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Built a 9' ellipsoid chute for my 4" Sidewinder (overchuted for sure!) and 5.5" IRIS projects. Interesting color shift on the yellow nylon in direct or back lighting. 
Color change yellow nylon
- Thread starter sriegel
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Who cares about the color change, you made that!! Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Send it! I like a good chute show.
Beautiful. How long does it take to make a chute like that, with so many panels?
Thats a work of art, sir!
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Me, too!
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That was nearly 7 hours of labor to cut and sew.
You are very talented.
I want to say, I have met some incredibly talented, interesting, intelligent, and creative people here. This is great!
Thank you for sharing what you are doing. It is inspiring.
I want to say, I have met some incredibly talented, interesting, intelligent, and creative people here. This is great!
Thank you for sharing what you are doing. It is inspiring.
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Thank you!
If you feel inspired, I wrote up my general method some years back in Peak of Flight. Give it a try.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/Peak-of-Flight/Newsletter491
That is a great article. You are a good teacher as well.
What did you do in the Air Force? If you don't mind me asking.
I have only ran a sewing machine one time in my life. It was neat. It didn't move my soul though.
I just wanted to make a over the shoulder baby sling for my wife since she wanted one.
What did you do in the Air Force? If you don't mind me asking.
I have only ran a sewing machine one time in my life. It was neat. It didn't move my soul though.
I just wanted to make a over the shoulder baby sling for my wife since she wanted one.
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I was in space operations. Tracked satellites, ICBM launch officer, wrote policy for GPS capabilities among other things.
I learned to sew in JH home econ and sewed kites for a number of years before adapting those skills to chutes. I enjoy creating things.
Very cool!
Very nice look'n chute. Hats off.
TP
TP
I made a chute once. Never again. Massive amount of time. An unbelievable amount of thread. Not as good as I could have bought. Anyone who thinks the quality chutes are expensive should have a go at making one themselves. It was an education.
Totally agree! I bought $100 worth of nylon, para cord, thread, etc. and build a 9 ft., 5 ft., 3 ft., and 2 ft. chutes. Took about 75 hours total. If I figure $10/hr for labor, I could have bought all of those cheaper.
On the other hand, it's a hobby and we spend time and money and learning things were interested in. I don't see making chutes as much different then learning to solder eggtimer stuff, vacuum bagging carbon fiber, learning CAD and 3D printing to make av-bay parts, or learning how to mix and test motors.
There are so many things in this hobby that are of interest to some and not others. Making your own chutes is just one of them.
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Would love to see the chutes you made. Ellipsoids? How many gores?
Don't undervalue your time and skill. I don't think you'll find many folks willing to sew quality work for $10/hr in the US...
I did a build thread on the 9 ft. chute here. I'm still using the chute. It has performed perfectly on 14 lights of my Performer 150.
If I had to do it over, I would NEVER build it the way I built that one. My brother is a licensed rigger and used to spend most of his free time in the winters repairing chutes, harnesses and jump suits for sky divers. When he saw the chute, he laughed and told me it was way over built and since our rocket chutes deploy at such slow speeds, we don't need anything near as strong as man-rated chutes.
I've since used a lot of umbrella skins as chutes from 28" to 53". I only attach about 1.5" of shroud line to the umbrella and I never re-enforce the seams. The only failure was when I had a motor deploy go off at motor burnout and deploy at about 300 mph. At least it worked as a streamer on the way down. I was much more concerned about the zipper and damage to the rocket than the $0.25 I had in the umbrella chute that split the seams.
You're right about the $10 and hour. Seeing how long it takes me to sew a chute, I find it hard to understand how commercial chutes are sold at as low of price as they are.
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Warning, it can get adicting! See the build thread I published in PoF (link above).
Beautiful parachute, Steve.
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