Improved Cooling Mesh Baffle for the MEGA Red Max

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jhein

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I became a BAR 4 years ago with my first mid-power rocket the Aerotech Initiator. I was amazed at the simplicity and genius that was the cooling mesh. As many others have noticed the cooling mesh can suffer from clogs and other issues. The usual solution is to remove the mesh with a bent clothes hanger and clean it. This can be a pain. Others have suggested doing away with it all together.

Fast forward to now. I am currently building the largest mid-power rocket I have ever built, the Mega Der Red Max (MDRM). While it seems obvious now, I'm sure lots of folks don't realize you can easily fit your whole hand in its larger 4" diameter body tube. As I am putting it together I happen notice in my parts bin an extra Estes 29mm motor retainer. Then it hit me. What if you could easily remove the cooling mesh to clean or replace anytime you wanted to?

Sooo...I replaced the standard motor mount tube with an 11" one. I glued an Estes motor retainer to both ends, along with the centering rings. I modified the forward motor retainer by adding a simple plywood baffle mimicking the one used by Aerotech. Cut up a piece of Chore Boy stainless steel scrub and viola a cooling mesh that can easily be changed anytime you want! Simply reach in and unscrew the cap remove the mesh...clean it...put it back in and screw the retainer back on.

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I realize by using a longer motor mount tube, there is less room for the parachute but the MDRM is so big it should not be a problem at all. The kevlar harness is to attach the elastic shock cord that comes with the kit.

What do you all think?

Jim
 
Last edited:
That's a great idea. +1 genius


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It worked extremely well. The added bonus is it is much easier to remove the AT red caps that get embedded in the cooling mesh. I did suffer a fatal crash however. I flew the MDRM with an AT H128 load which uses the much larger red caps to retain the black powder. First launch great!. The second launch not so much. The much larger red cap was trapped in the mesh and did not let enough of the gas to pass through to push out the parachute. Heavy sigh! I only clean or change the mesh every 5-10 flights. So I now NEVER use the big red caps with cooling mesh and I clean more often. Just use the paper disk and some masking tape on the high power loads.

Jim
 
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