Wadding Alternatives?

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Question re: PomPoms, are these attached to the tube somehow? How do you keep them from ejecting and being lost?

Input on wadding alternative: DO NOT use dryer lint. Bright idea I had one day. My girl scout wife scolded me. It's extremely flammable (they used it to start campfires.)

Tip 1: Always keep your wife around when flying rockets.

Robbing the cradle aren't ya?? (grins)

"Well, she LOOKED 18 officer... " LOL:)

J/K

Later! OL JR :)

edit PS... I think they're attached to the shock cord... (the pom-poms, that is...)

PPS... hmmm... pom-poms... don't get me started on cheerleaders... LOL:)
 
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Question re: PomPoms, are these attached to the tube somehow? How do you keep them from ejecting and being lost?

Input on wadding alternative: DO NOT use dryer lint. Bright idea I had one day. My girl scout wife scolded me. It's extremely flammable (they used it to start campfires.)

Tip 1: Always keep your wife around when flying rockets.


Teflon Tape Pom-Poms are attached to the shockcord below the recovery streamer or chute. I geneally tie a second butterfly knot 6 t0 8" below all other recovery system attachments this keeps them out of the way during deployment.


Your certainly correct about drier lint, it's one of the ingredients Boy Scouts use when making fire bugs (fire starters) it's an extremely flammable mixture of fluffed shreaded fabric bits. NOT at all suitable for recovery wadding.
 
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Robbing the cradle aren't ya?? (grins)

"Well, she LOOKED 18 officer... " LOL:)

J/K

Later! OL JR :)

edit PS... I think they're attached to the shock cord... (the pom-poms, that is...)

PPS... hmmm... pom-poms... don't get me started on cheerleaders... LOL:)

Let me please clarify. "My wife who was formerly a girl scout."
 
Robbing the cradle aren't ya?? (grins)

"Well, she LOOKED 18 officer... " LOL:)

J/K

Later! OL JR :)

edit PS... I think they're attached to the shock cord... (the pom-poms, that is...)

PPS... hmmm... pom-poms... don't get me started on cheerleaders... LOL:)

Now this one I did laugh out loud. Being the father of a boy scout and
active with the troop, I though his wife helped the girl scouts.
I have always been attracted to younger women, I'm 52 and my
wife is 46. That makes the she looked 18 officer funny. Now what
if al gore finds out people are burning gaseous vegetables?
How big of a carbon foot print is burning broccoli ? How long untill
the spent gases from a rocket launch will be declared a man caused
greenhouse climate changing global warming event? If we could
only find some competent scientist to look into this.
 
For the larger diameter rockets like the Maxi-V2 and TLP Scud B I make a chute protector from Totally Tubular nomex paper square with cuts halfway to the center and a hole punched in a corner (line with looseleaf reinforcers) to tether to the shockline. When inserted into the airframe, the cuts overlap and the nomex paper forms a cup in which your carefully-folded parachute is placed.
:tree:
 
For the larger diameter rockets like the Maxi-V2 and TLP Scud B I make a chute protector from Totally Tubular nomex paper square with cuts halfway to the center and a hole punched in a corner (line with looseleaf reinforcers) to tether to the shockline. When inserted into the airframe, the cuts overlap and the nomex paper forms a cup in which your carefully-folded parachute is placed.
:tree:

A friend of mine does magic tricks suggested I use flash paper... I'm going to try it in my next rocket... :)

Later! OL JR :) :snowflake::happydeer::hohoho::tree::merry-christmas:
 
Or Corn-starch baby powders, to dust chutes or as tracking powder....much the same effect LOL!!!

I used to use regular self-rising flour for tracking powder... and I also had a launch pad I built in woodshop in junior high that had a 'flame tunnel' out to the side with a sheet of tin on bottom for a blast deflector... I used to dump a couple tablespoons of flour in there under the motor to get a big 'smoke cloud' at liftoff (dust cloud anyway, but it looks like a big smoke cloud). Looked pretty cool on video anyway.

Never had a 'dust explosion' but my 9th grade science teachere, Mr. Petrash, did a demo in class demonstrating the principle-- used an old Christmas cookie tin, with a 1/4 inch hole in the bottom, with some surgical tubing snaked through the hole with a funnel crammed in the end of it inside the tin, dumped in a teaspoon or so of flour, set a lit teacandle in the bottom of the tin, and closed the lid right quick, then blew a puff of air through the hose to make the flour dust get airborne... POW! The lid flies off trailing a fireball behind it, and flies across the room... WAY COOL!!!

Actually I wouldn't have minded seeing a rocket blow up from a dust explosion... at ejection anyway... that would have been cool to see just once... never happened though...

(note: I'm NOT recommending the practice, just reporting history.)

Later! OL JR :)
 
I used to use regular self-rising flour for tracking powder... and I also had a launch pad I built in woodshop in junior high that had a 'flame tunnel' out to the side with a sheet of tin on bottom for a blast deflector... I used to dump a couple tablespoons of flour in there under the motor to get a big 'smoke cloud' at liftoff (dust cloud anyway, but it looks like a big smoke cloud). Looked pretty cool on video anyway.

Never had a 'dust explosion' but my 9th grade science teachere, Mr. Petrash, did a demo in class demonstrating the principle-- used an old Christmas cookie tin, with a 1/4 inch hole in the bottom, with some surgical tubing snaked through the hole with a funnel crammed in the end of it inside the tin, dumped in a teaspoon or so of flour, set a lit teacandle in the bottom of the tin, and closed the lid right quick, then blew a puff of air through the hose to make the flour dust get airborne... POW! The lid flies off trailing a fireball behind it, and flies across the room... WAY COOL!!!

Actually I wouldn't have minded seeing a rocket blow up from a dust explosion... at ejection anyway... that would have been cool to see just once... never happened though...

(note: I'm NOT recommending the practice, just reporting history.)

Later! OL JR :)

The Mythbusters did something similar on a larger scale - it was a very impressive fireball. Then they ramped it up using dry milk powder/coffee creamer. Man, that stuff was really insanely flammable!!! :y: Cool episode tho...
 
Just opened my Das Model Vostok and the kit comes with it own pack of German Wadding - it looks like pillow bunting - or stuffing. It must be fireproof and reusable if you find it, but I doubt its biodegradable – a big no-no for all the Al Gore fans at the launch who claim future archeologists will just find a large layer of plastic when excavating late 20th Century sites. I would try to use it once but I just can’t read the directions on the package. Frankly, I expected more from the country with a strong Green Party presence like Germany.
 
The Mythbusters did something similar on a larger scale - it was a very impressive fireball. Then they ramped it up using dry milk powder/coffee creamer. Man, that stuff was really insanely flammable!!! :y: Cool episode tho...

Hmmmm... :dark: That's good to know... OL JR :)
 
By any chance would double baffling work like one baffle on top o another?
 
I'm sure that this has been mentioned before, but a well-designed single baffle is quite effective as an alternative to using wadding. My concerns with installing two baffles, aside from being unnecessary, are that the combination would greatly restrict the amount of ejection gas traveling up to the recovery system with very real possibility that it would cause a deployment failure, and also that two stacked baffles would take up a good deal of space inside the airframe. If the design of a single baffle isn't effective, then adding a second unit with the same design will probably not help very much. The answer is to redesign the baffle unit so that it is more effective. There are a few different baffle designs that have proven themselves to be quite capable of preventing heat damage to the recovery system. Various rocket companies also produce baffle kits that employ these designs and come in an assortment of sizes to fit into various standard body tubes, and they all work very well.

As for adding durability, several methods have already been mentioned. Plus, if your rocket lasts long enough (and hasn't drifted away) for the baffle to wear out from too many launches, consider yourself to be very lucky. You should show your gratitude by retiring that old warhorse to a prominent place of honor on your shelf!

MarkII
 
I went to a NOVAAR launch yesterday on one guys and his kids used stainless steel wool as permanent wadding that actually stayed in the tube. Has anyone heard of or can point me in the right direction for this technique.

I like the Teflon POM-POM idea permanently attached to the shock cord.

cheers
 
Look no further than Aerotech rockets. Having the scrubber pad further up towards the top is a good idea. The further away from the ejection charge the better. LOC has a steel wire mesh baffle that I've used. I think it's a better mesh to use than the dish sink type though.
 
A stainless steel Chore Boy-style pot scrubber, stretched open and fluffed up a bit, can be used within a baffle-type assembly if you remove it and shake it out or completely replace it periodically. It is the stainless steel type that you want, not the brass one. But never use steel wool - it is flammable!
 
Its almost Halloween. Even grocery stores are carrying bags of spider webs. Its non-flammable but not biodegradeable so make sure to permanently tie it off to the shock cord or nose cone.
 
Question re: PomPoms, are these attached to the tube somehow? How do you keep them from ejecting and being lost?

Input on wadding alternative: DO NOT use dryer lint. Bright idea I had one day. My girl scout wife scolded me. It's extremely flammable (they used it to start campfires.)

Tip 1: Always keep your wife around when flying rockets.

I'd second that. I am in the boy scouts and we use lint to start campfires when the wood is damp.
 
A 20 lb block of cellulose insulation will probably last you about 100 years. $12 at Home Depot.

greenfiber-blow-in-insulation-ins541ld-64_1000.jpg
 
I once used pumice as they have huge piles of it at one of our fields.


Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum
 
Another useful thread resurrected by someone replying to an 8 Year Old Question.

Fun!

At least now I know about the use of pmppoms in rocketry.
 
This... :) [video=youtube;cdg8XBRX6O8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdg8XBRX6O8[/video]
 
Steel wool is flammable and when it starts burning it burns HOT. Plus it's mongo expensive compared to all other wadding materials.

I'd definitely go with the old standbys of dog barf, crepe paper and shredded lettuce. As well as Official Estes Wadding, if you have a few squares.

Although with the various vegetable-based choices, sometimes water and moisture doesn't mix well with ejection-charge sulfur smoke and leaves a really gunky scum on the inside of the paper body tube.

A 20 lb block of cellulose insulation will probably last you about 100 years. $12 at Home Depot.

greenfiber-blow-in-insulation-ins541ld-64_1000.jpg

And usually if you stop by the big-box home improvement stores they have partial bales out back that got damaged/punctured in the course of shipping, which they usually end up throwing out. Talk to a manager and see if you can find a half-bale or so and offer him a couple bucks. They'll be happy to get enough money for a couple cans of coke and you'll have enough wadding for 50 years (instead of 100).
 
Is dog barf the same as cellulose insulation? I've seen mostly negative reviews of dog barf, seems the ejection gases can blow by the clumps and melt the parachute. Your experiences with this, please.
 
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