What did you do rocket wise today?

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I built another FAI style spacemodel so I'd have 2 for the S3A event at the next LUNAR launch. Got it balanced nicely and managed to fit a 36" Mylar chute in it. I still have one more left unbuilt from a club buy last year. Not sure these are generally available anymore. The Venus Model Rocketry website it gone, but I did find the Venus Rocketry storefront on shapeways.

I just realized that I'm not sure there will be a competition tower at the launch. I guess I should ask club mailing list, and plan on making some fly-away launch lugs just in case. Oh, and I guess I should make a launch piston as well.
 
28* heat wave today so got some Paint + clear coat on


placed a order to Wildman for odds and ends stuffs
 
Sanded the payload bay today and added another coat of light gray Rusto Filler-Primer. Later made a trip to the Home Despot and bought a can of Rusto Gloss White Enamel for the payload bay, and also picked up three 3/16" stainless steel quick links for the 25' payload bay shock cord. Stainless steel quick links are rated 800 lbs working load while the the plain steel ones are rated 616 lbs.

Mused over an Estes mail order receipt dated October 24, 1979 that I found while going through some old AMA Free Flight kits.

Damn. I got old.
 
Applied wood filler to the BT of my Quest Harpoon. Actually this was last night. I'll sand later this morning.
 
For me, (last night) I finished priming my Binary Star, I assembled together a complete kit for a Der V-3 clone for my nephew to build (just need decals), and I cut body tubes to length for the BT70 Advanced Target Drone that I'm building, plus I slotted the rear tube for the fins. Next step is to build the primary motor mount and baffle.
 
Sanded about 4 coats of paint off of my Nike Smoke nose cone. It would appear I used incompatible primer and top coats. Hooray for me.
Sanded down the red paint on my Nike Smoke fins.
Added another coat of silver paint to Redshift's NC tip.

Nate
 
I posted a very brief, non-political comment in the Watering Hole in the wee hours of the morning. This morning the entire thread was gone. Was it something I said?
 
Sent a PM to a member here offering to send him some Fiberglass Cloth to play with.
Thanks to the generosity of members here I got into fiberglassing things. Now that I've aquired a decent stock of Cloth, it is time to share and get someone else hooked on the Glass.
 
painted my Nike smoke fins red, and for the 3rd coat in a row got little specks in the paint. Gaaaahhh!!

Does anyone, anywhere have a way to prevent that?? It's as if some little gremlin took a couple small pebbles, just larger than grains of sand, and, using a microscopic amount of glue, stuck them to my fins just before I painted them. I sanded them with 400, and wiped them down with a brand new tack cloth, left it for a while, came back to repaint, wiped them down AGAIN, and then painted. They seemed smooth and clean. does anyone know how to fix this?


Nate
 
@nute: About your Nike Smoke...

Try a new can of paint...there might be a problem inside the can. :(

I always "pre-soak" the rattlecan in body-temperature (say 100 degree) water for about 10 minutes before use. The story goes that it helps atomize the paint globules. It's also a good idea to make sure that the item being sprayed is at 70 degrees or so.
 
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Got 3 different shipments today:

  • Replacement LCD for my RRC3 LCD unit (since I fried the one I have on Saturday) from Mouser.
  • Rotary Switches from Doghouse Rocketry. (one for my kraken, and one for my punisher. I'm thinkning I should have bought at least one more...)
  • Barrel swivels and a 2pint RocketPoxy kit from Apogee Components
Yesterday, I got a balance charger from Amazon for the LiPo battery I got on Saturday. Now all I need are some Q2G2s (or some other initiators) and black powder for ejection charges, and I think I'm ready to dip my toes into dual deploy.
 
I ordered a pint kit of Aeropoxy 6209, a pair of airfoiled rail buttons, and an Eggtimer TRS with LCD reciever. All this to go towards my L1 Wildman JR.
 
Sanded the BT of my Harpoon. Started the MM....glued the centering rings in place and realized that I had forgotten to install the Kevlar cord. I waited for the rings to dry then drilled a tiny hole and fed the cord through....think it's gonna work out fine. All this took place last evening. Planning on starting to sand and fill the fins today. I'll take a pic soon.
 
BeerorKid said:
:)

One of my first builds was a QCC Explorer and I thought I could just superglue all of the parts together. My fingers suffered for days. I was peeling superglue flakes off for days. Sometimes wood glue is the way to go. Plus you can just roll that glue up like boogers instead of peeling layers of skin off
Click to expand...

Every Time I use the thin it gets all over :eyeroll: Funny you mention QCC Explorer, I'm building an up scale right now :wink:
View attachment 254072
 
Weighed my Darkstar a few days ago. It's 81.875 oz, which is much lighter than the previous run of 3" darkstars. I'm very happy that it's light enough to fly I's and even big H's, may fly it on an I800 or I303 for the first flight.
 
Finished the internal fillets on my Black and Gold Star, also got my RRC2+ set out on the 54mm 3D printed sled I bought from Missile Works. Both are great products!
 
Messed with the MWC/Landru alt sled and trimmed the excess contacts from the Schurter rotary switch.

The RRC2+ for this av-bay arrived in the mail a day or two ago, and I picked up some 9V batteries today so I may as well get busy on getting everything mounted and wired up. Can't paint. It's raining. A lot.
 
o1d_dude said:
@nute: About your Nike Smoke...

Try a new can of paint...there might be a problem inside the can. :(

I always "pre-soak" the rattlecan in body-temperature (say 100 degree) water for about 10 minutes before use. The story goes that it helps atomize the paint globules. It's also a good idea to make sure that the item being sprayed is at 70 degrees or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, I tried putting the can in hot water before spraying, but I came up with a similar result. Today I'll go out and get a new can. Sanding down little bumps is starting to get old..

Nate
 
Applied my first coat of primer to my little Alpha and started papering the fins for my Harpoon. I had an Amazon.ca gift cert from Christmas and just discovered that Amazon has Estes rocket kits....many with free shipping! I ordered an Estes Patriot and an Estes Bullpup....both are LPR kits....should arrive by the 15th!
 
I received (well, yesterday) a box from Estes with clearance sale items I bought last weekend:
WP_002929.jpg

I also put another primer coat on Lepus & Binary Star, then built up the motor mount for my BT70 Advanced Target Drone (pictures to come).
 
Masked and painted the black fins on my MLAS.

IMG_9485.jpg
Had it drying in the sun when the dog knocked over the rig it was sitting on and broke off a fin.

IMG_9575.jpg

I'm about to call it quits with this one. This has been one of those builds that just felt cursed from the very beginning. I think I spent more time correcting mistakes than actually building it. One step forward and two steps back. Ugh!!!!
 
Weather was perfect for launching. Flew 2 quest Astras on A8-3, and one Baby Bertha on a B4-4. The Astras really soar, even on an A8. The Baby Bertha... not so much. I really messed up the fin alignment when I assembled it- it won't fly straight.
 

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