New scratch build, "Thump In My Down"

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I've done this before to flat bottomed rockets. I added a slice of body tube to double up the aft end. Hopefully, this will limit landing damage.
I am guessing the forward sweep trail edge of the fins helps too.
Does the engine casing stick out far enough that it catches the brunt of the landing impact, rather than the edge of the rocket?
Looked at your albums, do you have fleet picture where you show all your previous builds side by side?
 
The bottom of the motor tube is even with the bottom of the body tube. So the aft closure and retention clips are slightly below the bottom edge of the body tube.

No group shot, but it's a good idea. It would take a lot of effort, though. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to create a montage in Photoshop. But it would be difficult to keep the sizes correct.
 
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Nice, but that lower bend looks like a weak point and susceptible to breakage.

I see what you mean, the outside of the bends look like they've been weakened. But Like I said, I've never had one fail.

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Sanding sealer, primer, and paint. I really like that satin red. The nose cone I'm using is from a rocket that crashed years ago. I sanded, primered, and painted it. This is the brightest satin yellow I could find. It's called "Lemon Grass". It may be too pale, if so, I can always shoot it with gloss yellow.

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I attached the eyenut to the forward bulkhead, and applied some epoxy to it to keep it from coming loose. Then epoxied the bulkhead in with 15 minute epoxy. The bulkhead needed to be 8" into the body tube, so I used a piece of 1-1/4" PVC pipe and two pipe couplers to set the depth and keep it level. I taped the coupler to the bulkhead to keep it centered. It worked well. I also applied an epoxy fillet to the other side for extra insurance.

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Reattached the rail buttons, and drilled the vent holes. Yes, that is a photo of white primer on a white body tube. Riveting. I sprayed on the satin yellow, and it's not too bad. For comparison, I sprayed a piece of old body tube with gloss Sun Yellow. Surprisingly, it's not that much brighter than the satin Lemon Grass. I'll wait until I get the decals to decide if I want to repaint it or not.

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I can't decide if I like the satin yellow or not. But I do like the design. A lot!

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Looks fantastic Quake, your builds are always a treat. Thanks for bringing us along!

When I was eight or nine I built an Estes WAC Corporal and painted it with the only colors I had - red and pale yellow! Thanks for the memories!

Mike
 
I was playing around with your colors just for fun and came up with this. But it would require a darker yellow to get the fade to look right.

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Looks like a really intense build. Great to have a full on workshop with all the right power tools. Assuming you have a lot of woodworking skills or experience?
 
Looks fantastic Quake, your builds are always a treat. Thanks for bringing us along!

When I was eight or nine I built an Estes WAC Corporal and painted it with the only colors I had - red and pale yellow! Thanks for the memories!

Mike

Ha! That's funny!
 
Looks like a really intense build. Great to have a full on workshop with all the right power tools. Assuming you have a lot of woodworking skills or experience?

My father and grandfather were both accomplished carpenters. So yeah, I grew up around woodworking.
 
I was playing around with your colors just for fun and came up with this. But it would require a darker yellow to get the fade to look right.

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That looks great, Gary! Are you going to come and paint it for me? LOL

Actually, the decals wouldn't work with a fade. You'll see why when I get them.
 
My father and grandfather were both accomplished carpenters. So yeah, I grew up around woodworking.

No insult intended Jim, but with carpenters it's 1/8" is close enough.
I worked construction and seen good and bad carpenters.
Being a Fine Woodworker myself, there is a distinct difference.
I would say your family leaned more on the lines of Fine Woodworking.
I Know your work falls into the Fine Woodworking category.
The work you do have much closer tolerances. Down to 1000ths of an inch.
And the methods you show on your build threads show you've been brought along that way.
 
My father and grandfather were both accomplished carpenters. So yeah, I grew up around woodworking.

Just noticed you're in northern Cal. Where do you find enough flat treeless open space to launch? I used to live in SF and been up to Shasta many times, but I can't think of anyplace to fly the big jobs like yours anywhere in between.
 
Just noticed you're in northern Cal. Where do you find enough flat treeless open space to launch? I used to live in SF and been up to Shasta many times, but I can't think of anyplace to fly the big jobs like yours anywhere in between.

There's a few places within a few hours drive. Up 'north' there's LUNAR and SARG, both launch on grassy fields (cattle ranch & park, respectively) so flying is limited to the 'green season' (which for this year has basically ended a week or two ago). LUNAR used to have access to Moffet Field for model rocket flying year-round, but Google's increasing use of the field has basically shut that down now, they're in search of a new LPR field but no luck so far. Heading south there's also TCC, which flies almost every month of the year, with 3-day events in May and October (weather permitting, of course).

All are about 2-2.5 hours drive from San Jose, TCC would obviously be a bit less convenient for folks higher up in the bay.

Both LUNAR and TCC have ~13000-17000' waivers (I forget the exact numbers for each), SARG's field is limited to something like 2000' I think. All 3 groups fly on different weekends (LUNAR 1st Saturday, TCC 3rd Saturday, SARG 4th Saturday), so you can attend them all and the same vendor (BAR) can usually make it to all of the launches. The 2nd Saturday is used by ROC in southern CA, which works out well for folks farther south but is too far (IMO, ~7 hours) for Bay Area folks to attend with any regularity. My first time there was for LDRS 35 last year. That said, I do the drive to Black Rock (also ~7 hours for me) every year for AeroPac's XPRS. :)
 
No insult intended Jim, but with carpenters it's 1/8" is close enough.
I worked construction and seen good and bad carpenters.
Being a Fine Woodworker myself, there is a distinct difference.
I would say your family leaned more on the lines of Fine Woodworking.
I Know your work falls into the Fine Woodworking category.
The work you do have much closer tolerances. Down to 1000ths of an inch.
And the methods you show on your build threads show you've been brought along that way.

Thank you for the compliments Woody, but I'm a far cry from my father and grandfather. My tools make me look good more than my skill. Both did more carpentry than framing, you're right about that. I remember when I was a kid, my dad picked up a bunch of oak pallets one time, that had fallen off a truck. He made some beautiful furniture with it for our church. Sadly, I have no photos of that, but I do have an oak offering plate he turned on his lathe probably 50 years ago. I wish I had inherited all of his skill and patience.

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There's a few places within a few hours drive. Up 'north' there's LUNAR and SARG, both launch on grassy fields (cattle ranch & park, respectively) so flying is limited to the 'green season' (which for this year has basically ended a week or two ago). LUNAR used to have access to Moffet Field for model rocket flying year-round, but Google's increasing use of the field has basically shut that down now, they're in search of a new LPR field but no luck so far. Heading south there's also TCC, which flies almost every month of the year, with 3-day events in May and October (weather permitting, of course).

All are about 2-2.5 hours drive from San Jose, TCC would obviously be a bit less convenient for folks higher up in the bay.

Both LUNAR and TCC have ~13000-17000' waivers (I forget the exact numbers for each), SARG's field is limited to something like 2000' I think. All 3 groups fly on different weekends (LUNAR 1st Saturday, TCC 3rd Saturday, SARG 4th Saturday), so you can attend them all and the same vendor (BAR) can usually make it to all of the launches. The 2nd Saturday is used by ROC in southern CA, which works out well for folks farther south but is too far (IMO, ~7 hours) for Bay Area folks to attend with any regularity. My first time there was for LDRS 35 last year. That said, I do the drive to Black Rock (also ~7 hours for me) every year for AeroPac's XPRS. :)

Looks like you have to make quite a trek to those places, but there are a heck of a lot more spots there than here (the closest venue here is a 4-hour 400 mile round trip for me too). Never realized Livermore was usable, always thought it was too hilly. Too bad I never got back into rocketry while still in California. I used to live a lot closer to launch areas that LUNAR and SARG use.
 
Snow Ranch is actually near Farmington, east of Stockton.
 
Snow Ranch is actually near Farmington, east of Stockton.

Long trip for you for sure. I lived just outside SF so not a bad day trip for me. You're far more dedicated than I am at this point. I balk at driving much more than 3 hours one way (my only defenses are that the scenery here is monotonous; it's just not as interesting as it is in Cali and the speed limits are lower too). That being said I'm planning on visiting the largest venue in the east some 300+ miles near our coast to experience my first High Power launch in person.
 
Snow Ranch is only about a 90 minute drive for me. TCC in Fresno is 3 hours, and I've only been there three times. Now that's a long day.
 
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