Rocketry Warehouse Reaper 3 Photos

Made it to the desert Friday and launched the Reaper on a CTI I218. The Estes altimeter read 2,191 feet, within 15 feet of Thrustcurve's results.





I have a K1200 on the way which should send it to a little over 9,000 feet at about Mach 1.2. If it goes correctly, it will be my first time through the sound barrier.

I set the Reaper up for dual deploy and took it back out to the desert in early January.

Stratologger CF altimeter (no redundancy).
24" drogue, 44" Top Flight chute for the main.
Friction fit coupling.
(3) 2-56 shear pins on the nose cone.
1.6g drogue charge, 1.9g main charge.

I did a test flight on a CTI I470. It did 2,042 ft and ~260 MPH.








Recovery worked well and conditions were good so I re-prepped it for a Mach attempt. I added an Eggfinder and JollyTwo to the nose and put in a CTI K1200. It launched into the straightest boost I've ever had. JollyTwo reported 9,493 feet, 757 MPH and 1.5 second burn time. I mounted the JollyTwo by looping a wire tie through the Jolly Two and the wire tie holding the battery. Since it hung straight down, it maxed out the accelerometer at 24.2 G's. So I think the velocity report was under actual. If I modify the CD in Thrustcurve to match the altitude, the velocity was closer to 800 MPH. I'll have to try it again with the JollyTwo mounted on an angle to take advantage of the multi-axis accelerometer.

The SLCF was beeping out 9475 feet (within 18 feet of the JollyTwo) and 1,888 MPH. The shock wave must really mess with the CF's velocity algorithm.

The sky was clear enough and winds light enough, I could follow the smoke trail all the way up to apogee and see the red drogue eject, then follow it all the way back down through main deployment to the ground, where it perched in a bush high enough I could see it. Of course if I had left the tracker out, I would have lost sight of it immediately after launch. The Eggfinder lost lock at launch (which was expected) and started beeping out again right when the main deployed at 700 feet. Just for practice I used the coordinates and it walked me right to my rocket, a little over half mile away.


After these shots, all the photographer got was smoke trail.
At 0-800 in 1.5 seconds, I guess it's a little hard to keep up with a camera. But believe me, it was straight as an arrow.



The rocket was nice enough to miss all this jagged concrete rubble and land itself in the soft bushes.

And that's the story of how I past one mile and Mach, both for the first time.

Hi,

What is the concrete rubble from? Illegal dumping? Just curious. Kurt

I don't really know. There's a lot of random things out there. It's an old Navy airbase. After the Navy left it was used as a racetrack and I don't know what else. There's old half buried tires, concrete foundations for buildings that are long gone, hills that I think might be old munitions bunkers...

It could be dumping, but the area is fenced and gated.

DON'T FEAR THE EXACTIMATOR ...you'll be able to fly ...

Kenny

Finally finished mine.

Like the fins!

Banzai88, would you mind giving us your finish application. Looks great. Thanks.

Looks great! It has a nuce shine to it. I actually have the Bullet Bill sticker you have on your shorter black rocket on my Reaper.

Do you have any big plans for yours?

David Schwantz said:

Banzai88, would you mind giving us your finish application. Looks great. Thanks.

Click to expand...

It's labor and tape intensive, and you're not gonna like it.

Tom's Rusto/Krylon method. Also used when I work with Montana Gold NC Lacquer, but usually with only 2 coats.

I use this tape, and this tape only, for anything touching the paint: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company...441+8716717+8719368+8743637+3293242378&rt=rud
It's available at most any auto parts store. Thin, light green automotive paint tape. It's thinner than the standard 'frog' type tape, sticks better, bends better, cuts better, and has better resistance to mineral spirits and lacquer thinner, and is less likely to pull up paint when you pull the tape. I also use this tape for 4500 fillets, as it leaves less of a 'ridge' to deal with.

Wear gloves. Wear a respirator. Use good lighting.

A caveat about fiberglass, it's porous, and the filler primer doesn't always 'fill', so you might experience pin holes in your paint. They're a pain in the butt. Fill with spot and glazing putty on the primer. Sand, prime again, sand. Most of us don't worry about it unless it's a project of a lifetime......then you should be using an HVLP set up anyway!!!.

• Wipe down with either 90%+ IPA or denatured alcohol or wax/grease paint prep.
• Wipe down with tack cloth.
• 2 coats Rusto automotive filler primer, 400grit wet sand, 2 coats Rusto automotive filler primer, 400grit wet sand, wait 2 days to ensure full dryness.
• Fully tape off the fins and the fillet area. The LAST pieces of tape should be the first peeled, so the LAST thing taped is the fillet area where the fin meets the body tube. Use 1 piece of tape per side, it'll make for a better transition, and 1 piece each for the top and bottom of the fin. CAREFULLY contour the top of the fin masking with a NEW xacto blade to get the contour you want that blends the two sides. Eyeball, steady hand, practice.
• Spray 1 light coat, then 2 medium coats of base color, the last coat sorta wet and 'glossy'. WAIT 10 MINUTES BETWEEN EACH COAT. Set a timer.
• Monitor the paint drying, and peel just after the paint gets past the stringy stage. Every single paint and every single paint day is different, so no telling when that is.....other than stick your finger on a painted piece of tape, if it sticks and seems to be glued there, it's almost there. Start with a paint seam that you CAN'T see from the pads! Stop if it isn't ready, come back later.
• Peel the 4 tape pieces around the base of the fins. I usually pull along the paint joint or OVER into it, up and away from the surface. Use 2 hands to control the piece of tape if necessary.
• Leave to dry, at least 48 hours. Don't touch it. No, just don't. I know you want to, but don't. Yes, 48 hours. Read the instructions on the can about adding another layer, what does it say? That's AT LEAST how long you should leave it alone! I go 48 hours.
• Unmask the rest of the fin.
• Mask off the body tube and leave the fin ready to paint. Just like last time, 4 pieces of tape around each fin that will be pulled first. I mask off the fins and body tube with tape, and the ENTIRE TUBE above the fins gets wrapped in thick mil plastic bag instead of tape. Make one wrap of tape above the fins, tape the bag to the tape ring, seal the overlap seam with tape, fold the top into the tube.
• Wipe the primered fin down with either 90%+ IPA or denatured alcohol or wax/grease paint prep. DO NOT SATURATE THE TAPE.
• Wipe down with tack cloth.
• Spray fin base coat. 1 light coat, then 2 medium coats, the last coat sorta wet. WAIT 10 MINUTES BETWEEN EACH COAT. Set a timer.
• Monitor the paint drying, and peel just after the paint gets past the stringy stage.
• Peel the 4 tape pieces around the base of the fins.
• PEEL ALL THE REST OF THE TAPE THAT'S TOUCHING PAINT. The reason that you do this now is to prevent solvent soak through that may very well ruin your shine on the underlying layer.
• Leave to dry, at least 48 hours.
• Mask off the mid-fin stripe. The last 2 pieces should be the first pieces pulled, along the paint joint.
• Mask off everything else.
• Wipe down with tack cloth.
• Spray fin base coat. 1 light coat, then 1 medium coat, the last coat sorta wet. WAIT 10 MINUTES BETWEEN EACH COAT. Set a timer.
• Monitor the paint drying, and peel just after the paint gets past the stringy stage.
• Peel the tape.
• PEEL ALL THE REST OF THE TAPE THAT'S TOUCHING PAINT.
• Leave to dry, at least 48 hours.

• If everything has gone well, you won't need a clear coat. That's the beauty of enamels, glossy with minimal work and no top coat required. With SO MANY rattle can clear coats crazing/cracking/blistering/wrinkling underlying enamel, I don't use rattle can clear.
• If you simply MUST have a clear coat, use Eastwood 2K or Spray Max 2k clear coat rattle can (it comes in gloss and flat, buy the right thing!!!). It's catalyzed automotive urethane, $25ish a can, and a little goes a loooooooooong way. You get about 24 hours to use the entire can and then it's a throw away, so carefully consider how much commitment to a 'perfect gloss' you can afford. TEST IT ON A SAMPLE OF YOUR CHOSEN PAINT BEFORE PUTTING IT ON YOUR ROCKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Watch YouTube videos. Test, test, test.
• If you know what you're doing, you can use automotive swirl removers and polishers to come up with a mirror shine.
• Stand back and admire the beauty of your work, post pictures on TRF and The Book of Face, that's the last time that your rocket will look pretty.

If you've read through the wall of text, know that I MUCH prefer to use Montana Gold paints. They're MEGA color dense, cover each other in 2 medium coats, have a 6-8 hour 'done' time, take masking amazingly well, and shine beautifully with the Montana gloss clear, and takes 2K clear with no problems. 1 can of MG will cover almost twice as much area as a rattle can of enamel crapshoot stuff. I rarely use anything else. The ONLY reason that I used Rusto2X on this rocket is because my kids really liked the color of the red and the pink on the fins.

Thanks Banzai, did not mean to make you type that much, my fingers would be tried by now. And I did read the whole post. I did think that the top pic, the full profile one, that you did just a polish on her with no paint. Other than the fins. I am going to have a red glass one on the way today and have read that you do not want to use just a clear coat on them. Yours looked great, so I might just have to paint it also. I do have the green 3m tape, but I like the blue as it does not stretch going around corners. When we moved here I put a paint booth in the basement, 2000 cfm fan in the ceiling. Will completely evacuate the room in under a minute. Also filter all incoming air, made a 1000% improvement in paint jobs. Used to have to come out in the morning and pick the bugs out of the paint when I did it in the garage. I also use a fresh air supply made by Hobby Air, do not remember the cost but well worth it. It has run for 14 years with no problems, comes with compressor, filter, mask and 25' hose, with quick couplers. I recommend it to anyone painting. I use a Finex gravity feed gun for most of my stuff. The small stuff I have an Iwata air brush system the works well. How does the Eastwood 2K stuff come out? I might have to give that a go also.

With that paint booth, there's no reason to use rattle can!

The Eastwood 2K is a 2 part poly clear in a rattle can. Don't know who told you not to use just a clear on the colored fiberglass tubes...that's the intent! And the 2K comes out AMAZING on the colored fiberglass.

Watch the videos on it.

Great to know, I was hoping to use just the clear. I am also going to try rocketpoxy with the black tint for the first time. Videos of your rocket or the 2K stuff? Would you by chance have a pic of just clear coat on the colored glass that you have done? Thanks, Dave.

Videos of the 2K clear. I'll PM you when I get home tonight.

thanks much, but there is no rush.