What did you do rocket wise today?

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Prepped another rocket for tomorrow's launch. Last coat on the Portia. She came out real nice.20180112_151820_resized.jpg
 
Fillets on the Nike Hercs Nose cone, and built 4 fin cans for the families 3" Crayon rockets. The fincans used the Loctite Plastic Epoxy and Lexan fins.
 
I’m at the airport about to fly out to the US and couldn’t make the launch today, but I just got this pic from one of the lads:

My Blu-Fyr two stage sustainer has turned up...

Apparently my JLCR and A3 are intact even if the rocket isn’t.

It will be interesting to see if they’re salvageable after 3 months in the corn field...

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I picked up some switches and rail buttons from Binder Design. I also had a nice talk with Mike on his porch in the most unseasonably warm weather I've seen in a long while.


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
Noticed a drag race at our first launch this year and predictably Orion wanted us to get in on it. Ordered the AMW kit.

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Skinned and slotted the body tubes for the 2.5" EAV Viper Upscale.

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This is the largest diameter body tube I've skinned with this paper -- Red River 32# Premium Matte. I chose it because it is very thin, and takes the ink very well. At this width, though, I notice that it stretches quite a lot even with the very low wetting Super 77 spray adhesive. Lots of wrinkles.

I am still trying to figure out how to skin the main fins. which are airfoiled. Every attempt so far has been a disaster. I am also going to have to file the main fins back a bit. The tabs are just about 0.3mm too short to reach the motor mount.

Still, it feels good to have made something rocket-shaped. Apart from the skins for the main fins, all outstanding issues are things I know how to fix.
 
Revisited an old project with some friends today. Tweety Bird is named after Jack Garibaldi's (What's up Hobbies) Semi-truck. He gave us a set of centering rings that fit 7.5" LOC tubing and have five 54mm holes in them. We started this project over a year ago and lost interest. Rekindled it in the hopes that we can fly it at Jack's old launch site with TCC for LDRS this year.
 
Finished and painted the first of 2017 BF rockets: AMW 38mm "White Wolf":
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All around well put together kit, inclusive of nice vinyl graphics.
Paint job was initially going to be black over white background, but given an chance that she will fly in the winter, I wanted a paint scheme that would stand out even over the show background.

Advertised at 9 oz (255 gram), it came out at 305 grams painted, net of everything.
Still at 2/3 of a pound, she should fly well, and might even give out a fin whistle... !

Not sure where I picked up full 50 grams (~16% of total), though the Aeropack retainer is listed at 16g, and external and internal Epoxy fillets were probably a bit of an overkill.

a
 
Not necessarily keeping up with everyday but at this moment I have F&F drying on parts for the Semroc Point, glue drying on the fins for a New Way Higgs Farm, and basically finished a BMS Gyroc. Started all 3 on Friday. You'll also see the NC for the Higgs Rocket is built and has the F&F drying

Presently -1F here - will need to wait to paint the Gyroc and then install the elastic thread

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Added the vinyl lettering from Stickershock...20180115_132818_resized.jpgJust a coat of clear over the top and a motor retainer to go and I'm done. Looking pretty good! Maiden flight is planned for the Feb 3rd. LUNAR launch. I357T to 2300-ish feet.
 
Finished up the SDX3
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Going to start the ShapeShifter Jr. after I pick up a few things for retention.

Nate
 
Started painting subassemblies on the Estes Shuttle. Hoping to finish it before my Wildman order (with Rocketpoxy for my Drago build) shows up.
 
Started painting subassemblies on the Estes Shuttle. Hoping to finish it before my Wildman order (with Rocketpoxy for my Drago build) shows up.

I will show you mine, if you show me yours:

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Glider has a coat of prime, the rest is waiting for glue to dry before functional strap-on boosters go in to replace the decorative tubes.

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Looks to me like a slight AT bias...rocket racism...

I am an equal launchateer. The only reason for fewer CTI is less available supply. But they are sending much more motors out now. And I don't give Loki any love because my State won't.

And there would have been a CTI K711 to balance the sides. But Jackie found my L1000 hiding in a box ��
 
Oh yeah, why I came to this thread, not really just today but over the last two weeks...

Top to Bottom:
Fin cans for Crayon Rockets (3" diameter)
Nose Cones for said Crayon Rockets, and boosters pods for the white 6 fin rocket below the nose cones
White 6 fin scratch built rocket BT70 to BT60 and turned basswood nose cone
BT70 AIM-54 Phoenix
BT70H MIM-23B Army Hawk
four T300 airframes for the Crayon Rockets with chute shelfs installed and short recovery harness lead
Right side Estes Mercury Redstone with Groen Wraps printed on self adhesive label paper (it worked okay, but the wraps turned slightly translucent with Krylon Crystal Clear applied)
Left Side: 34.75" CF airframe for a MD project, it was hell getting it off the mandrel, I definitely need a different release agent for the mandrel.

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With the exception of the Merc Redstone all rockets have 29mm MMT's, the Merc Redstone has been upgraded to a 24mm motor.
 
Did some not terribly photogenic work on the 2.5 inch EAC Viper. Finally got around to testing my JLCR after it got blown-up on the pad when my BT80 WAC B CATOed back in October.

Neither of the gauges on the cheap hand-operated pumps I have available have much resolution, so I cannot be sure that it is opening at anything like the specified altitude. But it responds to being pumped down and vented by flashing and opening the latch. I'll give it a ride in something non-critical before I commit to using if for a certification attempt.

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Read the LOKI instructions for the L2050 bonding. Each grain is 10.5 inches long. Yeah, the 54/4000 casing is a four grain motor.
Finally re-addressing the CF Mongoose 54 that I flew once in 2016 and had a hole blow out right above the internal motor retention.
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This time it's a full 60" stick of carbon fiber with a Binder design Max-Q fincan attached. No holes, friction fit motor with an eyebolt in the forward closure for an anchor point. I was kinda surprised when I opened up the avbay and found that both 9v batteries were still attached to the FW magnetic switches from that flight almost two years ago. Still had 7.8 volts in them!
 
With the Shuttle moved onto paint, I decided to spend some time cleaning the garage. I rewarded my efforts by ogling my new build :) .

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It looks like we might be weathered out for our launch this weekend. So instead of prepping rockets tonight, I designed a 3d printed 13mm rocket based which ended up being kind of a 6-finned Estes Scout. Printing now...

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EDIT: Here's the first printed version. The motor's a little bit tight, so I'll do a little massaging and print another one. It's cute though! (FWIW, I printed it with supports. This photo shows it after I removed the supports.)

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EDIT EDIT: I shared my rocket on Thingiverse and started a thread here: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?144276-Scoot-a-tiny-3d-printed-rocket
 
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Bought some motors. :cool:
(2) F44-4 motors
(1) F32-4T
(1) F20-7W
(2) D12-0
(2) D12-5
(3) A8-3
_________
Plan to launch these tomorrow with a friend of mine.
Should be a good time.. :)

Thanks,
 
Received my order for "King Tut's Pyramid", "Satellite Killer", "Little Bucky Jones" and some misc centering rings. Primered V2 and started painting " Asteroid Hunter". Started build on Quest "Striker AGM" and also started building this in Rocksim.
 
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