How much do you spend a year for motors?

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How much will you spend in total for 2013 motors?

  • 0 - $99

  • $100 - $249

  • $250 - $499

  • $500 - $749

  • $750 - $999

  • $1000 - $1999

  • $2000 - $3999

  • $4000 - $5999

  • $6000 - $7999

  • Over $8000


Results are only viewable after voting.
If you think I'm going to bring up this thread and point out 'Look, Honey-all the other guys are spending the same as me!", you have a hole in your nozzle....
 
If I go for an L3 attempt this year, my costs will probably spike up closer to $3,000. Once I started burning "K" motors, the costs crept up from ~$1,200 to closer to $2,000 a year.
 
I just dropped $1000 with BMS on AT reloads. For motor selection, I just looked at what I had left over from last season and bought enough so that I will have 3 of everything I generally fly. No smokies or sparkies, but everything else. I will most likely spend around the same onsite with Robert DeHate/AMWPro-X on CTI reloads. I try to buy ahead of time, so that I don't have to worry about the vendor or the motor I want being there at the next launch. I would like to finally get my L2 this year, so I see a real possibility of going over $2K if I start burning J and K motors.
 
If you think I'm going to bring up this thread and point out 'Look, Honey-all the other guys are spending the same as me!", you have a hole in your nozzle....

its when kidneys stones block the nozzle, that you cry.....
like the realization that you spent 2000.00 on smoke.
 
Since January 2013 I've burned 23,000 N-s in research motors. That's three big 75 L's, one 54 small L, five 54 K's, and several 38 and 28 H and I motors. Never really done the math, but I would guess this took less than $200 in chemicals (commercial equivalent would be about $1400 worth). Research is the only way to fly big motors often (and save for the kid's college education at the same time).
 
Since January 2013 I've burned 23,000 N-s in research motors. That's three big 75 L's, one 54 small L, five 54 K's, and several 38 and 28 H and I motors. Never really done the math, but I would guess this took less than $200 in chemicals (commercial equivalent would be about $1400 worth). Research is the only way to fly big motors often (and save for the kid's college education at the same time).

Just curious, how much investment was needed for the mixing equipment etc?
 
Being an EX guy; it is a bit harder to track in motors because you buy the supplies to make the motors.
I tend to think in pounds of propellanr consumed rather than dollar signs.

For me that woulb be about 60 lbs. I burned about 25 lbs at LDRS alone.

JD
 
Just curious, how much investment was needed for the mixing equipment etc?

You mean the Kitchenaid mixer that my wife already had? Zero. Though I did buy a second bowl and paddle just for propellant. Anyway, you don't need a mixer.
 
Not gonna fall for this trap. My wife is a member here.

More than North Korea?
 
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Not gonna fall for this trap. My wife is a member here.

I am the one opening those hazmat boxes and checking the contents. I know EXACTLY how much Chuck spends on motors (and cases, kits, parachutes, and all the other paraphernalia.) But to be fair, he is a L3 and I am a L2 - it adds up pretty quick.
 
I am the one opening those hazmat boxes and checking the contents. I know EXACTLY how much Chuck spends on motors (and cases, kits, parachutes, and all the other paraphernalia.) But to be fair, he is a L3 and I am a L2 - it adds up pretty quick.

That is a pretty diplomatic post. Just say it. I buy too much crap.
 
Being an EX guy; it is a bit harder to track in motors because you buy the supplies to make the motors.
I tend to think in pounds of propellanr consumed rather than dollar signs.

For me that woulb be about 60 lbs. I burned about 25 lbs at LDRS alone.

JD

I figure about $10/lb for a Mag motor. Includes liner set.
So my 4G 76-L1750 WLC would be about $60. 2.7 kg
Igniter- $1
 
I figure about $10/lb for a Mag motor. Includes liner set.
So my 4G 76-L1750 WLC would be about $60. 2.7 kg
Igniter- $1

So, about 1/3rd the cost of commerical?? Not trying to start a divergence into a "EX costs" discussion and associated equipment/labor/failure costs, but I am curious of most EX'ers see that kind of cost differential from commerical.
 
Just this weekend I made two reloads for my sugar M motors. Sugar propellant (17 lbs), liner material, O-rings and pyrogen igniter parts for one reload cost $38. Looking at Wildman website one AT 98/10240 reload costs $512.99 :eyepop: I could make more then 13 M reloads for that much money. Sugar motors are CHEAP.
 
So, about 1/3rd the cost of commerical?? Not trying to start a divergence into a "EX costs" discussion and associated equipment/labor/failure costs, but I am curious of most EX'ers see that kind of cost differential from commerical.

I know a lot of people who do it, and the consensus is that unless you do a lot, you won't save a dime. Several have also commented that their expenditures are pretty much exactly the same; it's just where they're spending the money.

Keep in mind that you pay a premium price when you buy AP 5 and 10 pounds at a time....but does the average person want to buy 100 pounds at a time?

-Kevin
 
Keep in mind that you pay a premium price when you buy AP 5 and 10 pounds at a time....but does the average person want to buy 100 pounds at a time?

-Kevin

Keep in mind that what you are buying is also an asset that isn't too difficult to sell. If you can find a local member to split that 100# with, you can really save a buck or two. Or, if you find a good deal, you can even resell at a profit.

EX is definitely a money saving venture, or at least can be if you don't buy all the gadgets and gizmos. A lot of the metals I have had have lasted me 8 years. I'm past the sunk costs and only need to purchase AP, R45, and casting/liners at this point.

Case in point:

54-1050 with 10% waste is about 600g. In that batch you have (assume basic TT):

- $2-3 worth of R45
- $1-2 worth of DOA
- $1 worth of Tepanol
- $2 worth of curative
- $7-8 worth of AP
- $1 worth of aluminum

Grand Total: $17 of chemicals
Casting/Liner: $12 (gets you the good stuff from Loki)
Total to make the motor: $29 vs $65-75 commercially

1st problem? You had to buy at least a pound of everything.

2nd problem? You had to work at it to make it.

3rd problem? Not many EX clubs around.

The $30-40 extra that you are paying a manufacturer for is the labor, cert costs, other overhead (boxes, facilities, etc.) and some profit. They also start with a lower chemical cost up front.
 
Dan, I meant I spend way more money on motors than I'd like to think about or calculate. Hey it's better to make a safe motor than a bad batch of beer.
 
So, about 1/3rd the cost of commerical?? Not trying to start a divergence into a "EX costs" discussion and associated equipment/labor/failure costs, but I am curious of most EX'ers see that kind of cost differential from commerical.

Depends on whats your time worth. Should I include labor costs ? Prepping, mixing, packing, cleaning. Not to mention time calculating formulas.
or..do you have more money than time.
While Im spending time Sat, mixing, you may be in your pool w/ a margarita. :)

Besides, the thread is about spending for motors, whether 1/4A or EX Ps. With the same mutual interest in the final outcome.
To make the rocket go up.
 
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Depends on whats your time worth. Should I include labor costs ? Prepping, mixing, packing, cleaning. Not to mention time calculating formulas.
or..do you have more money than time.
While Im spending time Sat, mixing, you may be in your pool w/ a margarita. :)

Besides, the thread is about spending for motors, whether 1/4A or EX Ps. With the same mutual interest in the final outcome.
To make the rocket go up.

yep, for me my time making a motor, is theriputic like having a margarita by the pool. so the saturday relaxation, even though it is work, isn't labor.
Well, you could call it Labor of love.

I agree, spending for motors, is the same weather its commercial or EX. money spent to get your idea in the blue yander.

If you cant do something cheaper on an amature level than someone that is whosaling, and has retailer markup, where the manufactuer turns profit, the dealer turns profit, there is something very wrong. Both levels have overhead like insurance, workers comp insurance, quarterly taxes, retail space, manufacturing facility, property taxes, inventory taxes. (costs of legal compliance)

I think there is a blind eye to the "price" of ex motors. Some people think that if you say its cheaper, everyone will do it for "cost savings". and that's not really true. It is easy to make motors, but it is difficult at the same time. The added level, will add a level of burnout too.
 
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I am the one opening those hazmat boxes and checking the contents. I know EXACTLY how much Chuck spends on motors (and cases, kits, parachutes, and all the other paraphernalia.) But to be fair, he is a L3 and I am a L2 - it adds up pretty quick.

HAHAHAHA.... Chuck was called out! with paraphermalia!!!!

good for you two! wife and i are both joking on who will L3 first.
 
You mean the Kitchenaid mixer that my wife already had? Zero. Though I did buy a second bowl and paddle just for propellant. Anyway, you don't need a mixer.

Please Please Please tell me this mixer will never ever ever see a kitchen again!!!!

Buy her a good one! and take yours and put a "forever more shall my propellant not cure before cast" sticker on it.
 
Never really gave it a lot of thought… Thanks for making me take a closer look at my total spending :gavel:
I’m guessing between $300-400 this year, with more going to MPR.
If I go for my L1, and hopefully L2, later this year, I’ll need to tack on some more $$$

The nice thing is I don't plan on spending more than $150 this year on kits... I must have over 20 kits still to build, included a couple LOC kits for going for my L1 / L2.
 
I find it so interesting that commercial motor fliers frequently cite "time" and "effort" and "risk" as drawbacks of EX. It's a hobby. Isn't that the point? That it's fun? And the more time you can justify spending doing it, the better? And that you enjoy the satisfaction of taking on a challenge and being successful at it? There's a reason nobody sells RTF rockets past the Estes level.

I haven't flown a commercial motor in five years. When you buy in hobby quantities -- 5-10 pounds -- it's a little less than half the cost of commercial once you get past the sunk costs (which, again, are overstated. I got an industrial-level setup for under $1,000 -- a 12qt Hobart and a 6CFM vac pump and a 5500gx.1g scale. A hobby-level setup can easily be obtained for under $500). When you buy in larger quantities, from 5gal buckets on up to drums, it gets scary cheap. For someone like me who usually flies M and above, the $1,000 pales in comparison to what I'd be spending flying the same stuff with commercial motors (though, realistically, if I wasn't doing EX I would just not fly rockets for money and interest reasons).

Last year was an off year for me rocketry-wise, I don't make it to nearly as many launches as I used to. I flew a few three or four Ms, three or four Ns and a full P at Balls, the total propellant cost was between $1,000-$1,500, and I had a hell of a lot of fun while doing it. When I was first getting going five or six years ago, far less people were doing it, there was much less advice to go around, and I was cheap in my refusal to eat the overhead costs (I refused to buy a vacuum pump after "getting away with" not degassing a few M motors), and I blew up three motors in the span of two months. After replacing a set of 6" hardware and having no choice but to eat the cost, I realized that the $1,000 investment would pay for itself, bought a vacuum pump and a mixer, and haven't blown up a motor since. For the first year after those CATOs, I got satisfaction out of the fact that my motors didn't blow up anymore -- I had gotten better -- and now I try to play with formulas, geometries, and pressures to make the perfect one-off motor for a field, a waiver, a rocket, or a flight goal. The advanced stuff is what keeps it interesting and satisfying for me -- saying "that motor was exactly what I wanted it to be" -- but there's so many people out there now mixing in Kitchenaids and doing TT, Polish Rojo, Swamp Gas and the like, and so much written about it out there that if you can follow directions, you'll never have a CATO and you'll save a bunch of money basically making your own version of commercial motors. But, by that point, you'll be hooked and all of a sudden gluing fins and packing parachutes will be a necessary evil to test your newest motor design. For somebody like me who had reached their budgetary and interest limits with building kits and flying them, it completely revived the hobby, and for a hobby full of do it yourselfers, it makes sense for just about everybody. Don't buy into the myth that you need a detached garage with custom ventilation and triple padlocked doors either, I've mixed in some weird places and know people that have done it in even weirder ones. Just be smart and keep your wits about you and you'll be fine, common sense goes a long way and it's not like flying rockets with commercial motors and live charges and lawndarts isn't just as "risky" anyway. Plenty of other hobbies are far more dangerous. I have a messed up knee from a basketball injury, got strangled by my own rope after falling into a crevasse climbing on Denali, and almost died hitting a deer on a motorcycle a few years ago. Rocketry is by far my safest hobby.
 
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my vote is more like what i will burn, not spend. I don't have to calculate. RocketReviews does that for me. Retail last year I burned 900+ dollars worth. Retail.
This year I expect to do at least that. Note most of the money has been spent over the years on inventory. For example I have virtually no need to buy BP motors as I have plenty. In January I bought about $900 worth of G's through Ks at a nice discount. I'll be burning though them for a quite a while. I buy when I have the dough knowing that can be more (or less) difficult in the future.
 
Don't buy into the myth that you need a detached garage with custom ventilation and triple padlocked doors either, I've mixed in some weird places and know people that have done it in even weirder ones.

unfortunatly, mixing is not the same risky buisness as my highschool girlfriend, wierd places don't get you a medal.
Its a chemical certainty, you need adequate ventilaiton during, and post curing of the propellant, if you are using chemicaly cured propellants. This is not a myth.
Cyanide does go airborne, and can make you go blind.

Where people mix is absolutely a liability, and you should not discourage mitigating it.
 
unfortunatly, mixing is not the same risky buisness as my highschool girlfriend, wierd places don't get you a medal.
Its a chemical certainty, you need adequate ventilaiton during, and post curing of the propellant, if you are using chemicaly cured propellants. This is not a myth.
Cyanide does go airborne, and can make you go blind.

Where people mix is absolutely a liability, and you should not discourage mitigating it.

Outside on a picnic table = the best kind of ventilation!
 
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