Ever make an embarrassing mistake while building?

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rocketgeek101

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Like not taking the time to measure how much foam is needed to foam a nose cone....

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Yes. That is all I am saying. :p


OK, maybe. First HPR flight. Darkstar Jr. Loading up my first RMS motor... My mentor helps me assemble it, then as I put it in the rocket, he says "You forgot something". I rack my brain. Nothing. Can't remember. All quick links were hooked up so I didn't pull a Crazy Jim, I had remembered to attach the parachute, All my wires were hooked up correctly...



Black powder. Yeah. Almost forgot to put the charge in... :p
 
Like gluing a motor mount in the wrong end of a tube when it was clearly prepped for fins? Yeah, my biggie was mounting one where the nose cone goes. :facepalm:
 
Like gluing in the tube coupler before installing the baffle that sits behind it? Um... did that last night. I got lucky though, I hadn't glued in the MM yet, but it complicated things.
 
I've forgotten to put the launch lugs on more rockets than I care to admit. Only one was discovered at the launch pad, most were discovered after paint or primer was sprayed on.
 
Or mixing up 3 parts resin to 1 part resin and wondering why it hadn't cured yet? :p
 
Grabbing the spray can to put the last coat on that oh-so perfect paint job and then pulling the trigger only to see the WRONG color come out!!!!!!!!
 
Or mixing up 3 parts resin to 1 part resin and wondering why it hadn't cured yet? :p

No? All the epoxies I have used are two colors...

I have mixed up 5:1 epoxy as 4:1 but that was not a disaster.
 
Grabbing the spray can to put the last coat on that oh-so perfect paint job and then pulling the trigger only to see the WRONG color come out!!!!!!!!

Spending a lot of time getting decals to print just right. Then grabbing the can of Decal Fixing Spray and realizing too late that it was gray paint.

That produced a lot of cuss words!!
 
I once accidentally glued a fin to my work mat with CA. That was pretty embarrassing.
 
CA stories? We could have a whole #$%^ forum devoted to that. Calling Crazy Jim!!!!! :p


I facepalmed talking to a friend one time while working with CA. That was interesting. Or accidentally supergluing a motor into a rocket... good thing it was a cheapy rocket... Or confusing the Mineral Oil and Acetone containers... No wonder that Ping Pong ball didn't melt. :rofl:
 
On a too regular basis I forget to attach the launch lug until after the rocket is painted.
 
Like not taking the time to measure how much foam is needed to foam a nose cone....

I overfilled the fin section of the "Heavy Metal Thunder" rocket I started to build many years ago. It caused the body tube to swell between the fins. I cut the body tube into strips between the fins, carved out the excess foam and glued it back together. The result isn't too bad, but the experience left such a bad taste that I haven't finished the rocket.

But, my most embarrassing mistake while building was when I rebuilt the bottom section of my YouBee. I built it to accept up to a 98mm motor. Then, when I went to attach the Aeropak retainer, I discovered that I had used a coupler tube instead of a body tube for the motor mount. I ended up gluing in a ~98mm to 75mm adapter so it appears that the rocket was made for a 75mm motor.

-- Roger
 
Lets see...
forgetting launch lugs, then glueing them on with CA at the launch site, only to have them rip off while putting it on the pad
gluing the motor mount in backwards with TTW fins
after hours of sanding, finally starting to prime, only to grab the gloss white instead of primer... that was fun
how about igniter misfires? been there done that. 7 in one day is my record
getting over-tacked with couplers and wood glue

Nate
 
... getting over-tacked with couplers and wood glue

Oh yeah ... that reminds me. :)

When building the YouBee's booster section (the first time) I used wood glue when I slid the fin can inside the slotted body tube. I knew better. It got stuck a fraction of an inch short. I yelled every magic word I had in my vocabulary (and even created a few new ones), but the tube wouldn't budge.

When I got out a box cutter, ready to cut off the body tube and replace it, my wife suggested that I try "using a hammer." Oh my. It worked! I laid a piece of wood across the top of the tube and hit it with a hammer a few times until it had moved about 1/4 inch. BTW, I don't recommend using a hammer on smaller rockets.

-- Roger
 
Like drilling into internal injection holes that have been clogged with epoxy to inject some foam before externals then after a minute the drill seem to break through too far ? Glancing down you can see the dril bit sticking into the MMT ?? Nah, no one is dumb enough to do that...was not on the L2 written test either

Wayco was my confessional on that one ! Could not fill because I was afraid of glueing tape inside the mmt or fouling it up with foam seepage..so left it alone.I have a Vindicator DD with a sizable hole in the MMT from a motor lining burning though the case and it flies just fine - also had this rocket fall outta the sky from a mile up and just dinged the nose cone paint..could be new Wildman marketing - even Kenny can't kill one of these fg rockets so I will put a lifetime warranty on them.

I have done lots of other stupid things - like the Vindicator falling down from a mile. Was not the motor that burnt through (another flight) it was from me not flying DD the way I had successfully in the past ..removing motor charge, twist and tape close to vent hole - took a seasoned fliers advise and kept the motor charge in as 'backup' and was recommended to keep some length on twist and tape wires and be sure to tape flush . So I did ..taped DOWN and was very flush, no wrinkles, ACROSS and onto the lower airframe . The motor back up fired early, but even if it hadn't - the apogee charge would have caused the Alts to go dead when the upper payload seperated - which it did when the backup motor charge fired early - and ripped the switch wires right off the sleds. Makes for an interesting FiP ..normal then flat line .

While building the Executioner had done a baffle in the coupler and when attaching upper body tube got epoxy all over inside of tube and not the coupler joint so grabbed my heat gun and blasted inside the tube - it just went pop after about 30 seconds like a Pillsbury bisquits tube opening. Actually upper tube has been redone twice due to inept motor prep too (ol roman candle trick by having two orings in front of the delay in the forward closure) . Also wet sanded the D Region Tomahawk tube before primering when getting rid of spiral and that 220 rashed through the tube in literally 4 strokes , 5 seconds - but that was fixed with alot of zap primer and contour putty not replacing the tube - but did fly and have it harpooned before ejection so that is still in the repair pile..repair in salvage MMT and fin can as the rest is destroyed.

Kenny
 
I fully expect this to happen to me when I try foam for the first time...

It probably will. Even though we will tell you that the foam will expand more than you expect, you will still too much and it will expand more than you expect. :)

-- Roger
 
Ok... Confession time. In M*A*S*H they have "The SWAMP". In my house, my living area is called "The CRATER", and the resemblance isn't overly exaggerated.

Just prior to my surgery the week before last, I decided to improve things to prevent any accidents (crushed tubes/parts, falls, etc). Of course now that I'm feeling nearly 100%, I want to build, and I've been plugging away at a couple of them, until...

Where's my centering rings? I have a nice box with nearly all of them (and all of the ones I needed at 1 AM last night)... Now it should be in this pile... Nope. Did I move it here? Nope... Where are they. Of course in the process of cleaning I had moved them out of their usual place, and they weren't in the other typical locations for things like them. I've been cleaning my room for 5 hours today looking for them. I had a minor panic attack thinking that they had been placed in a box that was dumped in recycling over a week ago (and picked up already).

Finally, I pulled out a box, and there it was hiding in the darkness way in the back of it.... (I had looked there the night before, but didn't pull the box out).

It's always in the last place you look.

Now I'm tired and cranky, and I don't have the steam to finish the build I was working on. D**N!
 
Does forgetting to change into work clothes and ruining your nice shirts with epoxy count? I've done that twice recently. :facepalm:
 
Must be a girl thing or an OCD thing cos so far its not happened to me but thats probably because I am always messing about with the bits and seeing how they will go together.

I did have a massive sewing mistake years ago, sewing a huge piece of embroidery onto a quilt, it was too big for any work surface so I laid it out on the living room floor and set to patiently sewing away for about four hours before finding out I had sewn the emroidery onto the quilt AND the carpet as well :( so about four hours of patient work written off there, one of the few times when I started swearing a lot :)
 
Show of hands...

How many here have super glued various body parts to their fins, etc to the point of bleeding/burns? I've lost skin from my fingers, and some blood on more than one occasion. Got burned (2nd degree) when a big fat drop fell on my bare belly and began to set before I noticed it. Nowadays I mark my thin CA with a red sharpie before I open it.
 
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Show of hands...

How many here have super glued various body parts to their fins, etc to the point of bleeding/burns? I've lost skin from my fingers, and some blood one more than one occasion. Got burned (2nd degree) when a big fat drop fell on my bare belly and began to set before I noticed it. Nowadays I mark my thin CA with a red sharpie before I open it.

:headbang: It's as close to a hand raise as I could find...
 
Show of hands...

How many here have super glued various body parts to their fins, etc to the point of bleeding/burns? I've lost skin from my fingers, and some blood one more than one occasion. Got burned (2nd degree) when a big fat drop fell on my bare belly and began to set before I noticed it. Nowadays I mark my thin CA with a red sharpie before I open it.

I have been lucky... probably only because I've never worked much with thinCA
 
Show of hands...

How many here have super glued various body parts to their fins, etc to the point of bleeding/burns? I've lost skin from my fingers, and some blood one more than one occasion. Got burned (2nd degree) when a big fat drop fell on my bare belly and began to set before I noticed it. Nowadays I mark my thin CA with a red sharpie before I open it.

I could commit as many crimes as I wanted and not get caught because I no longer have finger prints from all the times I've burned them on a soldering iron.
 
Lets see...
forgetting launch lugs, then glueing them on with CA at the launch site, only to have them rip off while putting it on the pad
gluing the motor mount in backwards with TTW fins
after hours of sanding, finally starting to prime, only to grab the gloss white instead of primer... that was fun
how about igniter misfires? been there done that. 7 in one day is my record
getting over-tacked with couplers and wood glue

Nate

My record is only 5 in one launch.
 
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