What did you do rocket wise today?

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Painted my Madcow 29mm f/g Lil Goblin in fluoro pink. Over coated the nose cone with Crystal Clear Enamel. The body needs a trim coat or three of black metallic before it will be ready for clear coating.

Mounted the 1/4" Kevlar y-harness to the motor tube of my "Plan B" a 38mm f/g Lil Goblin. Building both Goblins with Aeropoxy ES6209 so there's a lot of waiting time.
 
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Went over to my Mom's to dig out some reference/research material, then practiced the fin making/shaping method that sunderll posted in the "Techniques Section".


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I made and tested some sugar motors. I think I have the nozzles just about right ;)

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That's a spent 18mm in back. I'm prototyping on a small scale until I get it figured out.

Here's a couple of my next size, in the front row...

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Yes, that's kitty litter. I ran it through a pepper grinder till it was dust/powder, then rammed it. Hard as a rock!
 
I made and tested some sugar motors. I think I have the nozzles just about right ;)

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That's a spent 18mm in back. I'm prototyping on a small scale until I get it figured out.

Here's a couple of my next size, in the front row...

View attachment 285358

Yes, that's kitty litter. I ran it through a pepper grinder till it was dust/powder, then rammed it. Hard as a rock!


I appreciate someone who polishes their cat litter. A great deal of respect for what I assume is your pleasured feline.
 
I appreciate someone who polishes their cat litter. A great deal of respect for what I assume is your pleasured feline.

That's not polished, that's just from the ramming. I used a BFH, a wood dowel, and...the rest is a secret ;)

I'm not sure what to make of your second statement...I don't even have a cat :/
 
Received decals from Mark over at Sticker Shock and completed my German A4b. I may add some nose art later.

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Finished painting and clear-coating the Madcow 29mm f/g Lil Goblin.

Decanted Aeropoxy ES6209 into appropriately labeled condiment squeeze bottles.

More fillets on the Madcow 38mm f/g Lil Goblin (aka "Plan B") motor mount.
 
Found this cool line drawing while digging through NACA reports as part of today's research.

Too good not to share!

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Epoxy fillets on the PSII Patriot. Literally watching glue dry. Okay, for the purists, cure.
 
Lost a aeropack 38mm retainer set and Loki 38/480 case set, inspection of rocket appears I forgot to glue the retainer on !!!!!!
 
Finished paint and decals on my Quinstar, and applied just a bit of brushed paint to my Odd'l Cyclone.

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1458429425.763048.jpg cyclone_finished.jpg

Now I am officially ready for spring launch season.
 
Too rainy to fly so did some marathon building on the ultimate wildman:

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Don't worry the fillets smoothed out. :)

Also realized that laying out and organizing lines for a 120" parachute is a larger task than my kitchen allows. Only thing left to do is make a sled for the avbay and test the ejection charges. Yessss!
 
Flew some high power today. Always fun! But I killed my LOC Expediter. It used to look like this...ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1458441400.457646.jpg
But now it looks like this...ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1458441424.255030.jpg
Oh well, it looked damn good going up! ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1458441530.653083.jpg
 
Saw CZTeacherman's baby reveal launch

CATO'd a motor (24/40) on my Apogee Snarky. Fortunately it looks like the Snarky is fixable- it only blew out the thrust ring, which I don't use that much anyway.

Drag Raced CZTeacherman on our Wildman Interceptor 54's. Motor was a CTI-H143SS. My rocket is the one on the right.

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Did ground tests for BP charges on my RW Blue Iguana. Can't believe how far off my BP estimates were. Good thing I ground tested!

It flies tomorrow for the first time at our club field in Vermont.

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How much Bp did you use? Also any shear pins?

Calculated 0.7gr of BP for apogee test that you see here. All I heard was a "TICK". Tried 1 gram... tiny "POP" but no movement. Tried 1.25 grams and got a nice deployment. Yes, two 2-56 nylon shear pins on sustainer and another two on nose cone. For Main I calculated 0.38 grams and initially tried 1/2 gram.... NADA. Tried .75 gram......"TICK". Tried 1 Gram and got a decent deployment but not full extension. Frankly I was afraid to use more for fear of blowing a hole in the thin wall glass payload tube.

I flew the Blue Iguana for the first time today using 1.25 gr. for Apogee and 1 gram for Main as tested. Nice apogee deployment but no shear pin breakage on the nose, so no main chute. Good thing I used an 18" drogue at apogee! Sustainer landed more or less flat, nose cone with payload tube attached stuck in the frozen ground and then bounced out. THUNK! Sheared the thin wall nosecone clear off it's coupler but no other damage not even a scratch. It was only 30 degrees today. Wonder if the shear pins got cold-hardened. Next Time I use 1.25 grams and maybe only 1 shear pin. Again I can not believe how much powder is needed for a 2.6" diameter tube with an internal length of only 9.5" mostly filled with a chute and Kevlar.

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Nice to see some Vermont rocketry happening.
It's too bad there is not a club closer to central Vermont, Barre, Montpelier area.

You should make the drive to our field in St. Albans one time this spring or summer. We have a 10,000 foot waiver and hundreds of acres of open farmland and fly all year long. Yes, there are a few rocket eating trees but they are rarely hungry. That said we have a resident arborist that can get anything down as I can attest to. :facepalm:

We had an excellent turnout today with both a Level 1 and Level 2 cert.
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Check back on the club website in a few days for today's launch report with photos. www.crmrc.org.
 
Calculated 0.7gr of BP for apogee test that you see here. All I heard was a "TICK". Tried 1 gram... tiny "POP" but no movement. Tried 1.25 grams and got a nice deployment. Yes, two 2-56 nylon shear pins on sustainer and another two on nose cone. For Main I calculated 0.38 grams and initially tried 1/2 gram.... NADA. Tried .75 gram......"TICK". Tried 1 Gram and got a decent deployment but not full extension. Frankly I was afraid to use more for fear of blowing a hole in the thin wall glass payload tube.

I flew the Blue Iguana for the first time today using 1.25 gr. for Apogee and 1 gram for Main as tested. Nice apogee deployment but no shear pin breakage on the nose, so no main chute. Good thing I used an 18" drogue at apogee! Sustainer landed more or less flat, nose cone with payload tube attached stuck in the frozen ground and then bounced out. THUNK! Sheared the thin wall nosecone clear off it's coupler but no other damage not even a scratch. It was only 30 degrees today. Wonder if the shear pins got cold-hardened. Next Time I use 1.25 grams and maybe only 1 shear pin. Again I can not believe how much powder is needed for a 2.6" diameter tube with an internal length of only 9.5" mostly filled with a chute and Kevlar.

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1 shear pin is a bad idea. Causes uneven pressure and can "cock" the cone shoulder inside the tube.
 
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