MY MARS LANDERS

First of all, those CR's on that motor mount are crap. I quit using those 100 years ago. I always use Letramax rings or make my own. Very dependable and much easier to work with.
Now, any time you are going to use composites in low power tubes, they need to be reinforced. Anything that comes in direct contact with the heat & fire can be coated on the inside with thin CA. I made a swab and dipped it in a container wide enough to get the swab in. Fast moves are essential now. Coat it quick and leave it alone. It might dry slick as glass like mine did, or they might dry a little gritty. You WILL want to lightly sand any rough areas.
My swab was prolly 2" wide.

FWIW, I did a 24mm motor mount on the Semroc ML that I steam plunked. I bored out the nose cone and added an ounce of lead shot and epoxy to improve stability.

Ted Cochran said:

FWIW, I did a 24mm motor mount on the Semroc ML that I steam plunked. I bored out the nose cone and added an ounce of lead shot and epoxy to improve stability.

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I used a fishing weight.

Ted Cochran said:

FWIW, I did a 24mm motor mount on the Semroc ML that I steam plunked. I bored out the nose cone and added an ounce of lead shot and epoxy to improve stability.

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Ted, have any pics of your steampunked ML?

DYK? Semroc is coming out with a mini version of the Mars Lander (uses 13mm motors IINM)? If not, let me be the first to tell you they are.

Ted C, my hat is off to you for the 24mm mount on the ML. I thought about doing that, but it seems to be a bit challenging for my skill level. Except for the CATO, I was very happy with the Quest 18mm composites, both the D16 in the Estes Outlander and C12 in the Semroc ML. I also have an 18mm reloadable casing that I'll try on these 2 in the future.

Thank you to Quest for their good customer service. They are sending me a replacement pack of D16 engines. They stated they have seen very few of these forward delay sealing issues.

gary7 said:

Ted, have any pics of your steampunked ML?

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Sure. There’s a Sport Rocketry article on Steampunking from about 3 years ago that has more details.

Ted Cochran said:

Sure. There’s a Sport Rocketry article on Steampunking from about 3 years ago that has more details.

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Those are incredible!

Ah, why can I only "Like" a post once! Massive understatement here.

I know this thread is in the low power section but I have to post this picture. A couple Kloudbusters built this lander. It’s about 6’ tall and flies on an M motor.