What did you do rocket wise today?

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Drilling the 2.1" fiberglass airframe tube on my current build, the drill bit caught a fiber on the I.D. as it went through and tore along the ID.
I CA'd the hole and cleaned it out carefully but the id is now rough. So as not to catch on the recovery I think I'll swab the tear with epoxy and let it self level. Hope that smoothes it and takes care of it.

In other news the postman delivered my new Tripoli L1 card and a pin to go with it. Yay!
 
frogglicker said:
I have been anxiously awaiting more info on the Estes Pro Series II 3in Goblin, and well as they say... Idle hands are the devil's workshop. So, I set out to build my own lil' devil of sorts. It began when I saw @DigBaddy 's airfoiled BT-60 3D printed Goblin fin. As an experiment, I tried to scale it up to something that approximated a 3" body tube. I then kept going with the centering rings for a 38mm MMT and engine retainer. Just playing around.

When I saw the 3" 4-slotted body tube on Estes (while lurking for a goblin), the devil took hold of me and the printer hasn't stopped yet. Today, I finished the last of the four fins and I am ready for assembly of the Frogglicker Hobgoblin Mk1:View attachment 580848
Click to expand...

Be great to get the files?!
 
KenECoyote said:
Dude, after everything I've been through, I cherish...
Every
Single
Day
Above ground.

(And enjoying rockets! :D Especially those that don't end up in the ground! 😉)
Click to expand...
I'll vouch for that. Day 32... And I should have lived those words EVERY DAMN DAY. Woulda coulda shoulda.

Oh right... rocketry. I got blue paint on the NewWay Cornered and on the upper section of the Deuces 29. Images coming. Both now await decals.
 
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NateB said:
Meijer had Rustoleum 2x cans 3 for $13, so I'll stocked up on paint and primer.
Click to expand...
Anything older than a year or two clogs up. No matter how much I shake it. Not impressed with Krylon or Rusto. Better to just buy as needed no matter the price. Nothing I have tried unclogs them. Guess that is Rocketry Content... no it is not. Okay in addition to painting the blue on the Cornered and Deuces 29 I threw away 2/3rd of a can of clogged Gloss Dark Blue Rustoleum... there I brought that around to on topic. :)
 
gdjsky01 said:
Oh right... rocketry. I got blue paint on the NewWay Cornered and on the upper section of the Deuces 29. Images coming. Both now await decals.
Click to expand...

It's good to hear you've gotten some rocketry work done!



I finally got our Cricut Maker set up again a week or so ago. All I was able to do then was install the new version of Design Space and make sure my old projects were still available

Today, I made a Cricut vinyl roll pattern for the Semroc Astron (Century Astro 1) I recently acquired. There were at least a couple of different patterns and designs on this model, but this orange & black pattern really jumped out at me the first time I saw it:

Centuri Astro-1 69cenp13.jpg

The orange vinyl I have may be a touch light. I really don't want to cut stencils and paint this pattern.

Wait... are there only 3 big stripes between the fins? Pics look like they are lined up with the black pattern above. Ugh, must not get stuck in analysis paralysis...


Centuri Astro 1 - Semroc Astron Roll Pattern.png
 
DigBaddy said:
Loaded up for weekend:
F24W
H165R
G138T
G53FJ
I180W

Hope to burn them all.
Click to expand...

Burned them all. Good day of flying at da Bong. Very little wind. All short or very short walks. Only one fishing expedition.

G138 went in this; crappy video is all I have, so rail picture is what we get.

IMG_2047.jpg

I180W in my 5" shipping tube Big Daddy.

IMG_2078.jpg

F24 in the 29mm Big Daddy (adapted down)

IMG_2129.jpg

H165R in the 3" mailer Totally Not a King Kraken

IMG_2133.jpg

G53 in the 3" Gobblin' - chute didn't make it out of the tube. Core sampled. Will chop 3/4" off the tube and put it right back in business.

IMG_2176.jpg

Flew other stuff too.

Kid flew...

Hi-Flyer XL. Found a pond at Bong. Will need new MMT, but otherwise fine.

IMG_2065.jpg

He also flew the Kraken on an E12-6 (Wonderful flight, and barely missed the water)

IMG_2144.jpg

And I flew the Sorcerer's Apprentice on an E30-7T. This is the tube from a roll of parchment. Same ID as BT55. Sim says >1800', looked close. Got off the rod in a hurry.

 
Got the fins painted on the Green Egg and finished her up. Looked all over for my Estes Altimeter to put in the payload bay but no luck locating it. Going to start sanding on the Majestic later tonight then wait on the paint to come in for it. The booster is done but I won't mess with it on it's first flight. I shouldn't have had the components out for the Majestic and Booster at the same time. I think I swapped the motor mounts. With the stage cone butted up against the main motor, there is about 1/4" of the coupler tube showing. I'm thinking I may have to use some tape over the coupler and the main body tube, or just put some around the coupler to make it fit tighter. Seems like a pretty tight fit already tho.

1684719847843.jpeg
 
bad_idea said:
Fiberglassed nuts and washers on the backsides this evening, temporarily held in position with greased bolts. Potted them in with more epoxy loaded with milled glass, piled up around the bolt threads to make big mounds over the nuts.

Given the loads will be all in the other direction, that wasn't necessary at all, but sometimes overkill is just plain satisfying. I don't think these nuts are coming out for any force the rest of the rocket can survive.
Click to expand...
The obvious question I neglected to answer was: why not just use T-nuts? Answer: too little space. The tracker sled is intended to fit nose cones 1.9" and larger. From BT-80 up, I probably had room for T-nuts, but they take too much room on smaller cones. Using this method on the larger cones too allows me to alternate using the small sled (via an adapter plate) and larger sleds holding more electronics than I'd be able to fit if I used the larger T-nuts.

Today I cleaned up the edges of the 1.9", 50mm, and 3" rings and epoxied them into their respective nose cones. With some fiberglass of course, since I seem to be constitutionally incapable of doing anything without fiberglass lately.

Later in the evening, I fought with some Molex plugs. And lost.
 
bad_idea said:
The obvious question I neglected to answer was: why not just use T-nuts? Answer: too little space. The tracker sled is intended to fit nose cones 1.9" and larger. From BT-80 up, I probably had room for T-nuts, but they take too much room on smaller cones. Using this method on the larger cones too allows me to alternate using the small sled (via an adapter plate) and larger sleds holding more electronics than I'd be able to fit if I used the larger T-nuts.

Today I cleaned up the edges of the 1.9", 50mm, and 3" rings and epoxied them into their respective nose cones. With some fiberglass of course, since I seem to be constitutionally incapable of doing anything without fiberglass lately.

Later in the evening, I fought with some Molex plugs. And lost.
Click to expand...
why not grind off the "extra" areas of the T-nut, I generally sculpt the flange as needed with a Dremel, belt/disc sander or file.
 
rharshberger said:
why not grind off the "extra" areas of the T-nut, I generally sculpt the flange as needed with a Dremel, belt/disc sander or file.
Click to expand...
I'd end up with just the center post. I'm working around 8.8mm OD washers as the limiting factor. I couldn't find any T-nuts of M3 or larger thread that would take up less area without grinding off all of the prongs, and that was without considering the wood needed around the prongs to make them work.
 
bad_idea said:
I'd end up with just the center post. I'm working around 8.8mm OD washers as the limiting factor. I couldn't find any T-nuts of M3 or larger thread that would take up less area without grinding off all of the prongs, and that was without considering the wood needed around the prongs to make them work.
Click to expand...
the prongs really aren't necessary for most of what we do, I grind them off a lot and use JB Weld around a well roughed up post and flange, its situational I understand. There are lots of times I have to "get creative" on rockets, especially min diameter and near min diameter ones. Keep on doing what works...until it doesn't, then try something else!
 
rharshberger said:
its situational I understand. There are lots of times I have to "get creative" on rockets, especially min diameter and near min diameter ones. Keep on doing what works...until it doesn't, then try something else!
Click to expand...
Couldn't have said it better myself. 👍

I did consider grinding all the way to the post of a T-nut, but I didn't know how well it would end up holding. Glad to hear your experience. The deciding factor for me probably was familiarity and the certainty that an epoxied washer and bolt would work (it's easy to entrap a hexagonal or square nut). I certainly intend to try different things in the future. I have plenty of metric T-nuts in house, so I may try a run of these rings using them in the future.
 
Used my 3d printed tools to hand sand & bevel 5 rockets worth of carbon fiber fins. Sanded through the skin on both my thumbs. Re-remembered that I really need to build/buy proper workbenches for my shop. 3d printed a bunch of other stuff. Cut 5 body tubes. Epoxied 17 fins onto those rocket bodies. Scrubbed to-do lists. Misc prep work for the NSL road trip.
 

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