What did you do rocket wise today?

Received this in the mail today:

I go this in the mail today. I should be easier to find at the launches.

Ravenex said:

Received this in the mail today:

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Wow, nice can wait to receive mine.

Worked some more on the FrenzyXL, now I feel like I'm getting something done.

Nose cone Av-Bay CR epoxied in


Fin can slotted, quick and dirty, thank goodness for external fillets


If you don't have one of these in your rotary tool arsenal they rock. Cuts through FG'd Loc tube like butter, not only does the edge cut but the sides as well. The Dremel 543 cutting/shaping disk.
View attachment 263648

Finally got around to laying down the clear coat on the nose cone of my October Skies XP rocket. Of course it ran but nothing worth sanding and repainting. It's a 10' paint job.

Wet sanded the clear coat of the Polecat Aerospace Goblin 5.5 as two of the fin surfaces were quite rough. Looked like the pair dried before it hit the fin surface. I tried clear coating over it but no joy. At least the extra coat allowed my to wet sand with 1000 grit without disrupting the Rusto metallic black base coat. haven't decided whether to apply a final clear coat or just wax the fins.

Put away all my Dairy Aire rocket gear

Filled the injected internal fin holes drilled into my Madcow Frenzy with Titebond Mounting & Trim glue. External fillets are next.

Today, I spent more money on rocketry stuff I didn't really need. Well, I guess the term "need" is relative. I ordered decals for the upscale NASA Pegasus that I'm building (I needed those, since the build has already started), and a set for a Teros clone (I already bought the cone, so I'll need that eventually...). But discussion of Semroc parts elesewhere led me back to the Semroc parts portion of eRocket's website. While browsing, I noticed that they had the BT50 ram jet cones needed for a Bomarc clone back in stock. I wanted to build one of those, so I'll need those at some point, and since I know they're available now, I was thinking about ordering.

Still, I don't like to ay shipping on one or two small bits, so further browsing led to looking at the Semroc kits that were listed. To my surprise, the Laser-X kit is shown as once again in stock and available. That clinched it - in the cart it went, as well as clone kit for the Estes Sprite. One or two other cones later and I'm near $50, but this was all stuff I seemed to think I needed to buy, just in case they went out of stock again...

Anyway, I'm excited to build the Laser-X. Hopefully the SLS version will come back too, but if not, I'll look at upscaling even bigger...

I just finished building 3 Rod2Rail Adapters for my 2-stage Estes Ascender:



Will be used at NSL 2015.

Today I made wishes that I had a place to build rockets. However, it's been a couple years since I have flown one. I sure miss it.

Doing the injected fillets on my Frenzy, attached the thrust plate/motor retention, prepped the conformal rail guides, and realized that I have a soft spot in the FG I have to grind out an fill.

Well I found a new source of body tubes, the place I am interning at has a plotter and the core size is 3 in (ID) and they just throw away the old ones

Glued fins and made internal filets on my Thin-Wall Fiberglass Mini Tembo XL

Started my build of an Edmonds CiCi Glider - 2 Stage. Should be a fun one for sure.

Last night, I finished assembling this BT60 upscale of an Estes NASA Pegasus:


Its a little over 24" long with a nearly 13" wingspan. I used 1/8" basswood for the wings and 3/32" for the vertical stabilizers. It has a 24mm mount with an Estes screw-on retainer. This just needs attachment of the nose cone and a parachute, and it will be flyable, though I'm sure I'll paint it first.

While I was cutting the 3/32" basswood, I also cutout fins for this:


This is a clone of an Estes Teros, #1285, from circa 1980. Much to my surprise, search results on this site turned up absolutely nothing about this model until I mentioned wanting to build it the other day. I had found the nose cone as a Semroc part on eRockets, bought it with some other stuff, then decided what to do with it. Taros was one of the handful of rockets that originally used it. My deviation of fin material aside, this is built exactly like the Estes original. I used a motor mount that TopRamen had built that was in a box of stuff that I got from him recently, since it was just what I needed. This little guy is only 13" tall, BT50 tube, but should be a pretty high flyer due to its fairly low mass. I started and completed assembling it last night; it can be flown as shown. I plan to paint it this weekend, and I ordered decals from Excelsior yesterday. This may require upscaling later on...

[video]https://youtu.be/x0dhyBLbmmE[/video]

TopRamen said:

Bondo Putty and sanding on this.
I have'nt been very productive as of late, but am looking to get back into it over that next few days.
I guess I was a little burned out on rockets, but I'm feeling inspired again. After this I'll just have two more "Winter Primed Rockets" to finish up and then I can get back to building new rockets, like the 2 DRT Kits that Kyle sent me.

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That is a nice looking missile. What model is it? Is it a creation of yours?

Shot some clear and did first set of external PunisherR fillets.

Kenny

KenRico said:

Shot some clear and did first set of external PunisherR fillets.

Kenny

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Rocket Poxy for the fillets?

morlock said:

That is a nice looking missile. What model is it? Is it a creation of yours?

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Thanks!
It a scratch build 3X24mm cluster that I dreamed up.

Oh, and I got my Bench cleaned up enough to make it serviceable this evening. I came to the realization that I'm officially out of space for rocket stuff in my living room, so tomorrow I'm goiing to try to make some more progress on the bench top in one of my sheds that I've been fixing up over the past couple of weeks.

o1d_dude said:

Rocket Poxy for the fillets?

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Not this time, went old school with some Proline 4500 for the externals . The mmt assembly and fin attchment were done with rocket poxy.

Saucer body will be attached with rocket poxy.

Kenny

I posted a bunch of meaningless nonsense on the forums.

Finished enough of my thrust stand to burn a motor.

This more properly belongs in the Research section and I might start a thread there. The inaugural burn for the photo is a certified motor (F15), so I can post here.

The sensor still needs calibrating, and an omission on my part means only every 20th data point is in the file. On the whole, however, the graph looks like what I expect from an F15, and I'm happy about that.

Leah helped, as she often does.

Ari.

Struggled to calibrate that @#$%^&* adjustable hole saw.

Finalized the taping of my Madcow Frenzy fin can and decided I need a better means of supporting body tubes on my workbench. The R/C plane cradles I've been using are too short and using both takes up too much space on the bench.

Toying with the idea of building some yokes that can be individually positioned as needed to support a body tube. PVC pipe or wood? Have not yet decided.

Pulled the external fillets on my 3" FrenzyXL, drilled the payload bay airframes for button head screws to attach the AV-Bay. All that was actually done yesterday, and later today I will post the photos to the build thread. Just waiting on my shear pins and Schurter rotary switch from MissleWorks (have shipped already) to arrive so I can finish the AV-Bay.

I dug out my box of motors to see what I have and find what will work in the rockets for a possible launch coming up soon. Next I will have to examine the rockets and make sure they are in flyable condition.

I just finished packing the car. I'm on my way to the NSL!

It would have been a beautiful day to fly rockets, but it is incredibly windy so I took my Prism Stowaway Delta Kite to the park and flew that instead to get my "Airtime Fix".
I came home and did a set of fin fillets on a rocket.

Ravenex said:

Received this in the mail today:

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Hey I never got pins when I did my certs!


TA

Put protective sleeves on my 54mm and most of my 38mm cases. Amazingly, 10' wasn't enough of the 1-1/2" mesh sleeve. I'll need more for the last couple of 38mm cases and all of my 29mm.



I got the mesh from McMaster-Carr. The 1"-1.5" elastic mesh will cover 29mm and 38mm.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/121/1589/=xanuym

So far today: Decided to construct my benchtop rocket yokes from wood. Went to Lowe's and picked up a nice clear 1"x8"x4' plank.