How do you store engines?

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AKPilot

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So after reading the Agenda suggestions for NARCON 2006, it got me to thinking - how do you store your engines? Ammo box, plastic container, etc.?
 
Most are in my range box (Plano tackle box) sitting in my basement. I'll usually have one or two flight packs sitting right next to it. Works for me.
 
I only have LPR stuff, but I store mine with my ammo in a locked cabinet. All the toys in one place... :D
 
Plano 5150 tacklebox on the garage shelf. No basements in Florida...unless you live on a big hill.
 
My motors are currently stored in a clear plastic Plano (I think) storage box, on my dining room table. I'll be moving them into my bigger range box that I got for Christmas (a Plano 1233 or similar model), hopefully before my club's next launch (once the burn ban is lifted).

At two recent launches, I've taken either my current range box (a Plano 6100 series, based on the photos at https://www.planomolding.com) or my box of motors, but not both.

In any case, I store my motors in my house, not outdoors and not in my garage. The house is more or less climate-controlled, whereas the garage is not. I have to admit that I've left motors in my car overnight and overday, though, and it gets HOT here.
 
I have most of my old motors in two cardboard shipping boxes (12 x 12 x 18) in the bottom of my home office closet. Also have several large plastic storage boxes crammed full of mixed new/old motors. Also have a pile on the floor of loose pkgs purchased over the last six months with 40%-off coupons that need to be put away somewhere.

There is no smoking allowed in my house.
 
I store mine (BP motors only) in a cardboard box. I keep them at the point farthest away from my flat's exits (windows and doors) so I won't have to go past them to get out if there was a fire.
 
Originally posted by cydermaster
I store mine (BP motors only) in a cardboard box. I keep them at the point farthest away from my flat's exits (windows and doors) so I won't have to go past them to get out if there was a fire.

Don't you want to store them as close to the exits as possible, so if there was a fire you could grab the precious motors on the way out? ;)

I keep mine in their packets in an ammo tin in the garage (BP).

Phil
 
Originally posted by WiK
Don't you want to store them as close to the exits as possible, so if there was a fire you could grab the precious motors on the way out? ;)
Thats what I thought, but it was pointed out by a fireman that the important thing in a fire is to get yourself (and others) out. If your only exit is blocked by exploding engines you're up the creek without a paddle!
 
Yes, keeping motors away from exits is a good idea.

I have to wonder whether it is smart to store motors in a metal container like an ammo box. If you are trying to keep them sealed and protected from moisture, fine, an ammo box might be helpful (if the seals are in very good condition). However, if any of those motors should somehow ignite, the combustion products will be trapped inside that same sealed container...until it bursts. This will pretty much ensure that most of the other motors in there will also ignite, and that the metal box will pretty quickly turn into a bomb.

Zip-lock baggies would give the same moisture protection without the 'metal box' hazard.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a 'good' fire suppressant material that might be packed around packages of BP motors? About the best and easiest idea I can come up with would be to cover them with sand, and that would be a mess.
 
Powderburner,

While I see your point, I have to ask, how do you theorize a motor might ignite inside a sealed ammo box? I guess I can't see a way for motors to ignite in an ammo box unless you want them to. If the box gets hot enough for the motors to autoignite then its probably in a fire and all the motors would go up anyway. For any hot work (welding, grinding etc), which shouldn't be done around anything flammable anyway, to ignite a motor the cover would need to be open. This would prevent any overpressurization. I mean magazines are made out of metal. Much thicker, but I'm pretty sure if 50lbs of propellant somehow went up inside of one it would overpressurize too.
 
Thanks guys for your responses. Attached is how I store mine; same thing as many of you - in a Plano box. Mine is made for storing bass lures in, but they work great for storing engines upright. On A-Cs I can typically get 21-22 in them. For D's 14, and E's 12.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=249313

I just wanted to check things out. Having grown up in a house with a ton of muzzleloading rifles, pistols, & shotguns - I've always had a marked amount of concern for the storing of engines.
 
powder: nomex paper or cloth?
for those of you that would like to read a good old NARAM R&D report (NARAM32) on why BP motors go boom, and what you can do to prevent it, see this:

https://www.oldrocketplans.com/pubs/Newsletters/SNOAR/SNOAR_News_Spring+Summer-91.PDF

By Matt Steel, "A theoritical Analysis of WHy BP model rocket motors fail "

basically keep a cool dry(low humidity) place and don't use if the temperature range they have been cycled in is above a 75 degree range.,.... this from Fred Scheter'e 1980 D12 BP motor analysis.....

Fred: does that mean if I am lauching on a day when the air temp is 85 F that if the motor was stored in temps from -37.5 F of 85F and +37.5 F .. then it would be okay to use? or is that +-75 degrees?

heres what fred said over on rmr:

Estes motors (BP) can last FOREVER if stored properly (no extreme temperature cycles - and you should fire them at a temperature less than 75 degrees F below the highest temperature they ever experienced).
 
How do you store engines?

...in a 55 degree F, temperature-controlled cabinet.

On their sides but with the nozzles pointed slightly down. Every few weeks I turn them gently. The whites can be used right away, but common wisdom say the reds benefit from aging and should be left down for a while to develop full bouquet and, uh...flavor.


Kevin (what was question, again?) M.
 
AP motors in a wooden box made from 9mm ply, in a basement room.
BP motors in tins in an attic room.
Loose BP in a plastic container inside a different wooden box made from 9mm ply, in a basement room.
 
My AP is in a 20mm ply box which is painted red with EXPLOSIVE written on the top and it is locked to a wall.
Loose BP is in a similar box but each tub has to be in a seperate compartment made of 9mm ply(the box has to be at least 33% taller than a BP tub).
These are the requirements of the explosive police who issued my certificate.
 
I've been doing as much reading as I can on storage boxes, explosive, ammunition, etc. One of the things that pops up again and again is a "non-sparking plywood interior". I would presume that it's possible to create a static spark when reaching in the container. It would be almost impossible to touch off AP this way but, in the case of BP, VERY possible. Just a thought.
 
I just recall that a number of us use Plano boxes to store our engines. From my teenage years, and from years of using muzzleloading firearms, I know that static can very well set off black powder.

At the same time though, I don't enjoy the thought of carrying an Ammo box to the field everytime I go to launch.

So knowing that some of the long-timers have engines hanging around for years, I was wondering what they do.
 
Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket
I prefer to store mine slightly used and dangling from a parachute...

:p

Amen! I've never got motors sitting around for more than a couple days...I just can't stand it.

I keep eyeing them in the corner..."come on...DO something! ok fine, I'll make you do something!"


Also, are vibrations and shaking bad for AP motors?
 
Everything goes in a plastic 3-level (not including bottom) Plano tacklebox. Reloads stored in the rock bottom, BP on the middle level organized by thrust and delay, igniters/plugs/wadding on the bottom folding level, and AP/adapters/casings/other stuff on the top.

It's been that way for, oh, a week now. Let's see how it is after the next launch :D
 
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