Build thread. My first rocket

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MrBill2u

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I am kind of new to this. Like 4 days old new, so if I am doing something stupid please understand it is not intentional and I could use a guiding hand. I have trouble following the "normal" path for any hobby as I find I learn much better trying to do my own designs. Today I took a pile of balsa, made some plywood, cut some fins and tried to hand sand an airfoil. Here are the results so far. I still need to fill and sand these so they are a bit furry.

The goal of the attached rocket is to go up and come down with an A engine and have it still in good enough shape to repeat with a B and eventually a C. I wanted to stay between 1 and 2 margins for all engines, and keep my fins simple enough that I could practice doing this airfoil thing without the complexities of a moving 1/4 chord line or radial taper. I do not know how to put an engine hook into Rocksim, so try to imagine one there ;) In the actual build I will be using the 24/29 motor mount kit from apogee just to make sure I at least get that part right. Rocksim shows stable flight with deploys reasonably close to apogee for A8-3, B6-4 and C6-5 motors.

View attachment 24mmWithStandardTubeBlockFins.rkt


 
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Welcome. Your fins look like you've been at it more than a few days, very nice. Those are probably the beefiest fins I've ever seen on a rocket intended for an A-motor, but hey if it that is what you are going for then great...I can certainly appreciate overbuilding. If you want light weight and strong do a search for fin papering. You can get really strong fins with just thin balsa and label paper.

Keep posting photos. We like photos.
 
Thanks! The plan is for it to be launched with a C, but I would like to see it hold together with lower power first. I have balsa trust issues, so any time I have to use balsa for anything I lay down an alternating grain sandwich and make my own plywood. To me there is no balsa part less than 3/16" thick unless I sand back down to it :)

The weight for all 3 fins combined is .166 oz before filling, so they end up being right around 10% of the total launch weight when loaded with the C. After all my reading for the past 4 days I have come to the conclusion that I want to start with stable rockets that stay at reasonable speeds while I work on my build skills. I can come back and build crazy speed demons when I have some skills.
 
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Welcome to TRF.
Fins look great. Nothing wrong with air foiling and certainly helpful if you are going for maximum altitude. For sport rockets where all you want is a straight flight and a good recovery, air foiling is not req'd and gives you more time to devote to other areas of the build. Extreme air foiling such as competition rockets use leaves very narrow almost razor like trail edge, great for aerodynamics but very easily damaged.
Have you got Stine's book, Handbook of Model Rocketry? It is fairly inexpensive and I think you will find it a surprisingly fun read as well as quite helpful in your future building and flying escapades.
 
I spent all day Sunday reading that book. I read everything except for the chapters on multi-stage and gliders as I do not have interest in those sides of the hobby yet. I was very pleased with the book!! It seems to cover the basics of most aspects of the hobby and whetted my appetite for more. I just ordered Apogee's "Model Rocket Design And Construction" to give me some more food for thought on the design side.

I wasn't really planning on airfoiling the fins on this design until I realized that I had a stack of balsa laying around I could play with while I waited for my build supplies to come in. Since all I had was sandpaper and balsa trying my hand at airfoils seemed like a good exercise. I may try papering them this afternoon since my other supplies are not scheduled to be here until Saturday.
 
Welcome to the hobby and to TRF!

It's always fun to experiment with different ideas and techniques!

As you progress into this hobby, you will find that balsa has been used for so long because it is quite strong for it's weight and can withstand more stresses than you might think. With the correct grain direction, you can fly balsa fins up through F impulse motors and by strengthening them with paper or light weight fiberglass, up through G motors! Another thing to consider is drag. Using your sim for example, if you were to simply use squared (non-airfoiled) 1/8" balsa fins, your rocket would gain more altitude! Though your design does have some aesthetic appeal!

One of the most difficult things to learn in model rocketry is the terminology. It can get a bit confusing. The motor sizes you are going to be using are 18mm in diameter. A 24/29 motor mount will not fit in your main body tube, nor will your motor fit in it without an adapter.

Most important thing is having fun! Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions. There are many folks here that are willing to help out. You'll find the rocketry community to be very friendly.


Enjoy!

Jerome :)
 
Yes, it was late when I typed this up and I had designed half a dozen rockets yesterday before settling on this one. I bought the 18/24, but my brain was one motor short of a clean cluster fire. :p

I ran the sim again last night with the 1/8" squared rather than 3/16" airfoil and saw the same thing. I will probably sand these down to 1/8" and then paper them to keep me busy until Saturday :)
 
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I sanded them down to .15" and papered them. 4 coats of primer later I think I am almost closing in on "smooth enough for a beginner". It seems like this hobby is a good way to get practice sanding :)
 
I sanded them down to .15" and papered them. 4 coats of primer later I think I am almost closing in on "smooth enough for a beginner". It seems like this hobby is a good way to get practice sanding :)

Oh, yeah, you'll get to be a master sander just like most of the rest of us ;) I have to say in all my years I've never airfoiled a fin like that. They are lucky to get rounded off, some get a tapered knife edge but thats all for that.

But be aware the hobby can be very addicting. I hardly ever build a kit. I buy parts and let the designs flow, I'm sort of a binge builder, I'm lineing up the parts for my next 5 builds :)

Good luck and have fun.
 
Red looks great! I think your hooked already, Welcome to the wonderful world of Rocketry!!!
 
Be careful filling and painting fins before you attach them. When you paint, you close up the pores of the wood. You will be gluing to the paint, not the wood. It is generally better to assemble, then paint later.
 
Thank you. I left the inside edge of the fin unpainted. I am just itching for stuff to do while I wait for my tubes to show up. I was aware that I would have to paint them again after the filet, but didn't realize I would be weakening the fins by painting them first. Looks like I will be sanding down the area of the root chord and filet.
 
I got my supplies in yesterday. Now I need to wait 24 hours. Maybe I should start my 2nd rocket while I wait....


 
This is one of the painting handles/drying stands I made up for this project. It is just a standard cork with an upholstery tack attached to the top with CA and three thumb tacks stuck into the bottom to act as a tripod. It makes handling small parts with paint on them much easier :grin:

 
Wow - some neat stuff there - love the cork with pins in it idea. Your obviously a master builder at this. Good luck with your project :)
 
I am still waiting for this to dry... so I figured I would look around the house for random stuff to build rocket parts out of. Here is a lightweight sci-fi-ish nacelle made out of an AC 13mm vac formed nosecone, 5" 13mm body tube and a hacked up eye dropper.



 
^ Oh, you are definitely HOOKED now, my friend! I just made some 'intake nacelles' for a 'plasma ram inductor engine' from the caps of dry erase markers! Sorry I can't post pics. Welcome to TRF and keep posting bro'!
 
Primed, sanded, primed, sanded, primed, sanded and the fade put down on the body tube.

 
Looks like a fine rocket!

I find it kinda reminiscent of tube launched rocket pod rockets.

Remember to have someone video it when you take it out to fly... After you post it to YouTube, you'll can post the video (look for the filmstrip "Insert Video" tab between the "Insert Image" and the "Wrap [QU0TE] tags around selected text" icons).

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a video lets us all hear them all ;)
 
I have a family launch planned on June 15th. I am throwing a rocket building party for 3 of my nieces and nephews then heading out to the state park to launch them. I will be launching as many rockets as I can get built between now and then on that date :) Our planned launch site is linked below. To my untrained eye it looks plenty big enough for launches that stay under 1K feet.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/A...2!3m1!1s0x8838f684cf89185b:0xfabb43f6ca1af52e
 
Another layer of copper, a layer of black tint, some more sanding, the Dark Angels emblem applied, more sanding and a layer of dark silver metal clear laid down. Now it is ready for the clear coats that don't have any tints or metals added to them.

 
The last coat of clear has been laid down and she is ready to launch :) Final pic before she gets tossed in the shoebox. Final weigh-in is 40 grams dry. Rocksim tells me that should be good for about 950 ft on a C6-5.

 
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