cut in this way and the faces of the plywood sheet weren't parallel (the fins range in thickness from 5.9 mm to 6.2 mm) so this isn't an especially good example of the technique. I've had better success with smaller fins cut from thicker stock.

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