What did you do rocket wise today?

Gearing up for flying season.

Worked some on a model I started on when I was just starting but abandoned until recently and made a simple drying stand from matte-board.

Got a lot of accessories headed my way for the Solar Warrior. Stickershock, OneBadHawk, and Apogee gear are all inbound. All that should be left is some recovery attachment hardware from the local hardware store, primer/paint, and possibly a battery holder if I don't have one at home already. I should be ready to hit the ground running on this one when I get home from my trip.

During my seven days off from work I did quite a bit of rocketry related stuff... Did some more sanding on the rails for my Ventris SRB. I can get the boosters on and off, but they're still too tight to fall away freely and I'm getting a little concerned with how much material I'm sanding away from the rails themselves. I finished a replacement Estes Goblin and Baby Bertha. Started a competition 1/2A RG model and a Duration Egg Lofter. Started a NCR Lance Delta and got more paint on the Chrome Trajector. I did a lot, but got very little finished. Now I'm back to work for another seven days.

started work on my estes comanche-3.

Booked a hotel room for ECRM-44 in June! :grin:

Glued fins on the last of the Scrap Fleet. Wizard fins are long and narrow, so I was able to cut 5 of them from my scrap. A 5-finned Wizard in BT60, I'm thinking I will call it a Sorcerer. Forgot to get a picture before I left today, so it will have to wait until tomorrow...

Over the last 3 days I've gotten my 3D printer about 70% built. Busy weekend coming, but I should be doing the calibration and test prints next week sometime. This will be a very rocketry related tool.

Print me a new spine...
Shapeways turned the job down.

As part of attempting to make sense of the madness in the back bedroom the rocket holders were moved
so as to be grouped on one wall. The shelf which had been there is now elsewhere.
Of course most of the rockets are some distance from complete.
Image is a bit grainy because my 8 year old and several times dropped camera has issues at this kind of light level
and I couldn't figure out how to override the flash setting to make it flash whether it wanted to or not.
Eeewww, dusty.
Top two will eventually be swapped to put longer rockets on far corner.
Door is just out of frame to left and swings open against wall these are on.
Spacing is because hooks are in studs and board sections were made a size I could easily manage.

Nice fleet and mounting system. Do longer rockets risk bending?

Last few days I've ordered some parts and such from eRockets, including a JLCR nomax pocket.
Ordered some decals from Sticker Shock.
Bought some small batter clamps on ebay so I can turn my Estes Pro Launch Controller into a 12v system.
May need to change light bulbs, I'll need to check into that. I already have the JST connector to plug in the back of the controller.
Order the Tamiya putty I needed to fix the over sanding of the tail cone at the fillets on the V2.
Ordered 6 batteries for the old Estes noise making tracker, I've got 2 of those.
Shipped out some knife orders today, a HUGE Thank You for the order of those to help me get some kits finished up.
Need to sell some more for paint and batteries for the camera so I can do the video build thread on the glue technique.
Dog needs a hair cut and her flee pill for this month yet too.

Incongruent said:

Nice fleet and mounting system. Do longer rockets risk bending?

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They have dowels up as far as can be done - even in to nose cone if there is hole of sufficient size.
The larger and heavier the rocket the thicker the dowel, up to 3/8 inch.
They have been that way a couple years to multiple years and I've not noticed any bending.
However ...
The Flis Kits Adfecta https://www.fliskits.com/products/rocketkits/kit_detail/adfecta.htm is not going to be displayed that way since only about 1/3 of its length is open for a dowel. The nose cone separation point is at end of larger diameter aft body tube, which means 2/3 of the rocket's length is the nose cone.

Oh, okay. I assumed that the rockets were held by their motor mounts. Thanks.

TangoJuliet said:

Booked a hotel room for ECRM-44 in June! :grin:

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Welcome in advance to my home field! If you get a chance while it town, take a wander around downtown Mt. Airy. It's a cute little old main street town.

modeltrains said:

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Nice! I've been wanting to do something similar, though floor-standing (partly for the bending concern, keep everything vertical at a loss of some floor space but less than I'm losing right now). Everything I was coming up with was over-engineered and I wasn't looking forward to doing it. This seems much simpler than anything I was thinking of. Curious, how thick is the base board, and you just drilled holes for the dowels and fit the dowels in? Drilled all the way through? And glued, I assume? Thanks.

woferry said:

Curious, how thick is the base board, and you just drilled holes for the dowels and fit the dowels in? Drilled all the way through? And glued, I assume?

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Base board is sections of 1x12. Yes, drilled through and dowels press fit, not glued, because dowels have to be removed to tip upper boards enough to free eyescrews on board from hooks on wall.

Half the reason for displaying/storing like that is;

on Flickr

BigDuphis said:

Welcome in advance to my home field! If you get a chance while it town, take a wander around downtown Mt. Airy. It's a cute little old main street town.

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Thank you. I'm looking forward to it.

My GF and I will drive to her sisters house in Durham, NC, on Thursday, then to Frederick, MD, on Friday. Maybe we'll head over to Mt. Airy on Friday evening for our dinner.

modeltrains said:

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I've thought of something similar, but using a slightly thicker board and mounting the dowels at a more upright angle away from the wall... Somewhere between 15-30* from the vertical. That would mean mounting the board lower on the wall also, but the models wouldn't project as far into the room that way.

I am facing a storage problem when I get these 30 rockets that I've got sitting here painted.
I've thought of putting shelf brackets on the wall, stair stepping them, use plain old 2x4's and mount dowels the size of engines in them.
That way they stay vertical and limit dust collection on the rockets themselves.
Putting the widest fin span on the out most (from the wall) and lowest, and work my way in and up.
Due to ceiling height, length will also be a factor...of coarse.

Just picked up a new Jawstand for an MPR/level 1 pad. Woo hoo! :headbang:

Flying out on business and grabbed a picture in Rocket City's airport.

As promised, photo of the Sorcerer

Helped my wife get her L2, and flew some odd rocs. It's cold in Wisconsin today!

glad she got it back , I decided I didn't want to walk that far to retrieve mine(cold and damp).
Rex

I posted more lots of knives for sale, in hopes I can sell some for money for paints.

Did some coding for my wireless launcher and sanded (by hand) my custom 3d print / fiberglass rocket. Still need lots of work....

Also, started building a small lathe to sand 29mm and 38mm tubes. Anyone have experience with that?

Started assembly of an Estes Airborne Surveillance Missile and a 24mm MMT for my Estes Nike Smoke. And brushed up on my competition strategies (it's been over 30 years since the last time I competed) by reading some of Tim Van Milligan's Newsletters and watching a few of his videos.

Yesterday I started the Solar Warrior project in earnest. I'll probably start a thread for it and place updates there.

Well, this is something rocketwise :eyeroll: