Shoot For The Cure

A very close friend of mine suggested that I do something special to celebrate my 2,000th post here on the forum. Well, here goes nothing...

The first thing many of you know about me is that I am a nationally ranked archer with my eyes set on the Olympic Games. My idol in the sport of archery is none other than 2 time Olympian athlete, Brady Ellison. He is ranked THE #1 archer in the world. I have met him several times in person, and have talked with him online about this ambition of mine.

A while ago, he lost a family member due to breast cancer. Since then, he has created a program called "Shoot For The Cure", a charity that feeds into the Susan G Komen foundation. He personally donates his time, money, and effort into the charity, and I too am a supporter.

My tribute to the sport, Brady, and breast cancer patients across the world is this rocket. I had Mark from Stickershock23 print me decals, and he even did part of the free because it is towards a good cause. The rocket itself is a Baddazz Defender MkIII that will be painted pink and black, and will be fed a healthy diet of Red and Pink motors. The first planned motor is the Loki I210 Red motor.

Eric Foster was kind enough to message me today on Facebook telling me that the rocket is shipped and should be here on Monday, or close to it. He was also generous enough to include a parachute, silica, and a kevlar shock cord in the kit. Thanks for all you do, Eric.

I am also hoping to start a little charity of my own with this rocket. I plan to take this rocket all across New England. People could donate money, and every dollar donated would be 10 NS towards a motor in the rocket, but the money will be donated directly to Susan G Komen.

This will be my first large minimum diameter kit and my introduction into Dual Deploy. Please bear with me if this thread takes a bit longer than some of the faster ones around here.

Very worthy endeavor!:clap:

If you have it finished(which you should unless you're like me in building, but that's another subject altogether!) and can swing the trip, come down to Orangeburg for Freedom Launch over Memorial Day weekend..I am certain there would be plenty there that would not hesitate one bit to donate in your 'Shoot For The Cure'!

Mason I forgot your Silica.
I ship it Monday.

Eric

Eric1 said:

Mason I forgot your Silica.
I ship it Monday.

Eric

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No worries brother, it happens. It just gives me a bit more time deciding how I want to do the AV bay!

Pantherjon said:

Very worthy endeavor!:clap:

If you have it finished(which you should unless you're like me in building, but that's another subject altogether!) and can swing the trip, come down to Orangeburg for Freedom Launch over Memorial Day weekend..I am certain there would be plenty there that would not hesitate one bit to donate in your 'Shoot For The Cure'!

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If I could, I would! Only problem is that the local pool is scheduled to open that weekend, and I will probably be lifeguarding.

In other news, I ordered a rotary switch, terminal block, and 9V battery holder from Doghouse Rocketry today. Hopefully they aren't too far behind the rocket!

I will be at freedom launch as well, if you can make it, I would love to see it fly!

Guys, that is over a 12 hour drive for me. Sorry, but not gonna happen! Maybe at Red Glare this fall.

Uh- Mason? How/where to donate? Right now I'd send you some Raspberry Newtons, (my fave) but they would be hard to light.....

fyrwrxz said:

Uh- Mason? How/where to donate? Right now I'd send you some Raspberry Newtons, (my fave) but they would be hard to light.....

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Right now, the best place to donate it probably directly to the Susan G Komen foundation. I am not sure how I want to go about donations related to this rocket. Maybe people could sponsor motors and I personally give the motor's worth of money to the foundation? That part really isnt set in stone yet.

MasonH said:

Right now, the best place to donate it probably directly to the Susan G Komen foundation. I am not sure how I want to go about donations related to this rocket. Maybe people could sponsor motors and I personally give the motor's worth of money to the foundation? That part really isnt set in stone yet.

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you're a good man, Charlie Brown! (obscure reference for most-sorry) Please keep up the good work, Mason-much respect, brother!

That`s a great idea Mason ,you are indeed fine young gentleman ,I have a lot of respect for you !

Your friend;

Paul T

MasonH said:

Right now, the best place to donate it probably directly to the Susan G Komen foundation. I am not sure how I want to go about donations related to this rocket. Maybe people could sponsor motors and I personally give the motor's worth of money to the foundation? That part really isn't set in stone yet.

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get me your Motor vendors info and i will "donate 1" to you. give me size and flavor.

Mason, Amigo!


This is seriously awesome. We've talked back and fourth about this project for a little
while.
If i had more money (and you know how small my budget is) I'd donate. Actually, once i get that 'can' finished, all the proceeds.are.going to this thing!
Cant wait to see this build unfold.

Alex

Thank you all for the very kind words and offers! Like I said before, this rocket will be given a healthy diet of Red and Pink motors. For now, though, this rocket will consume 38mm I and J motors from LOKI, Aerotech, and CTI. My main motor vendor is Wildman CT so if you want to sponsor a flight, he is the man to talk to. I REALLY want to launch this rocket on the LOKI 38/1200 Tropical Cocktail or Red motors that are in development.

[video=youtube;ku6vyZoPEbY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku6vyZoPEbY[/video]
[video=youtube;RuZK4KS4hXc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuZK4KS4hXc[/video]

Way cool- unfortunately, no Loki's in Cali. Bummer!

I would have a ball with that Tropical Cocktail... I love how binary it is... off---ON---off

Scott says that the Red motor really is a K760, not a J760. 1324 NS, or thereabouts.

I have been very anxious for that tropical cocktail propellant to come out!


Braden

Ok, ok. Enough speculation of motors. The kit has to be BUILT before those are even really considered.
For your entertainment: I bring you Shoot For The Cure, or SFTC for short.

I will start building this thing as soon as possible, but first a few things need to happen:
1. A bath for the glass parts
2. I need to get a longer section of all thread. The provided sections were just a HAIR too short for my taste. One of them barely makes it through both bulkheads, never mind the blast cap.

My FIRST impression when I opened my very special box was literally "Holy sh*t". I am stunned at how complete this kit is, how well all of the parts fit, how smooth the tubes are, and how high quality the kits are overall.

My SECOND impression was almost as shocking as the first. Included with the MkIII were two sections of high quality kevlar cord AND a high quality parachute, both of yet to be determined sizes.

ALSO included in the kit was a Baddazz Myzztic as a GIFT! That was honestly totally unexpected. My first night flier!

Eric, thanks for all you do. This is awesome!

The first thing I did when I got home today was to make an OR file for the MkIII using real weight and values from the kit parts. I know I am really close because the expected altitudes in the sim's came close to the real world values of the flights CJ had. Also, the CP listed on the Baddazz website is very close to mine.

That in mine, the I210 is expected to get to about 3600'. Not bad for a first flight.

View attachment MkIII.ork

I got some good work done tonight.

The first thing I needed to do was sand the slots until the fins actually fit in. This was a remarkable small amount of work, compared to my other fiberglass rockets I have built in the past. Once they were done, I placed all of the fins in their marked slots and secured them with a rubber band. I took my LOC 54mm coupler and slid it into the aft end of the tube. I looked at each fin one at a time as the coupler was inserted and removed. I looked specifically for the movement of the fins away from the tube.

My solution was fairly simple. The holes in the fins are just big enough to allow a 1/4" bolt to pass through. I bolted the four fins on each side, like so:

Then I sanded all of the tabs flush to each other, and now none of them pass through the tube and inhibit the passage of the coupler.

More later!

Continued from my previous post.

Once the fin tabs were sanded, I reinserted the fins into their respective slots and tried to pass the coupler through. There was far less resistance this time, so I think I am good.

Once that was done, I marked off the fins above the root edges, but below the cutout in the center of the fins. Like this one:

I then proceeded to sand the root edges with a Dremel sanding drub until the top layer of the fiberglass was taken off. I like to think this helps adhesion, but I will give it deep score marks tomorrow just in case. The results all looked like this:

When all the fins had their root edges sanded, I replaced the Dremel bit with a grinding wheel and cut 7 grooves into the root edges that contact the outside of the body tube. They were all clamped together to my table, and I am happy with the results.


That is all for tonight!

Got some work done this weekend!

I cut out a fin jig from Payloadbay.com and used it to align the fins on this beast. I secured them with CA, although next time water thin CA is a big no no. Then using the PVC method, I marked where the fillets would be and taped off the rest opf the area.

More to come later (I hope).

MasonH said:

Got some work done this weekend!

I cut out a fin jig from Payloadbay.com and used it to align the fins on this beast. I secured them with CA, although next time water thin CA is a big no no. Then using the PVC method, I marked where the fillets would be and taped off the rest opf the area.
View attachment 127376
More to come later (I hope).

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I now distrust using CA to tack fins on. It can really get in the way of the bond for minimum-diameter rockets.

Fillets are started!

I laid the first set of fillets down on Saturday night, and let them dry. I used Illstreet Composites medium cure time laminating epoxy, thickened with glass microballoons. The epoxy was thickened until it was peanut butter consistency, and laid on thick. I puled off the excess with a 1/2" PVC pipe section. The results looked like this:

I was not particularly pleased with the texture of the fillets. You can tell that they are bumpy and rough. Alex said they look like concrete, and he is right. So I sat down for a solid 30 minutes today and sanded. I used the same 1/2" piece of PVC, a thinner walled 1/2" PVC pipe with a smaller O.D., and an X-Acto knife as mandrels to wrap sandpaper around. The smaller pieces were mainly used for low spots and shaping the edges. The resulting fillet is much smoother and on the right in this photo:

Here is another photo to show how I shaped the leading edge of the fillet:

Things are looking good buddy ,and the fillets ain`t too shabby :wink:

I`m always impressed when i see the quality of the parts Eric puts out and love his machined metal parts....awesome !

Take care !

Paul t

sodmeister said:

Things are looking good buddy ,and the fillets ain`t too shabby :wink:

I`m always impressed when i see the quality of the parts Eric puts out and love his machined metal parts....awesome !

Take care !

Paul t

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Thanks man! I am really trying to take my time on this rocket. I want this to be my showpiece that I take everywhere to help raise awareness for Susan G Komen.

I havent forgotten about this thread! I have just been hammered with studying for my 3 college level tests coming up. I was home sick today though, so I got some work done.

Mainly, more fillets have been laid down and sanded. I still only have 5 fillets COMPLETELY done though. 2 more have to be put down and 3 more sanded.

I also worked a bit on the AV Bay today. I marked and drilled the sled where the altimeter, battery holder, and switch would be. I was also just dumb enough that I drilled the altimeter and battery on the WRONG SIDES. Oh well. I just need to take them off, re-mark, and re-drill. No biggie, it should be done tonight.

that is so awesome Mason!....