What did you do rocket wise today?

[SteveA]

Came to the realization that building a rocket from scratch isn't that cheap....

 

[CarVac]

Came to the realization that building a rocket from scratch isn't that cheap....

That depends on what you have lying around and how complex the rocket is. I built Disappearing Act (hand-rolled tubes, hand-turned balsa nosecone) for the price of shock cord, parachute, and cable cutter. That's it. Total of around 50 bucks.

I had fiberglass cloth, G10 sheet, a scrap of PML phenolic, a chunk of balsa, plywood, and some carbon fiber cloth already.

 

[boomtube]

I haven’t done anything with regards to rocketry since late November and as things stand now I may not be doing anything with rocketry ever again.
Between my back not dealing with the driving times and distances, three visits to the ER for treatments following long drives, required to attend any launches and now the escalating price of gasoline my foray into rocketry may be curtailed.
While I may still launch BP rockets locally I seriously doubt I’ll be renewing my NAR and Tripoli memberships in 2013.
As it stands now I’m waiting to see if the physical therapy I’m undergoing will help with this problem.

 

[SteveA]

These arrived today: 16 Cc Express' for the advance class, 14 Nova's for the basic class, and 20 Polaris' ordered from Pratt for the Boy Scouts. Still waiting to hear from the Girl Scouts.

 

[o1d_dude]

I played with icing today. My tubefin neede some fiberglas repairs and these left some surface irregularities. Used some cardstock as a spatula and afte two coats with following each, it's all good.

I also worked on a three new rocket spikes: Two 38mm units made from 1-1/2" hardwood doweling and one from 2" for a 54mm rocket. These are pretty simple to make and they work very well. Nothing more than a dowel set in a square piece of 1" board.

 

[Rocketjunkie]

Cut open the nose cone from my Formula 98 that augered in last December. Salvaged the parachute and tracker. Surprisingly, the tracker antenna was still intact

 

[SteveA]

Sitting-out a blizzard. Finished-up this.

 

[TALON]

Filled spirals of Estes DRT, well the first application, will need more.

 

[Tarasdad]

Finished sanding the upper tube of my Super Flash - finally! Next up is getting the fillets done. Been hesitating but there's really nothing for it but to go ahead.

 

[Rex R]

built a stealth .
rex

 

[blackbrandt]

Injected a set of fillets for my darkstar jr, also finished up the nose cone av-bay and installed a switch in the coupler av-bay. Also finished drilling all of the holes.

 

[CarVac]

I laid up an outside-coupler tube out of fiberglass for Upward Propensity, having decided upon a design for the avionics.

I also applied gloss coat to one of the ENORMOUS carbon fins.

 

[chadrog]

built a stealth .
rex

Looks good Rex, would be a nice canvas for some nose art.

 

[jeff2space]

Last night I started on my 4" Wildman Darkstar Dual Deploy: Washed the fiberglass BTs, NC, MMT, and couplers. Sanded the CR to fit inside BT and on MMT. Sanded rough edges of bulkplates. Cut threaded rod for NC AV-Bay for tracker. Drilled holes for injecting internal fillets. Goal is to complete for birthday launch in June.

 

[Rex R]

I dunno...black on black might be a little hard to see.... for the curious, this cost me about $3(I didn't swipe a box from the post office(they didn't have any on display)).
rex

 

[blackbrandt]

Well, where did you get the box?

 

[Andy Greene]

Finished up the rear boat on the Hawk 23B , finished the fillets and body tube. Getting there

Andy

 

[Rex R]

at my local postal connections, did have one or two problem areas though, the priority boxes are 1/16" thick...most other boxes are 1/8"...so some things need adjusting, fotunetly I had a big enough chunk of PO box to make the motor tube.

 

[chadrog]

Last night I started on my 4" Wildman Darkstar Dual Deploy: Washed the fiberglass BTs, NC, MMT, and couplers. Sanded the CR to fit inside BT and on MMT. Sanded rough edges of bulkplates. Cut threaded rod for NC AV-Bay for tracker. Drilled holes for injecting internal fillets. Goal is to complete for birthday launch in June.

Awesome!

 

[Madhatter]

Opened and inspected my K&S Viper today, a very cool kit.

 

[troj]

I received the first parts of what will be a Pegasus XL.



-Kevin

 

[gdiscenza]

I ordered a 2.64" Satellite Interceptor kit from Scott at K&S.

G.D.

 

[Sailorbill]

Ordered some parts from LOC or at least I attempted to. Tried the Website but I couldn't find all of the parts I wanted even when I used LOC part numbers. I had contacted LOC yesterday to find out if they sold bulkplates with out the hardware and Barry responded with the P/N but said if I had trouble to call them. So I tried to call but as usual I had waited to long and it was after hours.
I emailed them with a list of parts and asked if they could send an invoice to my PayPal account. We will see what happens.
BTW no slight toward LOC is intended just saying what I did. Mess ups were my problem.
I also checked on the progress of my Madcow order and because of the Blizzard it is still somewhere between Cali and Nebraska. :eyeroll: I have a 4" AGM-33 Pike on the way as an L1 rocket for my grandson. :smile:

 

[troj]

I also checked on the progress of my Madcow order and because of the Blizzard it is still somewhere between Cali and Nebraska. :eyeroll: I have a 4" AGM-33 Pike on the way as an L1 rocket for my grandson. :smile:

Stephen? Or another grandson?

-Kevin

 

[hornet driver]

Picked up the centering ring ply for the 20 mill project and got the MK-IV primed and ready for final sanding----

 

[SteveA]

because of the Blizzard it is still somewhere between Cali and Nebraska. :eyeroll:

They were pulling FedEx trucks out of the ditches left and right today...So...


After it stopped snowing (17 inches was the final tally) and I dug-out, I sanded the filled fins and fillets on this:

 

[CarVac]

More rocketsrocketsrocketsrockets! I laid up more fiberglass on the outer-coupler tube. This time instead of 2 layers of thin, dense cloth that was hard to work the bubbles out of, I used thicker, more open cloth which more easily absorbs epoxy. I managed to use about 2.5x the cloth with 1.5x the epoxy.

Then I glaze-coated another fin of Upward Propensity.

 

[Sailorbill]

Stephen? Or another grandson?

-Kevin

Yep.
I told him if he wanted to launch rockets with me this summer I would pay for his first year TRA membership and get him a kit of his choice under a certain price.
I gave a list of several vendors and the suggestion of 4" because I think they are easier to build He chose the Pike so I placed the order Sunday.

 

[chadrog]

Nothing for the next week, en route to Mexico.

 

[JumpJet]

No builds for the past week but I am putting finishing touches in cad on the scale details of a medium sized scale model. Not long from now I will be working on finishing up the cad work on a Large scale model.


John Boren